Job 26

World English Bible 84 include this book

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?”

Go deeper in Job

2 places named in this book — no place is named in this chapter, so the whole book is shown.

Not known unknown No setting is given, and the book is deliberately placed outside Israel's history.

Traditions differ. Each position is shown rather than one asserted as settled.

Traditional: 2000 BC–1800 BC Unknown
The patriarchal setting and absence of Israelite institutions have long suggested a very early origin.
Critical: 600 BC–400 BC Unknown
Language and the developed treatment of suffering point to the exilic or post-exilic period.

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (2000 BC–400 BC).

2600 BC–1900 BC Indus Valley cities India
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro housed tens of thousands, with planned streets and drainage, and a script still undeciphered.
2055 BC–1650 BC Egyptian Middle Kingdom Egypt
Egypt reunified under Theban rule; large-scale irrigation works and the classical form of the Egyptian language date from this period.
1900 BC–1450 BC Minoan palace culture Greece
Crete supported a literate palace society trading across the Aegean long before mainland Greece.
1755 BC–1750 BC Code of Hammurabi Mesopotamia
Babylonian law code inscribed on a basalt stele, covering property, family and injury, and predating the Mosaic law codes.
1600 BC–1046 BC Shang dynasty oracle bones China
The earliest substantial Chinese writing, inscribed on bone and shell for divination.
1600 BC–1178 BC Hittite empire Anatolia
An Anatolian power rivalling Egypt, ended in the Bronze Age collapse.
1200 BC–1150 BC Late Bronze Age collapse Mediterranean
Within roughly two generations most eastern Mediterranean states fell; cities were destroyed, trade networks broke and literacy contracted sharply.
1200 BC–1000 BC Iron working spreads in the Levant Levant
Iron gradually displaced bronze for tools and weapons across the eastern Mediterranean.

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