Job 26

³Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.

⁴Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

³Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!

⁴Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.”

⁹Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.

¹²Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?

⁴I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

⁵But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

²⁵How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?

¹¹Indeed, I waited while you spoke; I listened to your reasoning; as you searched for words,

¹²I paid you full attention. But no one proved Job wrong; not one of you rebutted his arguments.

³My words are from an upright heart, and my lips speak sincerely what I know.

³But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

³³But if not, then listen to me; be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.”

²⁰I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was helpful to you as I taught you publicly and from house to house,

¹⁰But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.

²³So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has pronounced disaster against you.”

²⁴Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went up, struck Micaiah in the face, and demanded, “Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go when He departed from me to speak with you?”

⁷before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

³Therefore I inform you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me.

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

³I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my understanding prompts a reply.

¹⁰Do You work wonders for the dead? Do departed spirits rise up to praise You? Selah

⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward as well—when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.

¹“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?

²Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord God says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it myself.’

⁴But I will put hooks in your jaws and cause the fish of your streams to cling to your scales. I will haul you up out of your rivers, and all the fish of your streams will cling to your scales.

²⁵Here is the sea, vast and wide, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both great and small.

²⁶There the ships pass, and Leviathan, which You formed to frolic there.

⁸If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.

¹¹Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord—how much more the hearts of men!

¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

²Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down.

²²Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor about it.’

¹¹Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.

⁸He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

²He wraps Himself in light as with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a tent,

³laying the beams of His chambers in the waters above, making the clouds His chariot, walking on the wings of the wind.

²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

⁵This is what God the Lord says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:

²For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

²³From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, before the earth began.

²⁴When there were no watery depths, I was brought forth, when no springs were overflowing with water.

¹¹He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.

¹²They swirl about, whirling at His direction, accomplishing all that He commands over the face of all the earth.

⁴Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son—surely you know!

¹³When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

⁶I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”

⁷He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

³⁷Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens

²Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.

¹⁴Thick clouds veil Him so He does not see us as He traverses the vault of heaven.’

²¹And the people stood at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

³No one may go up with you; in fact, no one may be seen anywhere on the mountain—not even the flocks or herds may graze in front of the mountain.”

³God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, and His praise filled the earth.

⁴His radiance was like the sunlight; rays flashed from His hand, where His power is hidden.

¹²Then Solomon declared: “The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

²⁹when He set a boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not surpass His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth.

⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,

²²Do you not fear Me?” declares the Lord. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.

⁷He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses.

⁹“For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.

¹⁰Though the mountains may be removed and the hills may be shaken, My loving devotion will not depart from you, and My covenant of peace will not be broken,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

²²As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”

⁸He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, and upon them He has set the world.

¹⁵If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,

⁷Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled; they were shaken because He burned with anger.

²¹“Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I am about to shake the heavens and the earth:

²⁶At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”

²⁷The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain.

¹⁰But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.

¹⁵For I am the Lord your God who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of Hosts is His name.

³⁵Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of Hosts is His name:

¹³Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His.

¹³God does not restrain His anger; the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him.

⁹You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them.

¹⁰You crushed Rahab like a carcass; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?

¹In that day the Lord will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent—Leviathan the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.

³⁰When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You fed him to the creatures of the desert.

⁶By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.

⁷He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses.

²Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

⁹And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my claim is ignored by my God”?

³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

³Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.

⁷Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

¹²Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.