> [[job-25|← Previous]] | [[job-00|TOC]] | [[job-27|Next →]] --- # Job, Chapter 26 ## Chapter 26 **Job’s Reply.** 1 Then Job answered and said: ^job-26-1 2 What help you give to the powerless, ^job-26-2 what strength to the feeble arm! 3 How you give counsel to one without wisdom; ^job-26-3 how profuse is the advice you offer! 4 With whose help have you uttered those words, ^job-26-4 whose breath comes forth from you? 5 The shades beneath writhe in terror, ^job-26-5 the waters, and their inhabitants. 6 Naked before him is Sheol, ^job-26-6 and Abaddon has no covering. 7 He stretches out Zaphon over the void, ^job-26-7 and suspends the earth over nothing at all; 8 He binds up the waters in his clouds, ^job-26-8 yet the cloud is not split by their weight; 9 He holds back the appearance of the full moon ^job-26-9 by spreading his clouds before it. 10 He has marked out a circle on the surface of the deep ^job-26-10 as the boundary of light and darkness. 11 The pillars of the heavens tremble ^job-26-11 and are stunned at his thunderous rebuke; 12 By his power he stilled Sea, ^job-26-12 by his skill he crushed Rahab; 13 By his wind the heavens were made clear, ^job-26-13 his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. 14 Lo, these are but the outlines of his ways, ^job-26-14 and what a whisper of a word we hear of him: Who can comprehend the thunder of his power? \* (26:1] – [14) Perhaps to be read as Job’s reply to Bildad’s short speech. \* (26:5) Shades: the dead in Sheol, the nether world; cf. [Ps 88:11]; [Is 26:14]. \* (26:6) Sheol: cf. note on ([[psalm-06|Ps 6]]:6]. Abaddon: Hebrew for “(place of) destruction,” a synonym for nether world; cf. [Jb 28:22]; ([[revelation-09|Rv 9]]:11]. \* (26:7) Zaphon: lit., “the north,” used here as a synonym for the firmament, the heavens; cf. [[isaiah-14|Is 14]]:13. \* (26:10) Circle: the horizon of the ocean which serves as the boundary for the activity of light and darkness; cf. [Prv 8:27]. \* (26:12) Rahab: another name for the primeval sea-monster; see notes on [Jb 3:8] and [Ps 89:11]; cf. also [Jb 7:12]; [9:13]. \* (26:13) The fleeing serpent: the same term occurs in [Is 27:1] in apposition to Leviathan; see note on [Jb 3:8]. a. (26:4) [Gn 2:7]. b. (26:5) [Prv 9:18]. c. (26:6) [Ps 139:7] – [12]. d. (26:10) [Jb 38:8] – [11]; [Prv 8:29]. e. (26:11) [Jb 9:6]; ([[psalm-18|Ps 18]]:16]; [104:7]. f. (26:13) [Is 27:1]. --- _New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. > [[job-25|← Previous]] | [[job-00|TOC]] | [[job-27|Next →]]