Job 9:13 - Exposition

If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him . There is no "if" in the original; and the passage is best taken categorically: "God does not withdraw his anger;" i.e. the anger which he feels against those who resist him. "The helpers of Rahab do stoop [or, 'are prostrate'] under him." Rahab in this passage, and also in Job 26:12 , as well us in Isaiah 51:9 , seems to be used as the proper name of some great power of evil Such a power was recognized in the mythology of Egypt, under the names of Set (or Typhon) and of Apophia, the great serpent, continually represented as pierced by Horus. In the earlier Aryan myths there is a similar personification of evil in Vitre, called Dasiya, "the Destroyer," and at perpetual enmity with Indra and Agni. The Babylonians and Assyrians had a tradition of a great "war in heaven". carried on by seven spirits, who were finally reduced to subjection. All these seem to be distorted reminiscences of that great conflict, whereof the only trustworthy account is the one contained in the Revelation of St. John, "There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels"—the "helpers" of the present passage—"and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven" ( Revelation 12:7 , Revelation 12:8 ). Job, it seems, had inherited one of such traditions, one in which the power of evil was known as Rahab, "the Proud One;" and he means here to say that God not only holds men in subjection, but also beings much more powerful than man, as Rahab and his helpers, who had rebelled and made war on God, and been east down from heaven, and were now prostrate under God's feet.