Verse 9
JOB'S THOUGHT REGARDING THE CREATION BY GOD'S SPIRIT
"He that encloseth the face of his throne,
And spreadeth his cloud upon it.
He hath described a boundary upon the face of the waters,
Unto the confines of light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble.
And are astonished at his rebuke.
He stirreth up the sea with his power,
And by his understanding smiteth through Rahab.
By his Spirit the heavens are garnished;
His hand hath pierced the swift serpent.
Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways:
And how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?"
"By his Spirit" (Job 26:13). Corresponding with the great truth in Genesis 1:2, it is God's Spirit that performs all the wonders of Creation.
The general thought of this paragraph, according to Heavenor, is that, "Earth and sea alike bear witness to the mighty power of God; how mighty must be the God of an ordered universe"![6]
Some scholars find all kinds of references in this section to Babylonian mythology; but Job's statement in Job 26:7 absolutely contradicts the Babylonian Creation myth. "That myth supposed that the earth was a flat disc resting on the `great deep,' an ocean of waters, standing for Chaos."[7] Job taught that God suspended the earth on nothing (Job 26:7). We challenge anyone to find a more perpendicular contradiction of Babylonian mythology than that. Oh yes, some terms that are suggestive of ancient myths are found here, such as the "swift serpent," and "Rahab"; but the cosmology here is Biblical, it is absolutely not mythological.
Moffatt's translation of the last few lines of this chapter is beautiful:
"And all this is the mere fringe of his force,The faintest whisper we can hear of him!
Who knows then the full thunder of his power!"
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