Job 26:13 Translation

For years I've been using the following verse (Job 26:13):

[Job 26:13 KJV]  By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

"his hand hath formed the crooked serpent"

[Pro 16:4 LSB]  Yahweh has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil.

[Isa 54:16 LSB]  Behold, I Myself have created the craftsman who blows the fire of coals And brings out a weapon for its work; And I have created the bringer of ruin to wreak destruction.

Same verse from the KJV:

[Isa 54:16 KJV]  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

[Isa 45:6-7 KJV]  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. [7] I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

There is another translation conflict with Job 26:13.  Other later texts read closer to:

[Job 26:13 LSB]  By His breath the heavens are made beautiful; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.

Even the Modern KJV changed it (see top of page):

[Job 26:13 MKJV]  By His Spirit the heavens were beautiful; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

The latter verse speaks of the heavens being made beautiful by His breath, and then switches to the violence of piercing the serpent (which makes no contextual sense).

Geneva

[Job 26:13 Geneva]  His Spirite hath garnished the heauens, & his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

1611 KJV

[Job 26:13 KJV-1611]  By his spirit he hath garnished the heauens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

Bishops Bible

[Job 26:13 Bishops]  His spirite hath garnished the heauens, & his hand hath made the crooked serpent.

Jubilee Bible

[Job 26:13 JUB]  By his spirit he has adorned the heavens; his hand has formed the fleeing serpent.

Young's Literal Translation:

[Job 26:13 YLT]  By His Spirit the heavens He beautified, Formed hath His hand the fleeing serpent.

Robert Young’s Literal Translation (YLT, 1862) used the Masoretic Text as its primary Old Testament source, specifically the Textus Receptus edition of the Hebrew Bible — the standard printed version based on the Bomberg Bible (1524–25) and the Leningrad Codex tradition.

• No reliance on the Septuagint (LXX) for the main text.
• Young occasionally noted LXX variants in footnotes (e.g., in Job, Samuel, Jeremiah) where they differed significantly from the MT.
• His goal was strict formal equivalence to the Hebrew consonants and grammar — hence the rigid, often awkward English.

For Job 26:12–13, YLT follows the MT exactly:

[12] By His power He hath quieted the sea, And by His understanding smitten the proud. [13] By His breath the heavens have been adorned, His hand hath formed the fleeing serpent.

No Vulgate or LXX influence in the translation itself — only the Hebrew Masoretic Text.

The overarching theme of Job 26 is Yahweh's sovereignty over all of creation and all chaos.  In this chapter, Job responds to Bildad’s brief speech (ch. 25) by magnifying God’s dominion in a soaring poetic hymn. The central theme is divine transcendence - God's authority extends over all... including the adversary.

The serpent will be pierced to be sure (Isa 27:1), but is that what Job was communicating?

Vulgate (Latin) Text of Job 26:13

The Clementine Vulgate (standard edition, 1592) reads:

spiritu eius ornatus est caelus et obstetrice manu illius eductus est coluber tortuosus

Literal English Rendering:

"By his spirit the heaven is adorned; and by his hand acting as midwife, the twisted serpent was brought forth."

This sentiment of Jerome's translation is seen in the English translation of his Latin Vulgate:

Douay-Rheims [Job 26:13 DRB]  His spirit hath adorned the heavens, and his obstetric hand brought forth the winding serpent.

And, to make matters even tougher... חֹלֲלָה is used only once in all of the OT... here, in Job 26:13.
The Hebrew form חֹלֲלָה (Piel perfect 3fs of the root חלל) appears only once in the entire Old Testament: Job 26:13.

This form is a hapax legomenon (unique occurrence).

Iuxta Hebraeos (Latin for "according to the Hebrews") refers to St. Jerome’s direct translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts into Latin, completed around 405 CE.

Key Facts:

• Part of the Vulgate: While most of the Vulgate Old Testament was translated from the Greek Septuagint (LXX), Jerome produced iuxta Hebraeos versions of several books — including Job, Psalms (Gallican Psalter), Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and the historical/prophetic books — directly from the Hebrew Masoretic Text (or its early forms).
• Purpose: Jerome sought greater accuracy by bypassing the LXX, which he saw as sometimes interpretive or corrupt.
• Impact: These translations became the standard Latin text of the Catholic Bible (officially adopted at the Council of Trent, 1546).

Example in Context (Job 26:13):
Vulgate (iuxta Hebraeos): obstetrice manu illius eductus est coluber tortuosus Jerome’s unique rendering from Hebrew חֹלֲלָה, not from the LXX’s "stretched out the neck."
I find it interesting that most ECFs relied on the Septuagint (LXX) for their commentaries while others refused to use the LXX (citing corruption and interpretive translation) and instead preferred the original Hebrew texts.

It's also known that ECFs, such as Origen, considered the LXX as authoritative for teaching (ecclesially), but that the LXX was proved interpretive scholarly.  Meaning, the translators were not faithful in translating word-for-word from the Hebrew texts into the Greek Septuagint.

Jerome explicitly cross-references his own Vulgate rendering of Job (obstetrice manu... coluber tortuosus), harmonizing the "twisted serpent" motif. He sees Isaiah as fulfilling Job's primordial combat: Job depicts creation's taming (birth-like delivery of order from chaos), while Isaiah foretells final judgment (slaying of residual evil).

Vulgate (Latin) Text of Isaiah 27:1

The Clementine Vulgate (1592) reads:

in die illa visitabit Dominus in gladio suo duro et magno et forti super Leviathan serpentem vectem et super Leviathan serpentem tortuosum et occidet cetum qui in mari est

Literal English Rendering:

"On that day the Lord will visit with his hard and great and strong sword upon Leviathan the piercing [or: barring] serpent, and upon Leviathan the twisted serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea."

Jerome links Job 26:13 to Isaiah 27:1 in his Commentary on Isaiah (Book 10):

"The twisted serpent (coluber tortuosus) of Job is the same Leviathan of Isaiah — drawn forth in creation, slain in judgment."
It seems nowhere else is this Hebrew word חֹלֲלָה used as in "obstetrics"... only in Jerome's Aramaic inspired allegory.  What's interesting about this though is that Job would have indeed spoken in Aramaic.

The literary composition of Job is in Classical Biblical Hebrew (ca. 6th–4th c. BCE), but with Aramaic loanwords and poetic style suggesting an oral tradition from an Aramaic-speaking social environment. Marvin Pope (Anchor Bible: Job): “Job’s world is Aramaic-speaking Edom; the Hebrew is a translation or redaction.” C.L. Seow (Job 1–21): “The dialogues reflect Aramaic poetic conventions.”

I would suggest that Jerome got his translation mostly right.

From Keil & Delitzsch:

But this dependent passage is an important indication for the correct rendering of חֹלְלָה. One thing is certain at the outset, that שִׁפְרָה is not perf. Piel = שִׁפְרָה, and for this reason, that the Dagesh which characterizes Piel cannot be omitted from any of the six mutae; the translation of Jerome, spiritus ejus ornavit coelos, and all similar ones, are therefore false. But it is possible to translate: “by His spirit (creative spirit) the heavens are beauty, His hand has formed the flying dragon.” Thus, in the signification to bring forth (as Pro_25:23; Pro_8:24.) 

In summary, Young's Literal Translation is a perfect fit for the Scriptural context on the creation of Satan.  Yahweh created the adversary, Satan, to destroy.

(See my blog on the "Lucifer" nonsense Click Here!)

[Job 26:13 YLT]  By His Spirit the heavens He beautified, Formed hath His hand the fleeing serpent.

As much as Theologians hate it, and try to dismiss the following verse, Job  25:13 and Isa. 45:7 fit perfectly together in unison.  Yahweh, created ALL of it for His purposes.

[Isa 45:7 KJV]  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.