Job 26:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Job is contemplating God’s works on a grand scale, referring to God’s decree after the flood that the waters should be confined to their place and not cover the earth again. This decree is represented in Psalm 104 as being made while the waters were still standing above the mountains. God determined what he would do and marked out the limits to which they obediently retreated as meekly as a lamb. ‘Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. ⁷ At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. ⁸ They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. ⁹ Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth (Psalm 104:6-9). By implication this divine act is contrasted with man’s very limited powers. The oceans are to us, even now, a force that we cannot cope with. When they arise, stirred up by storm and tide, what can we do to resist them? The prospect of the sea level rising due to global warming fills us with dread, yet for God it was a small matter to command the flood waters to retreat, for he had further use for the earth that he had created.The second half of verse 10 is understood in two alternate ways. The KJV has ‘until the day and night come to an end’ and refers it to the duration for which the boundary in the first half of the verse is set. Many other versions understand the words as an amplification of where the boundary is located. It is located at the remote end of the seas where, poetically, light meets darkness. If the latter is correct, it is not intended as a precise statement about where one thing starts and another ends, but draws with broad brush strokes the magnificent sweep of God’s work. Job’s complete confidence in God to care for the detail makes him happy to concentrate on the full impact that the scale of God’s work has on the human mind.The pillars of heaven, on which the very fabric of the world rests, and which if shaken will bring the whole edifice of creation crashing down: they tremble. This is a measure of the power of God to disturb what to us is so stable. He can by his knowledge put his finger on the spot which holds all things in existence. It is hardly surprising that he who upholds all things by the word of his power is able to shake what he has formed. So it will be at the end of the world when the heavens will melt with fervent heat. Some think the reference is to thunder which shakes the earth, but this is a small shaking in comparison to the final shaking of heaven and earth. The heavens and the pillars on which it rests are personified so that it is as if they hear the rebuke of God and know that they cannot continue to stand. How much more will proud men and women, who are nothing in his sight, tremble before him, however brave their words now. They will understand that they cannot resist the Lord, and will be ashamed that they thought themselves strong and stable before his rebuke came.