By his spirit; either,
1. By his Divine virtue or power, which is sometimes called his spirit, as Malachi 4:6 Matthew 12:28. Or,
2. By his Holy Spirit, to which the creation of the world is ascribed, Genesis 1:2 Job 33:4 Psalms 33:6. He hath garnished the heavens; adorned or beautified them with those glorious lights, the sun, and moon, and stars. The crooked serpent; by which he understands either,
1. All the kinds of serpents, or fishes, or monsters of the sea. Or,
2. The most eminent of their kinds, particularly the whale, which may be here not unfitly mentioned (as it is afterwards more largely described) amongst the glorious works of God in this lower world; as the garnishing of the heavens was his noblest work in the superior visible parts of the world. Or,
3. A heavenly constellation, called the great dragon and serpent, which being most eminent, as taking up a considerable part of the northern hemisphere, may well be put for all the rest of the constellations or stars wherewith the heavens are garnished. Thus he persisteth still in the same kind of God's works, and the latter branch explains the former. And this sense is the more probable, because Job was well acquainted with the doctrine of astronomy, and knew the nature and names of the stars and constellations, as appears also from Job 9:9, Job 38:31.