Job 40:16
in Job 40See the strength of his loins and the power in the muscles of his belly.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Lo now, his strength is in his loins, And his force is in the muscles of his belly.
KJV
Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
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This verse in Job 40
Commentary
11 notes on this verseWhat is understood by the loins except the delight of the flesh? Hence the Psalmist also asks, saying: "Burn my loins." For if he had not known that the pleasure of lust resides in the loins, he would by no means have asked that they be burned. Hence, because the power of the devil has prevailed over the human race especially through lust, it is said of him by the voice of the Lord: "His power is in his loins."
This site's exposition
See the strength of his loins
on Job 40:16-19
The description turns to the body, a tail that “sways like a cedar” and bones that “are tubes of bronze”. Gill reads the language as deliberately outsized, likening the parts to trees and metals in place of other animals, too strange for an easy diagram.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXII · Written before 604.
proposed
His strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. 20. The places for the seed of coition are said to be in the loins with men, but in the navel with women. For hence it is that the Truth says to His disciples; Let your loins be girded about. [Luke 12, 35] Hence Peter, when keeping away lust from the heart, admonished, saying, Girded up in the loins of your mind. [1 Pet. 1, 13] Hence Paul, when saying that the priesthood of Levi was tithed by the sacrifice of Abraham in the time of Melchisedec, said, in shewing where Levi was then concealed in the body of his father; For he was yet in the loins of his father. But that the seed-vessel of lust is with women contained in the navel, the Prophet witnesses, who, reproving the wantonness of Judaea, under the character of a prostituted woman, says; In the day of thy birth thy navel was not cut. [Ez. 16, 4] For to cut the navel in the day of birth, is to cut off the lust of the flesh at the time of conversion. For since it is difficult to correct evil beginnings, and to mould into a better shape things that have once been shapen amiss, Judaea is blamed from her birth, as having, while born of God, retained her navel unsevered, because she lopped not off the loosenesses of lust. Because therefore both sexes are grievously overcome by the infirmity of lust, through the power of the devil, his strength is both said to be in his loins, against men, and his force in his navel, against women. 21. But why, when He had first mentioned this Behemoth as eating hay, did He subjoin the fatal effects of lust, as the first arguments of his deception? Except that it is plain to all, that after pride has once seized the spirit of a man, he immediately stretches forth to the pollution of the flesh. […]
Second, he describes his conjugal relations. For the principal animal pleasures consist in food and intercourse. He describes the intercourse of the elephant first as to the principle of pleasure by which animals are excited to intercourse when he says, "His strength is in his …
The words "its strength is in its cover" [mean] its strength and vigor are precisely in the animal itself. Animals usually take shelter in different places, but [the author] says this animal does not need a shelter at all.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Lo now, his strength is in his loins,.... The strength of the elephant is well known, being able to carry a castle on its back, with a number of men therein; but what follows does not seem so well to agree with it; and his force is in the navel of his belly; since the belly of the elephant is very tender; by means of which the rhinoceros, its enemy, in its fight with it, has the advantage of it, by getting under its belly, and ripping it up with its horn (s).
Strength - He hath strength answerable to his bulk, but this strength by God's wise and merciful providence is not an offensive strength, consisting in, or put forth by horns or claws, as it is in ravenous creatures, but only defensive and seated in his loins, as it is in other creatures.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
A humbling challenge which God gave to Job. After he had heaped up many hard questions upon him, to show him, by his manifest ignorance in the works of nature, what an incompetent judge he was of the methods and designs of Providence, he clenches the nail with one demand more, which stands by itself here as the application of the whole.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
On the other hand, Job 40:21, 22 are characteristic of the amphibious river horse. So leviathan (the twisting animal), Job 41:1, is a generalized term for cetacea, pythons, saurians of the neighboring seas and rivers, including the crocodile, which is the most prominent, and is often associated with the river horse by old writers.
His strength is in his loins - This refers to his great agility, notwithstanding his bulk; by the strength of his loins he was able to take vast springs, and make astonishing bounds.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Lo now, his strength is in his loins - The inspection of the figure of the hippopotamus will show the accuracy of this. The strength of the elephant is in the neck; of the lion in the paw; of the horse and ox in the shoulders; but the principal power of the river-horse is in the loins; compare Nah 2:1. This passage is one that proves that the elephant cannot be referred to. And his force is in the navel of his belly - The word which is here rendered “navel” (שׁריר shârı̂yr) means properly “firm, hard, tough,” and in the plural form, which occurs here, means the “firm,” or “tough” parts of the belly. It is not used to denote the “navel” in any place in the Bible, and should not have been so rendered here. The reference is to the muscles and tendons of this part of the body, and perhaps particularly to the fact that the hippopotamus, by crawling so much on his belly among the stones of the stream or on land, acquires a special hardness or strength in those parts of the body. This clearly proves that the elephant is not intended. In that animal, this is the most tender part of the body. Pliny and Solinus both remark that the elephant has a thick, hard skin on the back, but that the skin of the belly is soft and tender. Pliny says (“Hist. Nat.” Lib. viii. c. 20), that the rhinoceros, when about to attack an elephant, “seeks his belly, as if he knew that that was the most tender part.” So Aelian, “Hist.” Lib. xvii. c. 44; see Bochart, as above.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הִנֵּה־ | hineh- | there! | H2009 → | 843 times |
| נָ֣א | na' | please | H4994 → | 404 times |
| כֹח֣וֹ | khocho | strength its | H3581 → | 126 times |
| בְמָתְנָ֑יו | vematenav | [is] in loins its | H4975 → | |
| וְ֝אֹנ֗וֹ | veono | and power its | H202 → | 13 times |
| בִּשְׁרִירֵ֥י | bishrirei | in [the] muscles of | H8306 → | |
| בִטְנֽוֹ׃ | vitno | belly its | H990 → | 72 times |
הִנֵּה־there!
hineh-H2009 →843 times
נָ֣אplease
na'H4994 →404 times
כֹח֣וֹstrength its
khochoH3581 →126 times
בְמָתְנָ֑יו[is] in loins its
vematenavH4975 →
וְ֝אֹנ֗וֹand power its
veonoH202 →13 times
בִּשְׁרִירֵ֥יin [the] muscles of
bishrireiH8306 →
בִטְנֽוֹ׃belly its
vitnoH990 →72 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job

This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 22; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXII; Ishodad of Merv, COMMENTARY ON JOB 40:16; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.
