Job 26, The Power of God

Job responds to Bildad statements about God and His power.

Job 26:1-4, Sarcasm

Then Job replied:

"How you have helped the powerless! 

How you have saved the arm that is feeble!

What advice you have offered to one without wisdom! 

And what great insight you have displayed!

Who has helped you utter these words? 

And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?

Job's response is strongly sarcastic. "Wow, you are so wise and helpful!" According to Hartley, Job is using the second person masculine singular form here and so he is addressing one person directly, probably Bildad.

Job 26:5-6, The dead transparent to God

"The dead are in deep anguish, 

those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

Death is naked before God; 

Destruction lies uncovered.

The dead are visible to God.  Here the dead are described in a variety of Hebrew words, first as rapha, departed spirits, shades, ghosts (see Psalm 88: 10), then as people under the waters, then Sheol ("Death", which is "naked before God"), and then as Abaddon (the place of "Destruction"). In four stiches (lines), Job is emphasizing that even death and the places of the dead, are under God's control. This echoes Psalm 88: 10-11, where both Sheol and Abaddon are mentioned, and Psalm 139: 7-12 (especially verse 8), where David says, "If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there."

Job 26:7-11, The dead transparent to God

He spreads out the northern [skies] over empty space; 

he suspends the earth over nothing.

He wraps up the waters in his clouds, 

yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.

He covers the face of the full moon, 

spreading his clouds over it.

He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters 

for a boundary between light and darkness.

The pillars of the heavens quake, 

aghast at his rebuke.

In response to Bildad's statements about God, Job responds with an ode to His power. After declaring that God reigns even over Sheol, Job moves on to claim that God reigns over the heavens in all its forms. (Again see Psalm 139 for a similar, but very personal declaration.) 

According to Hartley,  in ancient Near Eastern culture "the north" (tsaphon) was the location of Mount Zaphon, where the gods met.  (See Isaiah 14: 13, where tsaphon is the last word of the verse; see also Psalm 48: 2.)

Job 26:12-14, Far too powerful

By his power he churned up the sea; 

by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.

By his breath the skies became fair;

 his hand pierced the gliding serpent.

And these are but the outer fringe of his works; 

how faint the whisper we hear of him! 

Who then can understand the thunder of his power?"

Rahab is a mythical monster, an ancient serpent. "the embodiment of all evil forces", says Hartley. Hartley, in his commentary on Job, also says that in ancient Near Eastern mythology, the god of wisdom was different from the god of power; here Job makes it clear that the God of Power is the God of Wisdom. Chapter 28 will have Job's ode to Wisdom; in chapter 38, this God of Power will appear to Job out of a whirlwind.