Skip to main content
« God's Care for Creation Leviathan »
0:00 / 0:00

Job 40 KJV

Job's Humility Before God

Wisdom Literature 3 min 24 verses 361 words answered ร—3 mouth ร—2 loins ร—2 wilt ร—2 thyself ร—2

Job Chapter 40: Job's Humility Before God

God describes Behemoth as made 'with thee,' placing the primordial creature within the same creative act as humanity and thereby rejecting ancient Near Eastern views of chaos monsters as preexistent rivals to the divine.

M1๐Ÿ”—oreover the LORD answered Job, and said,

2๐Ÿ”— Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

3๐Ÿ”— Then Job answered the LORD, and said,

4๐Ÿ”— Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

5๐Ÿ”— Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

6๐Ÿ”— Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

7๐Ÿ”— Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

8๐Ÿ”— Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

9๐Ÿ”— Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?

10๐Ÿ”— Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.

11๐Ÿ”— Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.

12๐Ÿ”— Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.

13๐Ÿ”— Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.

14๐Ÿ”— Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.

15๐Ÿ”— Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

16๐Ÿ”— Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.

17๐Ÿ”— He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.

18๐Ÿ”— His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.

19๐Ÿ”— He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

20๐Ÿ”— Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.

21๐Ÿ”— He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.

22๐Ÿ”— The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.

23๐Ÿ”— Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.

24๐Ÿ”— He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

Continue Reading Job 41 Leviathan

โ† โ†’ arrow keys to navigate chapters ยท spacebar to play/pause audio

Chapter Context

Did You Know?

1

God describes Behemoth as made 'with thee,' placing the primordial creature within the same creative act as humanity and thereby rejecting ancient Near Eastern views of chaos monsters as preexistent rivals to the divine.

2

The chapter's opening command to 'gird up thy loins like a man' repeats the earlier summons in 38:3, framing the entire divine speech as a formal legal confrontation in which Job is summoned to present his case before the divine tribunal.

3

Behemoth is called 'the chief of the ways of God,' a phrase that echoes Proverbs 8:22's description of Wisdom and suggests the creature functions as a visible emblem of the ordered wisdom by which Yahweh structured creation.

4

The text specifies that Behemoth lies among lotus plants and reeds 'in the covert of the reed and fens,' details that align with Egyptian hippopotamus-hunt iconography yet are repurposed here to show Yahweh's effortless sovereignty over what Egyptians regarded as a dangerous deity.

5

Job's gesture of laying his hand upon his mouth (v. 4) mirrors the Mesopotamian wisdom text Ludlul Bฤ“l Nฤ“meqi, where the sufferer falls silent before divine majesty, indicating the biblical author draws on a shared ancient convention for expressing humbled speechlessness.