Job's reply to Bildad

You have really been helpful

1Job said:

2You have really been helpful

to someone weak and weary.

3You have given great advice

and wonderful wisdom

to someone truly in need.

4How can anyone possibly speak

with such understanding?

5Remember the terrible trembling

of those in the world of the dead

below the mighty ocean.

6Nothing in that land

of death and destruction

is hidden from God,

7who hung the northern sky

and suspended the earth

on empty space.

8God stores water in clouds,

but they don't burst,

9and he wraps them around

the face of the moon.

10On the surface of the sea,

God has drawn a boundary line

between light and darkness.

11And columns supporting the sky

tremble at his command.

12By his power and wisdom,

God conquered the force

of the mighty ocean.26.12 the force of the mighty ocean: The Hebrew text has “the ocean…Rahab”. In this passage the sea monster Rahab stands for the fearsome power of the ocean (see the notes at 3.8 and 9.13).

13The heavens became bright

when he breathed,

and the escaping sea monster26.13 sea monster: The Hebrew text has “snake”, which probably stands for some kind of fearsome sea monster, such as Leviathan (see Isaiah 27.1).

died at the hands of God.

14These things are merely a whisper

of God's power at work.

How little we would understand

if this whisper

ever turned into thunder!