He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
Parallel Translations
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He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
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He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
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He stirreth up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He smiteth through Rahab.
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Job 26:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 51:15 For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. Yahweh of Armies is his name.
- Jeremiah 31:35 Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name, says:
- Job 9:13 “God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
- Job 12:13 “With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
- Psalms 89:9-10 You rule the pride of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them. You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
- Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?
- Psalms 74:13 You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
- Psalms 93:3-4 The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea, Yahweh on high is mighty.
- Exodus 14:21-31 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. The children of Israel went into the middle of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the middle of the sea: all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. In the morning watch, Yahweh looked out on the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and confused the Egyptian army. He took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, “Let’s flee from the face of Israel, for Yahweh fights for them against the Egyptians!” Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it. Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army that went in after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked on dry land in the middle of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left. Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work which Yahweh did to the Egyptians, and the people feared Yahweh; and they believed in Yahweh and in his servant Moses.
- Job 40:11-12 Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low. Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place.
- Psalms 29:10 Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.
- Psalms 114:2-7 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back? You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs? Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
- Isaiah 2:12 For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and arrogant, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
- Daniel 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk in pride he is able to abase.
- James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 26:12 He divideth the sea with his power,…
Job 26:12 He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
Ver. 12. He divideth the sea with his power] i.e. With his strong winds causing tempests: see the like Isa 51:15 : so that it lieth as it were in ridges, the top of one wave far from another, Jer 31:35. That was a strange thing that is reported to have fallen out at London the last week. On Monday, Aug. 14, 1654, by reason of the great winds the tide was so low in the Thames, that boys waded over it from one side to the other, the old watermen affirming they never saw it so before.
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And by his understanding he smiteth through the proud] Heb. Pride, or Rahab, which is oft put for Egypt, as Psa 87:4; Psa 89:10 Isa 51:9, whence some would have Pharaoh meant; others, the devil; others, the whale dashing against a rock, or driven to shore where he is taken; others, the proud waves of the sea, as Job 38:11, disabled by God to stir more, as a man mortally wounded is to fight longer. An instance hereof we have in the history of Jonah, and another in the Gospel, Mat 8:14. As God is powerful enough to raise storms, so he is wise enough to lay them again, Psa 107:25; Psa 107:29. He hath the sea in as great awe as a giant hath a pigmy.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He speaks either,
He speaks either,
1. Of God’s dividing the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass over; and consequently the Hebrew word rahab, which here follows, and is translated pride, or the proud, is meant of Egypt, which is oft called Rahab, as Psa 87:4; 89:10; Isa 51:9. But it seems most probable that that work was not yet done, and that Job lived long before Israel’s coming out of Egypt. Or rather,
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2. Of the common work of nature and providence in raising tempests, by which he breaketh or divideth the waves of the sea, by making deep furrows in it, and casting up part of the waters into the air, and splitting part of them upon the rocks and shores of the sea.
By his understanding, i.e. by his wise counsel and administration of things, so as may obtain his own glorious ends.
The proud; either,
1. The whale, which is called
king over all the children of pride, Job 41:34, and which is sometimes by force of tempests cast upon the shore. Or rather,
2. The sea, which is fitly called proud, as its waves are called, Job 38:11, because it is lofty, and fierce, and swelling, and unruly; which God is said to smite when he subdues and restrains its rage, and turns the storm into a calm.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain He divideth the sea with his power,.... As at…
He divideth the sea with his power,.... As at the first creation, when the waters were caused to go off the face of the earth, and were separated from it; and the one was called earth, and the other seas, Gen 1:9; or it may respect the division of those waters into divers seas and channels in the several parts of the world, for the better accommodation of the inhabitants of it, in respect of trade and commerce, and the more convenient supply of them with the various produce of different countries, and the transmitting of it to them: some have thought this has respect to the division of the Red sea for the children of Israel to walk in as on dry land, when pursued by the Egyptians, supposed to be meant by "Rahab" in the next clause; rather it may design the parting of the waves of the sea by a stormy wind, raised by the power of God, which lifts up the waves on high, and divides them in the sea, and dashes them one against another; wrinkles and furrows them, as Jarchi interprets the words, which is such an instance of the power and majesty or God, that he is sometimes described by it, Isa 51:15; though the word used is sometimes taken in a quite different sense, for the stilling of the waves of the sea, and so it is by some rendered here, "he stilleth the sea by his power" (b); the noise of its waves, and makes them quiet, and the sea a calm, which has been exceeding boisterous and tempestuous, and is taken notice of as an effect of his sovereign and uncontrollable power, Psa 65:7; and may be observed as a proof of our Lord's divinity, whom the winds and sea obeyed, to the astonishment of the mariners, who were convinced thereby that he must be some wonderful and extraordinary person, Mat 8:26;
and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud; the proud waves of the sea, and humbles them, and makes them still, as before; or the proud monstrous creatures in it, as whales and others, particularly the leviathan, the king over all the children of pride, Job 41:34; see Psa 74:13. The word used is "Rahab", one of the names of Egypt, Psa 87:4; and so Jarchi interprets it of the Egyptians, who were smitten of God with various plagues, and particularly in their firstborn; and at last at the Red sea, where multitudes perished, and Pharaoh their proud king, with his army; who was an emblem of the devil, whose sin, the cause of his fall and ruin, was pride; and the picture of proud and haughty sinners, whose destruction sooner or later is from the Lord; and which is an instance of his wisdom and understanding, who humbles the proud, and exalts the lowly.
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(b) "pacavit mare", Bolducius; "quiescit mare ipsum", Vatablus; so Sept. and Ben Gersom.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. He divideth the sea with his power]…
Verse 12. He divideth the sea with his power] Here is a manifest allusion to the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, according to the opinion of the most eminent critics.
He smiteth through the proud.] רהב Rahab, the very name by which Egypt is called Isa 51:9, and elsewhere. Calmet remarks: "This appears to refer only to the passage of the Red Sea, and the destruction of Pharaoh. Were we not prepossessed with the opinion that Job died before Moses, every person at the first view of the subject must consider it in this light." I am not thus prepossessed. Let Job live when he might, I am satisfied the Book of Job was written long after the death of Moses, and not earlier than the days of Solomon, if not later. The farther I go in the work, the more this conviction is deepened; and the opposite sentiment appears to be perfectly gratuitous.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 26:12. He divideth the sea with his power…
Job 26:12. He divideth the sea with his power — “By his power he raises tempests, which make great furrows in the sea, and divideth, as it were, one part of it from another;” and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud — “And, such is his wisdom, he knows how to appease it again, and repress its proud waves into the deadest calm.” — Bishop Patrick. Waterland and Schultens render רגע הים, ragang hajam, he shaketh the sea. Bishop Warburton tells us, that the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea is here plainly referred to, and that רהב, rahab, rendered proud, signifies Egypt. But Mr. Peters justly observes, “Others may see nothing more in it than the description of a storm or tempest. The Hebrew word translated divide, is not the same that is used, Exodus 14., of the Red sea, but signifies a violent breaking and tossing of the waves as in a storm. And if the former part of the sentence means that God sometimes, by his power, raises a violent storm at sea, the latter may well enough be understood of the pride and swelling of the sea itself, allayed again by the same divine power and will which raised it.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain He divideth the sea with His power - Herder…
He divideth the sea with His power - Herder renders this:
By his power he scourgeth the sea,
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By his wisdom he bindeth its pride.
Jerome (Vulgate), “By his power the seas are suddenly congregated together The Septuagint, “By his power - κατέπαυσε την θάλασσαν katepause tēn thalassan - he makes the sea calm.” Luther, Vor seiner Kraft wird das Meer plotzlich ungestum - “By his power the sea becomes suddenly tempestuous.” Noyes renders it, “By his power he stilleth the sea.” This is undoubtedly the true meaning. There is no allusion here to the dividing of the sea when the Israelites left Egypt; but the ideals, that God has power to calm the tempest, and hush the waves into peace. The word used here (רגע râga‛) means, to make afraid, to terrify; especially, to restrain by threats; see the notes at Isa 51:15; compare Jer 31:35. The reference here is to the exertion of the power of God, by which he is able to calm the tumultuous ocean, and to restore it to repose after a storm - one of the most striking exhibitions of omnipotence that can be conceived of.
By his understanding - By his wisdom.
He smiteth through - He scourges, or strikes - as if to punish.
The proud - The pride of the sea. The ocean is represented as enraged, and as lifted up with pride and rebellion. God scourges it, rebukes it, and makes it calm.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Together, at the beginning, Genesis i. 9. Hebrew, "By…
Together, at the beginning, Genesis i. 9. Hebrew, "By his strength he has divided the sea; and by his wisdom he has pierced the proud, or Egypt." Rahab, (Haydock) or Rachab, is often put for Egypt; (Psalm lxxxviii. 11.) and all would naturally have concluded that the fall of Pharao was pointed at, if it had not been supposed that Job lived before that event. That is, however, dubious. Isaias (li. 9.) uses the same terms in describing the fall of this tyrant. (Calmet) --- Yet the Septuagint translate, "the whale," (Haydock) or some sea monster, which God holds in subjection, (Pineda) like the weakest creature. (Haydock) --- The foaming billows (Menochius) are likewise subject to his control. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain divideth-- (Psa 74:13). Perhaps at creation (Gen 1:9-10). The…
divideth-- (Psa 74:13). Perhaps at creation (Gen 1:9-10). The parallel clause favors UMBREIT, "He stilleth." But the Hebrew means "He moves." Probably such a "moving" is meant as that at the assuaging of the flood by the wind which "God made to pass over" it (Gen 8:1; Psa 104:7).
the proud--rather, "its pride," namely, of the sea (Job 9:13).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Divideth the sea — A prime idea of…
12. Divideth the sea — A prime idea of רגע is “rouse,” thence terrify. Others, however, guided by its other root idea, translate it quell.
Smiteth through — Mahhats is rendered also to crush, break in pieces.
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The proud — Hebrew, rahab, (see on Job_9:13,) is parallel to sea, and seems to call for “a sea-monster” of some kind, which is the version of the Septuagint. Such a monster may have represented to the popular mind the power of evil, and thus have paved the way for the allusion to “the fleeing serpent” of the next verse. Dillmann has as little reason for supposing that Job makes use of a traditionary saying which was equivalent to “he hath stilled the raging sea,” as others have for referring the text to the exodus, and the crushing of pride at the Red Sea.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12, 13. These verses probably read,
12, 13. These verses probably read,
12. He quelleth the sea with his power,
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And by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab.
13. By his breath the heavens are bright,
His hand pierceth the fleeing serpent.
Others for “quelleth” or stilleth, prefer the meaning “stirreth up.” Comp. Isa_51:15; Jer_31:35. The word means “to terrify,” and the parallelism of the second clause “smiteth through Rahab,” which refers to the subduing of a raging monster, suggests that the sea when “terrified” or rebuked is in a state of fury, and is quelled by the power of God. So already the Sept. κατέπαυσεν. This sense is also more suitable to the words “by his power.” On Rahab see notes, ch. Job_9:13.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) He divideth the sea.—The word is taken in…
(12) He divideth the sea.—The word is taken in the two opposite senses of stirring up and calming; perhaps the latter is more appropriate to the context, which seems to speak of God’s mastery over nature.
By his understanding he smiteth through the proud.—Literally, Rahab, which certainly is at times a name for Egypt (see Isa_51:9, e.g.), and which, if used in that sense here, can only refer to the signal judgments on Egypt at the Exodus. According to our view of this matter will be the indication derived therefrom of the date of Job.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain He divideth the sea with his power. "Divideth" is…
He divideth the sea with his power. "Divideth" is certainly a wrong translation. The verb used (gA) means either "stirreth up" or "stilleth." In favour of the former rendering are Rosenmuller, Schultens, Delitzsch, Merx, and Canon Cook; in favour of the latter, the LXX, Dillmann, and Dr. Stanley Leathes. In either case the general sentiment is that God has full mastery over the sea, and can regulate its movements at his pleasure. And by his understanding he smiteth through the proud; literally, he smiteth through Rahab. (On Rahab, as the great power of evil, see the comment on Job_9:13) God is said to have "smitten him through by his understanding" since in the contest between good and evil it is rather intelligence than mere force that carries the day. Power alone is sufficient to control the sea.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 26:12 the sea grew calm (cp. Exod 14:21; Mark…
26:12 the sea grew calm (cp. Exod 14:21; Mark 4:39): Or the sea was stirred up (cp. Isa 51:15; Jer 31:35). In either interpretation, God performed a miracle on behalf of his people. • crushed the great sea monster: God’s dominance over the sea demythologized popular beliefs about the sea’s divinity. See also Pss 74:13-14; 89:9-10; Isa 27:1; 51:9-10.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.