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Job

About this book
Chapter 26

1 Then Job replied: 2 “How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the person who has no strength! 3 How you have advised the one without wisdom, and abundantly revealed your insight! 4 To whom did you utter these words? And whose spirit has come forth from your mouth? 5 “The dead tremble—those beneath the waters and all that live in them.⁠ 6 The underworld is naked before God; the place of destruction lies uncovered. 7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth on nothing. 8 He locks the waters in his clouds, and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them. 9 He conceals the face of the full moon, shrouding it with his clouds. 10 He marks out the horizon on the surface of the waters as a boundary between light and darkness. 11 The pillars of the heavens tremble⁠ and are amazed at his rebuke.⁠ 12 By his power he stills the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab the great sea monster to pieces.⁠ 13 By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. 14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! How faint is the whisper we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 51:9 and Job 26:12

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Isaiah 51 recalls God defeating Rahab the sea monster at creation and connects it to the escape from Egypt, presenting both as signs of divine power. Job uses the same image, following ancient Near Eastern tradition where deities conquer the chaotic sea.

Passages

Isaiah 51:9

Hebrew Bible
7 Listen to me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in their heart.22 Don’t be afraid of the insults of men; don’t be discouraged because of their abuse. 8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes; a clothes moth will devour them like wool. But the vindication I provide will be permanent; the deliverance I give will last.” 9 Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity. Did you not smash Rahab?26 Did you not wound the sea monster? 10 Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Did you not make a path through the depths of the sea, so those delivered from bondage could cross over? 11 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return; they will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and suffering will disappear.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Job 26:12

Hebrew Bible
10 He marks out the horizon on the surface of the waters as a boundary between light and darkness. 11 The pillars of the heavens tremble and are amazed at his rebuke. 12 By his power he stills the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab the great sea monster to pieces. 13 By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. 14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! How faint is the whisper we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?”
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

References

"... Perhaps the most striking instance of this typological understanding of the exodus (and of history more generally) is found in Isaiah 51:9-11, which calls on “the arm of YHWH” to awake as in the days of old. The prophet first recalls creation: “Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?” This is not the account of creation that we find in Genesis, but one that we know only from passing allusions in Hebrew poetry, such as Job 26:12 or Psalm 74:13-14. It is closely related to the stories of Baal and Yamm in the Ugaritic myths and less directly to the Babylonian myth of Marduk and Tiamat ..."
John J. Collins, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2018), 408–409.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 51:9 and Job 26:12

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