He stretches out the north over the void: the verbs in this verse are participles and so contain no marked subjects, but God is clearly the implied subject. The verb translated stretches out is used in 9.8, in which Job said God “alone stretched out the heavens.” Stretches out is also the common verb used with “tent” as its object. The north translates the Hebrew tsafon, which some interpreters equate with the mythological mountain from where the god Baal ruled (Isa 14.13). However, “stretching out the heavens” is a common expression in the Old Testament (Psa 104.2; Isa 40.22; 44.24; 45.12; Jer 10.12; 51.15), and the verb is not used with the earth or mountains. Since line b parallels line a with earth, the reference in line a is to the heavens, and in this case “the northern sky” (Good News Translation). Void is the same term used in Genesis 1.2, which represents the chaos before creation. In 6.18 and 12.24 it refers to the desert (“waste”). The same term is used in Jeremiah 4.23, where Good News Translation translates it “barren waste.” In this verse Good News Translation translates void as “empty space” and transfers it to line b. Line a will require some adjustments in some languages; for example, “God places the northern sky in its place” or “God puts the northern sky where there was nothing.”

And hangs the earth upon nothing: in 1 Samuel 2.8 and Psalm 75.3, the earth is pictured as supported on pillars. An earth hanging in empty space appears to depict an earth as people have come to know it in modern times, but in verse 11 there is the picture of the heavens supported on pillars. Nothing is said as to what supports the pillars. In some languages it will be awkward if not impossible to speak of “hanging the earth,” and especially when it is hung on nothing. However, this line may be restructured to say, for example, “and he puts the earth where there is nothing to hold it,” or “He sets the earth where there is nothing.” (For an artist’s view of this ancient concept of the universe, see the illustration, page 181.)

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .