Job40chapter 40

Job's reply is four lines long and consists mostly of stopping. Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. Hand over the mouth is the same gesture the princes made before him at the gate in chapter 29 — the formal sign of deliberate silence before someone greater.

God's second speech opens with a challenge that is really an offer. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Then: deck thyself now with majesty and excellency, cast abroad the rage of thy wrath, look on every one that is proud and abase him, tread down the wicked in their place — and then I will confess that thine own right hand can save thee. In other words, run the moral government of the universe for a day, and the job is yours.

Then comes Behemoth, whose name is a Hebrew plural meaning something like 'the beast of beasts'. The description is specific: he eats grass like an ox; his strength is in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly; his bones are like bars of iron; he lies under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed and fens; the willows of the brook surround him; he trusts that he can draw up the Jordan into his mouth. He is taken 'before his eyes', and his nose pierced with a snare — hippopotamus hunts are shown in Egyptian tomb art, harpooned from reed boats.

Identifying him has always been contested and the chapter names its own difficulty. Most readers take him for the hippopotamus, which fits the marsh, the grass diet, and the hunting method. Others hold that no living animal matches 'he moveth his tail like a cedar', and read Behemoth as a large creature no longer with us — a reading at home with the view that men and such creatures once shared the world. Either way the point stands: he is called the chief of the ways of God, and only his Maker can approach him with a sword.