The Meaning of Job 26:5 Explained

Job 26:5

KJV: Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.

YLT: The Rephaim are formed, Beneath the waters, also their inhabitants.

Darby: The shades tremble beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof;

ASV: They that are deceased tremble Beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Dead  [things] are formed  from under the waters,  and the inhabitants  thereof. 

What does Job 26:5 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 26:1-14 - "the Outskirts Of His Ways"
Job taunts Bildad with his reply as having imparted no help or thought. He then proceeds, Job 26:5-14, to give a description of God's power as manifested in Hades, in space, in the clouds, in the ocean, and throughout the universe. The spirits of the dead tremble before Him; the grave and destruction that veil themselves in night are stripped before His gaze; the world itself is suspended in space by invisible threads (a wonderful foreshadowing of the true theory of the earth); the waters are held in the clouds, which do not burst under their weight but act as the veil of God's throne; the sea owns His authority, hushing under His word or rising in its might; His breath brings the dawn; His hand strangles the dragon, as representing a well-known constellation, Draco. But these are only the outskirts of His ways. Great as is their acclaim as they circle His throne in thunder and splendor, they are but as a whisper compared with His divine power and Godhead. All that the scientist has known of God is, when compared with His essential nature, what the quiver of a leaf in the breeze is to the crash of the thunder-peal. This, O child of God, is thy Father, and His power is for thy defense. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 26

1  Job, reproving the uncharitable spirit of Bildad
5  acknowledges the power of God to be infinite and unsearchable

What do the individual words in Job 26:5 mean?

The dead tremble Those under the waters and those inhabiting them
הָרְפָאִ֥ים יְחוֹלָ֑לוּ מִתַּ֥חַת מַ֝֗יִם וְשֹׁכְנֵיהֶֽם

הָרְפָאִ֥ים  The  dead 
Parse: Article, Noun, masculine plural
Root: רְפָאִים  
Sense: ghosts of the dead, shades, spirits.
יְחוֹלָ֑לוּ  tremble 
Parse: Verb, Pual, Imperfect, third person masculine plural
Root: חוּל 
Sense: to twist, whirl, dance, writhe, fear, tremble, travail, be in anguish, be pained.
מִתַּ֥חַת  Those  under 
Parse: Preposition-m
Root: מִתְחָה 
Sense: the under part, beneath, instead of, as, for, for the sake of, flat, unto, where, whereas.
מַ֝֗יִם  the  waters 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural
Root: מַיִם  
Sense: water, waters.
וְשֹׁכְנֵיהֶֽם  and  those  inhabiting  them 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Verb, Qal, Participle, masculine plural construct, third person masculine plural
Root: שָׁכַן  
Sense: to settle down, abide, dwell, tabernacle, reside.

What are the major concepts related to Job 26:5?

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