Job 26:1

Vv 1-4: Job says scornfully that he has received no help from Bildad, and charges him with borrowing his arguments from wiser men (perhaps Eliphaz, who had claimed inspiration: Job 4:12-16; 15:10,11).

Job 26:5

Vv 5-14: The demonstration of God’s unfathomable greatness. Who can claim to know His ways? No one.

DEAD: “Rephaim”: Psa 88:10n; Isa 26:14,19.

IN DEEP ANGUISH: “Chuwl” – to twist, turn, as in childbearing. LXX has “born”: sw Job 15:20; Psa 48:6; Isa 2:17,18; 66:7.

Job 26:6

All things, living and dead, are subject to God. Not even the grave can frustrate His designs.

Job 26:9

The same clouds which reveal God’s greatness also hide His presence (Psa 18:11).

Job 26:11

PILLARS: The mighty mountains, appearing to support the very heavens.

Job 26:12

SEA: Poss ref to “Yam”, great Canaanite god of the sea; a great sea-monster.

RAHAB: Sig lit “pride” or “boasting”. (1) Egypt, in Psa 87:4; 89:10; Isa 30:7. (2) Apparently, a mythological sea-monster in Isa 51:9; Job 9:13; 26:12. Poss ref to the crocodile of the Nile, sym of proud Egypt and her gods. See Lesson, Rahab (Egypt), and Lesson, Leviathan — esp the “Creation” myth.

Job 26:13

THE GLIDING SERPENT: “Draco”, dragon, sign of zodiac (cp Job 38:31,32). God’s hand “coiled” (“chuwl”: twisted, not “pierced”) the serpent in the heavens. This expression “twisting serpent” is a term used elsewhere of Leviathan (Isa 27:1), which may indicate that Rahab is being equated with Leviathan (Job 3:8; 41:1).

Job 26:14

OUTER FRINGE: Lit “outskirts”, as of a vast garment. Only a small portion of God’s power and works.

THE THUNDER OF HIS POWER: These day-to-day physical wonders were just a “whisper” of God’s power. Man can scarcely fathom them, much less the “thunder” of His greatest works.