Job 26

Job’s Reply to Bildad#sn These two chapters will be taken together under this title, although most commentators would assign Job 26:5-14 to Bildad and Job 27:7-23 to Zophar. Those sections will be noted as they emerge. For the sake of outlining, the following sections will be marked off: Job’s scorn for Bildad (26:2-4); a better picture of God’s greatness (26:5-14); Job’s protestation of innocence (27:2-6); and a picture of the condition of the wicked (27:7-23).

1Then Job replied:

2“How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the person who has no strength!

3How you have advised the one without wisdom, and abundantly revealed your insight!

4To whom did you utter these words? And whose spirit has come forth from your mouth?

A Better Description of God’s Greatness#sn This is the section, Job 26:5-14, that many conclude makes better sense coming from the friend. But if it is attributed to Job, then he is showing he can surpass them in his treatise of the greatness of God.

5“The dead tremble – those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

6The underworld is naked before God; the place of destruction lies uncovered.

7He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth on nothing.

8He locks the waters in his clouds, and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.

9He conceals the face of the full moon, shrouding it with his clouds.

10He marks out the horizon on the surface of the waters as a boundary between light and darkness.

11The pillars of the heavens tremble and are amazed at his rebuke.

12By his power he stills the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab the great sea monster to pieces.

13By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

14Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! How faint is the whisper we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?”