Job 26

¹ Then Job answered,

² “How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!

³ How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

⁴ To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came out of you?

⁵ “The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

⁶ Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

⁷ He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸ He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them.

⁹ He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it.

¹⁰ He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.

¹¹ The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

¹² He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.

¹³ By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.

¹⁴ Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

Around Job 26

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Job as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

The storm comes at last. After chapters of grief, argument and silence from heaven, the LORD answers Job “out of the whirlwind”. He does not explain. He asks: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

How Job got there is the rest of the book. He is a good man who loses his children, his wealth and his health. Three friends come to comfort him and end up arguing that he must have sinned to suffer so much. Job insists he has not, and demands an answer from God.

A younger man, Elihu, adds his view. Then God speaks, not with an explanation but with questions about the making and running of the world. Job is humbled. God says that Job spoke rightly and the friends did not, and Job is restored.

Background

The story is set in the land of Uz, outside Israel, in a time that resembles the age of Abraham. Its author and date are unknown. The opening and closing are prose; everything between is poetry, some of the most demanding in the Bible.

How Christians read it

The book rejects the idea that suffering is always punishment for sin, without offering a full account of why people suffer. Readers differ on what God's answer means: a rebuke, a comfort, or an invitation to trust a wisdom larger than our own. The accuser in the opening chapters is understood by most Christian tradition as Satan; the Hebrew uses the word as a title. James 5:11 holds up Job as an example of endurance.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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