Job 26

These are but the edges of his ways

Then Job replied: ²“How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble! ³What advice you have offered to one without wisdom! And what great insight you have displayed!

⁴Who has helped you utter these words? And whose spirit spoke from your mouth? ⁵“The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them. ⁶The realm of the dead is naked before God; Destruction lies uncovered.

⁷He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.a ⁸He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. ⁹He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it.

¹⁰He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness. ¹¹The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke. ¹²By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.b

¹³By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent.c ¹⁴And 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?”