Job 26:13

Job 26:13. "His hands have formed the crooked serpent." It might have been translated, "His hands have wounded or tormented the crooked serpent" - i.e., the devil. The word translated "formed" is the same that is used in verse 5 - "Dead things are 'formed' from under the waters," [see in loc.] That the devil, that old serpent, that great leviathan, should be meant, agrees with the foregoing verse - "He divideth the sea with His power; by His understanding He smiteth through the proud," which was remarkably fulfilled in dividing the sea and destroying Pharaoh, compared to leviathan, the water-monsters that are especially to be found in the waters of Egypt: Psalms 74:13; Psalms 74:14 - "Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the dragon in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces," where he is spoken of as the image of the devil; and this leviathan is called the "crooked serpent" in Isaiah 27:1 - "In that day," etc., "the piercing serpent," [as the serpent lying across like a bar, nahash bariach, the very same name used here,] "even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." This is fitly subjoined to the former part of the verse - "By His Spirit He hath garnished [or beautified] the heavens." For at the same time that God cast Satan down to hell He purged and also beautified heaven, increasing the holiness and happiness of His elect angels; and at every time of Christ's remarkably overcoming Satan and bruising his head, is a beautifying heaven and advancing His holiness and happiness, as when He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and when He shall destroy Antichrist, and at the end of the world; and it is not incredible that Job should here speak of such mysteries, for it is evident he now speaks under the influence of the Spirit of prophecy, by what he says in the preceding verse concerning the dividing of the sea, etc., fulfilled afterwards. This interpretation is confirmed by verse 5 - "Dead things," etc. Mr. Henry observes that some ancient versions render the words thus: "Behold, the giants groan under the waters, and those that dwell with them;" or the words ought to have been rendered: "Rephaim are wounded and pierced through under the waters," agreeable to the original. (See Buxtorf.) "From under the water" seems to allude to the waters of the Flood, under which the giants were destroyed in God's terrible wrath, which deluge of water was a remarkable type of the deluge of God's wrath which comes on the ungodly in another world. The observing this is to Job's purpose, for, as Mr. Henry says, "is there anything in which the majesty of God appears more dreadful than in the eternal ruin of the ungodly, and the groans of the inhabitants of the land of wickedness?" Job 26:12 confirms this interpretation, and also verse 13.