Job 26:5

JOB EXTOLS THE WONDER OF GOD'S GREAT WORKS

"They that are deceased tremble

Beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof.

Sheol is naked before God,

And Abaddon hath no covering.

He stretcheth out the North over empty space,

And hangeth the earth upon nothing.

He bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds;

And the cloud is not rent under them."

There is an amazing comprehensiveness in Job's understanding of God's power in these verses. "He recognizes God's dominion as not only existing in heaven and upon earth, but under the earth as well, even over the inhabitants of Hades, spoken of here as being under the oceans."[3] Here is a reference to persons under the earth, as also in the New Testament (Revelation 5:3).

"And hangeth the earth upon nothing" (Job 26:3). The amazing truth of what is said here was unknown in pre-Christian ages and thus anticipates scientific information of modern times by thousands of years. Incidentally, the truth of these things here spoken with regard to God positively identifies these words as Job's, not Bildad's, as some have vainly supposed. Job spoke truth; Bildad did not (Job 42:7).

Job 26 is one of the grandest recitals in the whole book. It is excelled only by the Lord's speeches.

"It sounds well in Job's mouth. It ends the dialogue, like the first movement of a symphony, with great crushing chords."[4] Stealing parts of this chapter and putting the words in the mouth of Job's friends is ridiculous, a vandalism on this chapter that has actually been committed by, "So many scholars."[5]

"He bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds, and yet the cloud is not rent" (Job 26:8). Only in the wonderful power of God Himself is there any full understanding of the mysteries that lie about us in the natural creation.