Job Replies: God's Majesty Is Unsearchable

Job 26

1 Then Job answered and said:

2 "How you have x helped him who has no power!
How you have saved y the arm that has no strength!
 3 How you have z counseled him who has no wisdom,
and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
 4 With whose help have you uttered words,
and whose breath a has come out from you?
 5 The b dead tremble
under the waters and their inhabitants.
 6 Sheol is c naked before God, 1
and d Abaddon has no covering.
 7 He e stretches out the north over f the void
and hangs the earth on nothing.
 8 He g binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not split open under them.
 9 He covers the face of the full moon 2
and h spreads over it his cloud.
 10 He has inscribed i a circle on the face of the waters
at the boundary between light and darkness.
 11 j The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astounded at his k rebuke.
 12 By his power he l stilled the sea;
by his understanding he shattered m Rahab.
 13 n By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced o the fleeing serpent.
 14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his p ways,
and how small q a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?"

  1. Cross References
    Isaiah 40:29
    He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
  2. Cross References
    Genesis 49:24
    Yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel).
    Hosea 7:15
    Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me.
  3. Cross References
    Psalms 73:24
    You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
    James 1:5
    If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
  4. Cross References
    Genesis 2:7
    Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
  5. Cross References
    Psalms 88:10
    Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
  6. Cross References
    Psalms 139:8
    If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
    Proverbs 15:11
    Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord ; how much more the hearts of the children of man!
  7. Cross References
    Revelation 9:11
    They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
  8. Cross References
    Job 9:8
    Who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea.
  9. Cross References
    Genesis 1:2
    The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
  10. Cross References
    Proverbs 30:4
    Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!
  11. Cross References
    Job 36:29
    Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?
  12. Cross References
    Proverbs 8:29
    When he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
    Job 38:8 - 11
    Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb.
    Psalms 33:7
    He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.
    Jeremiah 5:22
    Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
  13. Cross References
    Job 9:6
    Who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble.
    Psalms 75:3
    When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah
  14. Cross References
    Psalms 104:7
    At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
  15. Cross References
    Isaiah 51:15
    I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar - the Lord of hosts is his name.
    Jeremiah 31:35
    Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar - the Lord of hosts is his name:
  16. Cross References
    Job 9:13
    God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
  17. Cross References
    Psalms 33:6
    By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
  18. Cross References
    Isaiah 27:1
    In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
  19. Cross References
    Job 40:19
    He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!
  20. Cross References
    Job 4:12
    Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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