Job 40

Chapters 38 through 41 of the Book of Job record God speaking directly to Job out of the whirlwind. This chapter concludes the first speech, begun in chapters 38–39, and opens the second speech, which continues through chapter 41.

Outline

• Verses 1–2: The LORD tells Job that the one who contends with the Almighty must answer.
• Verses 3–5: Job confesses that he is vile, lays his hand upon his mouth, and replies that he will say no more.
• Verses 6–14: The LORD speaks again out of the whirlwind. He asks whether Job would condemn God in order to justify himself. He then declares that if Job could, like God, bring low the proud and the wicked, He would acknowledge that Job's own right hand could save him.
• Verses 15–24: The LORD directs Job to behold a great beast that eats grass like an ox. After describing its strength and its bones, its lying beneath the lotus plants, and its calm even when the Jordan overflows, He asks who could capture it.

Key Verses

• Job 40:4: "I will lay mine hand upon my mouth." This is Job's first response, in which he withdraws his complaint before God.
• Job 40:8: "Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" This is the central question of the second speech, pointing out that Job, in seeking to establish his own righteousness, has called God's justice into question.
• Job 40:15: "Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee." The verse affirms that both humanity and the great beast are God's creatures.

People and Places

• The LORD: Speaks to Job out of the whirlwind. In verse 2 He is also called "the Almighty."
• Job: The man who had protested to God in the midst of his suffering. In this chapter he answers God directly for the first time.
• Behemoth: The great beast introduced in verse 15. The Korean Revised Version renders it "hippopotamus," while the New Korean Revised Version transliterates the Hebrew as "Behemoth."
• The Jordan River: Used in verse 23 as an image of the beast remaining undisturbed even when the waters rise.

Points for Reflection

• Chapter and verse division: In the Hebrew Masoretic Text this chapter runs to 32 verses, because the Leviathan passage that appears as 41:1–8 in Korean Bibles is placed at 40:25–32 in the Hebrew text.
• The identity of Behemoth: Interpretations vary.
• Many commentators regard it as an actual animal, such as the hippopotamus or the elephant.
• Others interpret it as a symbol alluding to the forces of chaos in ancient Near Eastern mythology.
• Some Church Fathers and medieval interpreters read it as a symbol of Satan.
• Some modern creationists identify it as a dinosaur, citing the tail in verse 17 that "moveth... like a cedar." Critics respond that this reads poetic hyperbole literally. Related discussion appears in the article Creation and Evolution.
• Extrabiblical tradition: The story that Behemoth and Leviathan will become food at an end-time banquet comes from later Jewish tradition, including the Talmud. The text of Job contains no such account.
• The question of suffering: God does not explain why Job suffered; instead, He responds with questions about creation and His governance of it. Interpreters differ over whether this constitutes an answer to the reason for suffering or whether God reveals Himself in place of an answer.
• Connections with the New Testament:
• The question in verse 8 is often read alongside Romans 9:20, which addresses those who reply against God.
• The theme of humbling the proud in verses 11–12 is read together with James 4:6.
• Romans 11:35 quotes the continuation of God's speech (Job 41:11) (Romans 11:33–36).