Job 40:20
in Job 40The hills yield him their produce, while all the beasts of the field play nearby.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, Where all the beasts of the field do play.
KJV
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
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This verse in Job 40
Commentary
12 notes on this verseThe mountains bring him forth food - It cannot therefore be the hippopotamus, as he is seldom found far from the rivers where he has his chief residence. Where all the beasts of the field play - He frequents those places where he can have most prey. He makes a mock of all the beasts of the field. They can neither resist his power, nor escape from his agility. All this answers to what we know of the mammoth, but not at all to the hippopotamus.
This site's exposition
The hills yield him their produce
on Job 40:20-24
The hills yield Behemoth “their produce, while all the beasts of the field play nearby”. He lies “under the lotus plants, hidden among the reeds of the marsh”, an animal at rest. When “the river rages, Behemoth is unafraid”, secure though “the Jordan surges to his mouth”.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"And when he has gone up to a steep mountain, he causes joy to the quadrupeds in the deep." This means the wild animals have raised their heads only when this animal has withdrawn to the mountains. If [God] has created these two enormous beasts, he did so in order that you might know that he may create all of them according to their own type. But God does not do so because his creation is oriented to provide what is useful to you. Notice how these beasts observe their proper laws: they haunt that part of the sea which is not navigable. But one may ask, What is their use? We ignore what is the mysterious utility of these monsters, but, if we want to take the risk of an explanation, we may say that they lead toward the knowledge of God.
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
The mountains bring him forth grass. 1. The proud become the more familiarly devoted to the ancient enemy, who is described by the voice of the Lord, under the name Behemoth, the higher they swell with pride within, at the successes of this life. For their pride increases with their distinction, but with their pride is added care; the mind is distracted hither and thither, because their desires also increase together with their possessions.
Since he had said that, "He eats grass like an ox," (v.10) he shows where he gets his grass to eat, and so he says, "The mountains yield grass for him." By this one understands that the proud and lofty men in this world offer …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Mountains - Though he lives most in the water, yet he often fetches his food from the land, and from the mountains or hills, which are nigh the river Nile. Play - They not only feed securely, but sport themselves by him, being taught by experience that he is gentle and harmless.
Surely the mountains bring him forth food,.... Grass, which grows on mountains, and is the food of the river horse as well as of the elephant; and therefore is furnished with teeth like a scythe to mow it down; and it is not a small quantity that will suffice it, mountains only can supply it; and marvellous it is that a creature bred in a river should come out of it to seek its food on mountains.
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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.
(2.) To commend living upon herbs and fruits without flesh, according to the original appointment of man's food, Gen. i. Even the strength of an elephant, as of a horse and an ox, may be supported without flesh; and why not that of a man?
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The mountain is not his usual haunt. BOCHART says it is sometimes found there (?). beasts . . . play--a graphic trait: though armed with such teeth, he lets the beasts play near him unhurt, for his food is grass.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Surely the mountains bring him forth food - That is, though he lies commonly among the reeds and fens, and is in the water a considerable portion of his time, yet he also wanders to the mountains, and finds his food there. But the point of the remark here does not seem to be, that the mountains brought forth food for him, but that he gathered it “while all the wild beasts played around him, or sported in his very presence.” It was remarkable that an animal so large and mighty, and armed with such a set of teeth, should not be carnivorous, and that the wild beasts on the mountains should continue their sports without danger or alarm in his very presence. This fact could be accounted for partly because the “motions” of the hippopotamus were so very slow and clumsy that the wild beasts had nothing to fear from him, and could easily escape from him if he were disposed to attack them, and partly from the fact that he seems to have “preferred” vegetable food. The hippopotamus is seldom carnivorous, except when driven by extreme hunger, and in no respect is he formed to be a beast of prey. In regard to “the fact” that the hippopotamus is sometimes found in mountainous or elevated places, see Bochart.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| ב֭וּל | vul | [the] beast[s] of | H944 → | |
| הָרִ֣ים | harim | [the] mountains | H2022 → | 546 times |
| יִשְׂאוּ־ | yisu- | they carry | H5375 → | 656 times |
| ל֑וֹ | lo | to it | ||
| וְֽכָל־ | vekhol | and every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| חַיַּ֥ת | chaiyat | <the> animal of | H2416 → | 498 times |
| הַ֝שָּׂדֶ֗ה | hasadeh | the field | H7704 → | 334 times |
| יְשַֽׂחֲקוּ־ | yesachaku- | they play | H7832 → | 36 times |
| שָֽׁם׃ | sham | there | H8033 → | 834 times |
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
ב֭וּל[the] beast[s] of
vulH944 →
הָרִ֣ים[the] mountains
harimH2022 →546 times
יִשְׂאוּ־they carry
yisu-H5375 →656 times
ל֑וֹto it
lo
וְֽכָל־and every
vekholH3605 →5413 times
חַיַּ֥ת<the> animal of
chaiyatH2416 →498 times
הַ֝שָּׂדֶ֗הthe field
hasadehH7704 →334 times
יְשַֽׂחֲקוּ־they play
yesachaku-H7832 →36 times
שָֽׁם׃there
shamH8033 →834 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 104:14He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
it leads to
- Psalms 136:25
He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever.
- Psalms 147:8–9
who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills.
- Psalms 145:15–16
The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
- Job 28:5
Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.
- 1 Corinthians 3:7
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
- Psalms 136:25
Through
Psalms 104:26There the ships pass, and Leviathan, which You formed to frolic there.
it leads to
- Psalms 107:23
Others went out to sea in ships, conducting trade on the mighty waters.
- Psalms 74:14
You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You fed him to the creatures of the desert.
- Isaiah 27:1
In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent—Leviathan the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.
- Psalms 107:23
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 9 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); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 40:20; 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.