Job40chapter 40

Job 40:1-2

Moreover the Lord answered Job opens a short exchange before the second speech proper, the first demand stated in a single verse, shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him. He that reproveth God, let him answer it turns the courtroom Job has wanted the whole book onto him directly, no longer a question about creation but a demand for Job's own case. Barnes reads the brevity as deliberate, one sharp sentence standing in place of the long catalogue that has just closed.

Job 40:3-5

Then Job answered the Lord: Then Job answered the Lord and said, I am vile, what shall I answer thee, gives the book's shortest reply after its longest speech, Job's hand laid upon his own mouth rather than raised in argument. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer, yea twice, but I will proceed no further, reads as a formal withdrawal of the case rather than a confession of guilt, and Gill notes the numbers one and two likely count Job's two great outbursts earlier in the book rather than a literal tally. Clarke reads the silence as the true turning point of the book, achieved before the second whirlwind speech has even finished making its case.

Job 40:6-9

out of the whirlwind: The second speech opens exactly as the first did, out of the whirlwind, and repeats gird up thy loins now like a man before reaching the book's sharpest question at verse 8, wilt thou also disannul my judgment, wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous. Henry reads the question as naming the real danger in Job's self-defense, that clearing himself by his own account would require putting God in the wrong to do it. Hast thou an arm like God, or canst thou thunder with a voice like him presses the same point in the language of raw power rather than legal standing.

Job 40:10-14

Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency invites Job to try on God's own office for a moment, casting abroad the rage of his wrath and treading down the wicked in their place as though justice were simply a matter of strength applied. Delitzsch reads the invitation as ironic rather than literal, since no creature could survive wielding such power even for an afternoon. The unit closes with the argument's real point at verse 14, then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee, meaning Job's own arm would have to be his savior if he could do what he is asking God to answer for.

Job 40:15

Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee, he eateth grass as an ox is the sole occurrence of the name in Scripture, introduced as a fellow creature made alongside Job rather than a rival power. The identification divides the bench: the hippopotamus of the Nile and its marshes, so most of the nineteenth-century commentators including Barnes and Delitzsch; readings that hear something larger or stranger behind the description, so others. The verse itself gives no verdict, only the claim that this animal, whatever it is, belongs to God's own workmanship as plainly as Job does.

Job 40:16-19

His strength is in his loins and his force is in the navel of his belly moves the description into anatomy, the tail moved like a cedar and bones described as bars of iron and pieces of brass. Gill reads the language as deliberately outsized, a creature whose parts are compared to trees and metal rather than to other animals, strange enough that the description resists easy diagram. He is the chief of the ways of God names behemoth first among God's works in this speech, and he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him keeps the creature answerable to its maker even at its most fearsome.

Job 40:20-24

The mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play, sets behemoth's peaceable habitat among shady trees, reeds and fens, an animal at rest rather than on the hunt. He drinketh up a river and hasteth not, he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth, and Clarke reads the boast as hyperbole answering the creature's size rather than a claim it could truly swallow a river. He taketh it with his eyes, his nose pierceth through snares, closes the portrait naming the one weakness a hunter might exploit, and hands the speech directly to leviathan in the chapter that follows.