[1] Job explained. [2] Job (sarcastically): What a great help you are to the powerless! How you have held up the arm that is feeble and weak! [3] What sage counsel you have given to me, the unwise! And what immeasurable insight you have put on display for us! [4] Whom did you say these words to? Where did you get such profound inspiration? [5] The departed quiver below, down deep beneath the seas and all that is within them, [6] The land of the dead is exposed before God, and the place where destruction lies is uncovered in His presence. [7] He stretches out the northern sky over vast reaches of emptiness; He hangs the earth itself on nothing. [8] He binds up the waters into His clouds, but the cloud does not burst from the strain. [9] He conceals the sight of His throne and spreads His clouds over it to hide it from view. [10] He has encircled the waters with a horizon-boundary: the line between day and night, light and darkness. [11] The very pillars that hold up the sky quake and are astounded by His reprisals. [12] By His power, He stilled the sea, quelling the chaos; by His wisdom, He pierced Rahab, evil of the sea; [13] By His breath, the heavens are made beautifully clear; by His hand that ancient serpent-even as it attempted escape-is pierced through. [14] And all of this, all of these are the mere edges of His capabilities. We are privy to only a whisper of His power. Who then dares to claim understanding of His thunderous might?
