Job 40

The LORD answered Job. He said:

1Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,

Note"The LORD" printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Ancient and later Jewish readers said "Lord" aloud in its place, and English Bibles keep that substitution, using the capitals to show which word is underneath.

2Will the man who argues with the Almighty correct him? Let the man who brings charges against God give his answer.

2Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

Note"Contendeth" and "reproveth" are courtroom words. Through the whole book Job has been demanding a hearing, as if summoning God to a trial; God now answers in the same legal vocabulary. The question is whether the man bringing the suit is in a position to instruct the judge.

3Then Job answered the LORD. He said:

3Then Job answered the LORD, and said,

4"Look, I am small and count for little. What can I say back to you? I put my hand over my mouth.

4Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

Note"Vile" in 1611 English meant lowly, of no weight or account, not filthy or wicked. The Hebrew word means "I am light," the opposite of weighty or important; Job is calling himself too small to matter in this argument, not confessing a sin. Putting a hand over the mouth was the recognized gesture for deliberately falling silent in the presence of someone greater.

5I have spoken once, and I have no answer. I have spoken twice, and I will say nothing more."

5Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

Note"Once... twice" is a standard Hebrew way of counting that means "repeatedly, and that is the end of it." Job is not tallying exactly two speeches; he is saying he has had his say and will add nothing.

6Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind. He said:

6Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

NoteThe "whirlwind" is a violent storm or tempest. In Hebrew poetry a storm is the usual setting for God appearing and speaking, so naming it signals to the first hearers what kind of encounter this is.

7"Get ready for this like a man. I will ask you questions, and you will tell me the answers.

7Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

NoteMen wore long robes; to move fast, work hard or fight, you pulled the hem up between your legs and tucked it into your belt. "Gird up your loins" was the everyday phrase for that, and came to mean "brace yourself, get ready for something demanding."

8Will you really cancel my justice? Will you say I am in the wrong so that you can be in the right?

8Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Note"My judgment" is the Hebrew word for justice or the verdict handed down in a case. "Condemn" and "righteous" are also verdict words: to declare a party guilty, or to declare them in the right. The point is that a court can only rule one way, clearing Job would mean convicting God.

9Do you have an arm as strong as God's arm? Can your voice thunder the way his voice does?

9Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?

Note"Arm" is a standard Hebrew image for power in action, the way we might say "muscle." Thunder was regularly described as God's voice, so the two halves of the question ask about the same thing: could Job wield the force God wields?

10Then dress yourself up in greatness and high honor. Put on glory and splendor like clothes.

10Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.

NoteMajesty, glory and splendor are spoken of in Hebrew as robes a king puts on. God is telling Job to dress in the regalia of the one who rules, the outfit of the position Job would need to hold to win this argument.

11Pour out your burning anger everywhere. Look at every proud man and bring him down.

11Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.

12Look at every proud man and humble him. Crush the wicked right where they stand.

12Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.

13Bury them all together in the dust. Shut their faces away in the hidden place of the dead.

13Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.

Note"The dust" and "the hidden place" both mean the grave, the realm of the dead. Binding or covering the face was done to a corpse, and also to a man already condemned; the line pictures shutting the proud away permanently among the dead.

14If you can do that, then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.

14Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.

NoteThe "right hand" stands for a person's own strength, since most people fight and work right-handed. "Confess" here means concede a point in an argument, not admit a fault.

15Look now at Behemoth, the great beast I made, just as I made you. He eats grass like an ox.

15Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

Note"Behemoth" is a Hebrew word left untranslated. It is the ordinary word for cattle or beasts put into a plural form that intensifies rather than counts (something like "the Beast," the animal above all animals. What creature is meant has been argued over for centuries: the description fits a hippopotamus or a water buffalo at some points, and at others sounds larger than any living animal, so many readers take it as a real beast described in deliberately outsized terms. "Which I made with thee" means made alongside Job) the same kind of creature, not the maker.

16Look at the strength in his hips and the power in the muscles of his belly.

16Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.

17He stiffens his tail like a cedar tree. The tendons of his thighs are woven tightly together.

17He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.

Note"Like a cedar" compares the tail to the trunk of a huge tree, stiff and thick, which is why some readers think a different body part is meant. The KJV's "his stones" is its reading of an uncertain Hebrew word for the animal's testicles; most modern translations take the same word as "thighs." The Hebrew genuinely allows both.

18His bones are tubes of bronze. His limbs are like bars of iron.

18His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.

Note"Brass" in 1611 English meant what we call bronze, the copper alloy used for tools, weapons and temple fittings; the yellow metal we call brass was not in common use. The bones are pictured as hollow metal pipes and solid iron rods, the strongest hard materials the first hearers knew.

19He ranks first among the works of God. Only the one who made him can bring a sword near him.

19He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

Note"The chief of the ways of God" means first in rank among the things God has made, a masterpiece, not a ruler. The second half is compressed in Hebrew and can be read two ways: that only Behemoth's maker can bring a sword against him, or that his maker can furnish him with his own "sword," meaning the tusks or teeth he fights with.

20The hills bring him the food he eats, where all the wild animals play nearby.

20Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.

NoteHebrew poetry pairs the hills with the marsh of the following verses without explaining how one animal uses both; the picture is of a beast so secure that the whole landscape feeds him while the other animals graze and play undisturbed nearby.

21He lies down under the lotus plants, hidden among the reeds of the marsh.

21He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.

NoteThe KJV's "shady trees" translates a Hebrew word for the thorny lotus or jujube, a dense low tree that grows in thickets along the Jordan valley, cover for a large animal rather than ornamental shade.

22The lotus plants cover him with their shade. The willows by the stream grow all around him.

22The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.

23Look, when the river rushes hard he is not alarmed. He stays confident even when the Jordan surges up to his mouth.

23Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.

NoteThe Jordan was the region's best-known river, and naming it works like naming a proverbial flood: even the full force of that river rising to his mouth would not disturb him.

24Can anyone catch him while he watches, or drive a hook through his nose with traps?

24He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

NoteThe Hebrew has no question marker here, so the line can be read either as a flat statement (he takes what he wants in plain sight) or as a challenge (can anyone take him while he watches?); translations divide on it. Captured animals were controlled by driving a ring, hook or cord through the soft flesh of the nose, the ordinary way of leading an ox, and useless against a beast like this.