Job 40:7-17

7 Gird thou as a man thy loins, and I shall ask thee, and show thou to me. (Gird thou up thy loins like a man, and I shall ask thee, and thou shalt answer me.)
8 Whether thou shalt make void my doom, and shalt thou condemn me, that thou be made just? (Shalt thou make void my justice? that is, shalt thou say that I am unjust? and shalt thou condemn me, so that thou can be right?)
9 And if thou hast an arm, or power, as God hath, and if thou thunderest with like voice,
10 take thou fairness about thee, and be thou raised on high, and be thou glorious, and be thou clothed in fair clothes. (take thou beauty about thee, and be thou raised up on high, and be thou glorious, and be thou clothed in beautiful clothes.)
11 And destroy thou proud men in thy fierce vengeance (And destroy thou the proud with thy fierce vengeance), and behold thou, and make low each boaster.
12 Behold thou all proud men, and shame thou them; and all-break thou (the) wicked men in their place.
13 Hide thou them in dust together, and drench down their faces into a ditch. (Hide thou them in the dust together, and drown them down in a ditch.)
14 And then I shall acknowledge, that thy right hand may save thee. (And then I shall acknowledge, that thy right hand can save thee.)
15 Lo! behemoth, whom I made with thee, shall as an ox eat hay. (Lo! the behemoth, which I made with thee, eateth hay like an ox.)
16 His strength is in his loins, and his might is in the navel of his womb.
17 He constraineth his tail as a cedar (His tail standeth up like a cedar); the sinews of his stones of engendering be folded together.

Job 40:7-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 40

In this chapter Job is called upon to give in his answer, Job 40:1,2, which he does in the most humble manner, acknowledging his vileness and folly, Job 40:3-5; and then the Lord proceeds to give him further conviction of his superior justice and power, Job 40:6-9; and one thing he proposes to him, to humble the proud, if he could, and then he would own his own right hand could save him, Job 40:10-15; and observes to him another instance of his power in a creature called behemoth, which he had made, and gives a description of, Job 40:15-24.

Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.