He stirs up the sea with His power, And by His understanding He breaks up the storm.
Parallel translations
- WEB He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
- KJV He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
- BSB By His power He stirred the sea; by His understanding He shattered Rahab.
- NASB “With His power He quieted the sea, And by His understanding He shattered Rahab.
- NLT By his power the sea grew calm. By his skill he crushed the great sea monster.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
By His power God stills the sea and shatters Rahab. It matters because it celebrates God's mastery over chaotic and hostile forces.
Overview
Job declares that God stirs and subdues the sea by His power and strikes through Rahab by His understanding. Rahab is a poetic name for a chaos monster or proud power, here utterly defeated by God. The conquest of the raging sea foreshadows Christ, who calmed the storm with a word, displaying the Creator's authority (Mark 4:39).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Isa 51:15For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
- Jer 31:35Yahweh, 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:
- Isa 51:9Awake, 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?
- Job 9:13“God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
- Ps 89:9–10You rule the pride of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them.
- Job 12:13“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
- Ps 93:3–4The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
- Ps 74:13You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
- Exod 14:21–31Moses 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.
- Job 40:11–12Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
- Isa 2:12For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and haughty, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
- Ps 29:10Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.
- Ps 114:2–7Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
- Jas 4:6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
- Dan 4:37Now 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.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 26:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.