Chapter 26

Job: Who Can Understand God’s Majesty?

¹Then Job answered:

²“How you have helped the powerless

and saved the arm that is feeble!

³How you have counseled the unwise

and provided fully sound insight!

⁴To whom have you uttered these words?

And whose spirit spoke through you?

⁵The dead tremble—

those beneath the waters and those who dwell in them.

⁶Sheol is naked before God,

and Abaddon^a has no covering.

⁷He stretches out the north over empty space;

He hangs the earth upon nothing.

⁸He wraps up the waters in His clouds,

yet the clouds do not burst under their own weight.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon,^b

spreading over it His cloud.

¹⁰He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The foundations of heaven quake,

astounded at His rebuke.

¹²By His power He stirred^c the sea;

by His understanding He shattered Rahab.

¹³By His breath the skies were cleared;

His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.^d

¹⁴Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways;

how faint is the whisper we hear of Him!

Who then can understand

the thunder of His power?”