Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.
The verse stands in the poetic portion of the book, in the colloquies of chapters 3-31 concerning the cause and object of human suffering. It belongs to Job's answer to Bildad's third speech about God's majesty and perfection, in which Job exalts God's power and wisdom. That exaltation describes God's infinite power and the vastness of the universe, as the Creator of the heavens who stretches out the starry firmament, which is garnished or beautified by His Holy Spirit.
It shows God's majesty and power reaching even to the dead beneath the waters, so that nothing is hidden from Him. The forming or trembling of the dead is figurative language and does not mean the dead are alive or conscious. It shows that He will bring the dead from their graves when He comes.
The book was written before the Exodus, with as much evidence for Moses as its writer as for Paul as writer of Hebrews, and the wording of the verse is better given in the Revised Version than in the Common Version. The book is inspired history with Job as a real man, but inspiration in recording that words were spoken does not make every speaker's statements true, and Job judged partly from his friends' standpoint while holding his integrity, not understanding God's dealings yet not charging God foolishly. The verse must be studied as part of the whole book and not torn from its place, to profit from its lesson of comfort and hope in suffering that glorifies God forever.
The verse stands in the poetic portion of the book, in the colloquies of chapters 3-31 concerning the cause and object of human suffering. It belongs to Job's answer to Bildad's third speech about God's majesty and perfection, in which Job exalts God's power and wisdom. That exaltation describes God's infinite power and the vastness of the universe, as the Creator of the heavens who stretches out the starry firmament, which is garnished or beautified by His Holy Spirit.
It shows God's majesty and power reaching even to the dead beneath the waters, so that nothing is hidden from Him. The forming or trembling of the dead is figurative language and does not mean the dead are alive or conscious. It shows that He will bring the dead from their graves when He comes.
The book was written before the Exodus, with as much evidence for Moses as its writer as for Paul as writer of Hebrews, and the wording of the verse is better given in the Revised Version than in the Common Version. The book is inspired history with Job as a real man, but inspiration in recording that words were spoken does not make every speaker's statements true, and Job judged partly from his friends' standpoint while holding his integrity, not understanding God's dealings yet not charging God foolishly. The verse must be studied as part of the whole book and not torn from its place, to profit from its lesson of comfort and hope in suffering that glorifies God forever.