Job 26:13
By His breath the skies were cleared; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
BSB
ASV
By his Spirit the heavens are garnished; His hand hath pierced the swift serpent.
KJV
By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
By his spirit - The word spirit here is either synonymous with wisdom, referring to the wisdom by which God made the heavens; or with breath - meaning, that he did it by his own command. There is no evidence that Job refers to the Third Person of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit - as being especially engaged in the work of creation. The word spirit is often used to denote one’s self; and the meaning here is, that God had done it. This was one of the exhibitions of his power and skill.
"Sheol" comes from a Hebrew root--"ask," because it is insatiable (Pr 27:20); or "ask as a loan to be returned," implying Sheol is but a temporary abode, previous to the resurrection; so for English Version "formed," the Septuagint and Chaldee translate; shall be born, or born again, implying the dead are to be given back from Sheol and born again into a new state [MAGEE].
UMBREIT less simply, "By His breath He maketh the heavens to revive": namely, His wind dissipates the clouds, which obscured the shining stars. And so the next clause in contrast, "His hand doth strangle," that is, obscures the north constellation, the dragon.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Genesis 1:2Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
leads to
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.
When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.
For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be…
He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.
Through
Psalms 104:30When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.
leads to
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Through
Isaiah 27:1In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent—Leviathan the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.
leads to
Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says,…
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the…