Job 40:9
Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?
BSB
ASV
Or hast thou an arm like God? And canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
KJV
Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
When there is a reference to the voice or the "arm" [power] of God, we must be very careful not to attribute to him any corporeal feature. To enclose into corporeal dimensions him who cannot be circumscribed and fills and embraces everything would mean to fall into the heresy of the Anthropomorphites. But the almighty God, drawing us toward his condition, humiliates himself to our context, and in order to suggest to us sublime truths, he lowers himself to the humble ones.
Hast thou an arm like God? - The arm is the symbol of strength. The question here is, whether Job would venture to compare his strength with the omnipotence of God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? - Thunder is a symbol of the majesty of the Most High, and is often spoken of as the voice of God; see Psa 29:1-11. The question here is, whether Job could presume to compare himself with the Almighty, whose voice was the thunder?
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 89:13Mighty is Your arm; strong is Your hand. Your right hand is exalted.
leads to
God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,
You crushed Rahab like a carcass; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
But at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity was restored to me. Then I praised the Most High, and I honored and glorified Him who lives…
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
Through
Job 23:6Would He contend with me in His great power? No, He would certainly take note of me.
leads to
Withdraw Your hand from me, and do not let Your terror frighten me.
Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of…
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?