26:8 He locks the waters in his clouds,
and the clouds do not burst with the weight of them.
26:9 He conceals 1 the face of the full moon, 2
shrouding it with his clouds.
26:10 He marks out the horizon 3 on the surface of the waters
as a boundary between light and darkness.
1 tn The verb means “to hold; to seize,” here in the sense of shutting up, enshrouding, or concealing.
2 tc The MT has כִסֵּה (khisseh), which is a problematic vocalization. Most certainly כֵּסֶה (keseh), alternative for כֶּסֶא (kese’, “full moon”) is intended here. The MT is close to the form of “throne,” which would be כִּסֵּא (kisse’, cf. NLT “he shrouds his throne with his clouds”). But here God is covering the face of the moon by hiding it behind clouds.
3 tn The expression חֹק־חָג (khoq-khag) means “he has drawn a limit as a circle.” According to some the form should have been חָק־חוּג (khaq-khug, “He has traced a circle”). But others argues that the text is acceptable as is, and can be interpreted as “a limit he has circled.” The Hebrew verbal roots are חָקַק (khaqaq, “to engrave; to sketch out; to trace”) and חוּג (khug, “describe a circle”) respectively.