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Job 40:9

in Job 40

Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

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?

This verse in Job 40

Commentary

9 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

out of the whirlwind

on Job 40:6-9

The second speech opens as the first did, “out of the whirlwind”. It repeats “brace yourself like a man” before its sharpest question at verse 8, “Would you condemn Me to justify yourself”. Henry sees the danger of Job's defense, that clearing himself means putting God in the wrong.

This site's exposition

Can you thunder with a voice

Barnes calls the arm the sign of strength and thunder the voice of God, as in Psalm 29. Gregory the Dialogist warns against picturing a body in God. Arm and voice are God stooping to human speech to teach what is beyond it.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Job · Written before 1274.

proposed

Therefore, the Lord, in accusing Job, proposes the excellence of God over men, and this excellence is indeed manifested in his effects. But since now it is a question of the comparison of justice which properly is not perceived in irrational things, to show divine …

A commentator

Gregory the Dialogist

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXII · Written before 604.

proposed

Hast thou an arm like God, and dost thou thunder with a voice like Him? 6. Because blessed Job transcended in merits the race of men, his merciful Creator and Teacher challenges him to consider the resemblance of His greatness, in order that, having known the great dissimilarity, he may keep himself down in humility. 7. But when a voice and arm are spoken of in God, we must take the greatest care that our mind imagines nothing corporeal in Him. For to confine Him within the lineaments of a body, Who without circumscription fills and embraces all things, is to fall into the heresy of the Anthropomorphites. But Almighty God, in drawing us to His own things, humbles Himself even to ours, and, to teach lofty, condescends to lowly things; in order that the mind of little ones, being nourished with the things it knows, may rise to enquire into those it knows not, and hearing from Him Who is far above it, some truths nigh itself, may move, as it were, some steps towards Him. Whence it happens, that in His own Scripture He sometimes from the bodies of men, sometimes from their minds, but sometimes from birds, and sometimes even from insensate objects, applies to Himself some very unlikely resemblances. For He frequently applies to Himself a resemblance from the bodies of men, as the Prophet says of Him to the Israelites, He that hath touched you, toucheth the apple of His eye. [Zech. 2, 8] And as it is said again of Him by the Prophet to a man who trusts in Him; He will make a shadow for thee with His shoulders. [Ps. 91, 4] It is doubtless admitted that God in His own nature has neither eye, nor shoulders; but since we see with our eye, but support burdens on our shoulders, God, because He sees all things, is said to have an eye; but because He carries us, and by carrying preserves us, He is said to make a shadow for us with His shoulders. […]

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

Hast thou an arm like God?....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

"Hast thou, a poor weak worm of the earth, an arm comparable to his who upholds all things?" The power of creatures, even of angels themselves, is derived from God, limited by him, and dependent on him; but the power of God is original, independent, and unlimited.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

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?
1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Hast thou an arm like God? - Every word, from this to the end of Job 40:14, has a wonderful tendency to humble the soul; and it is no wonder that at the conclusion of these sayings Job fell in the dust confounded, and ascribed righteousness to his Maker.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Bedeck yourself Heb. עדה, an expression of an ornament (עדי) and decoration.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Job 40:10:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

7 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וְאִם־and or?

    veim-H518 →1069 times

  • זְר֖וֹעַ[does] an arm

    zeroa'H2220 →91 times

  • כָּאֵ֥ל׀like <the> God

    kaelH410 →241 times

  • לָ֑ךְ[belong] to you?

    lakh

  • וּ֝בְק֗וֹלand with a voice

    uvekolH6963 →506 times

  • כָּמֹ֥הוּlike him

    kamohuH3644 →143 times

  • תַרְעֵֽם׃will you thunder?

    taremH7481 →13 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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 89:13

    Mighty is Your arm; strong is Your hand. Your right hand is exalted.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 62:11

      God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: that power belongs to God,

    • Psalms 89:10

      You crushed Rahab like a carcass; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.

    • Daniel 4:34–35

      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…

    • Matthew 6:13

      And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

  • Through

    Job 23:6

    Would He contend with me in His great power? No, He would certainly take note of me.

    it leads to

    • Job 13:21

      Withdraw Your hand from me, and do not let Your terror frighten me.

    • Job 9:33–34

      Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.

    • 2 Corinthians 12:9–10

      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…

    • Job 9:4

      God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Job

Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

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, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXII; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.