Job 40
1 Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said,
2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
3 Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.
5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
7 Gird up now thy loins like a man: I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
9 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
10 Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.
11 Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.
12 Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.
13 Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.
14 Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.
15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
24 Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with snares?”
Job 40 Commentary
Chapter Overview
Job 40 contains two closely connected movements. First, God pauses His questions and requires Job to answer. Job responds by acknowledging his smallness and placing his hand over his mouth. Second, the Lord resumes speaking from the whirlwind and brings the moral issue into sharper focus.
Job has been right to reject the friends’ accusations of secret wickedness. The opening chapters already established that his suffering was not punishment for the crimes they imagined. Yet Job’s defense of his integrity has sometimes moved beyond his own case into sweeping charges against God’s justice.
God therefore asks whether Job will condemn the divine Judge in order to justify himself. The challenge is not to prove that Job committed Eliphaz’s alleged abuses, but to show that personal innocence in one dispute does not qualify him to govern the moral order of the world.
The chapter closes with Behemoth, a massive land creature Job did not design, control, or capture. Its strength and security embody the same lesson seen throughout Job 38 and Job 39: God wisely governs realities far beyond human command.
“Let Him Answer It”
The Lord asks whether the person who contends with the Almighty will also instruct Him. Job wanted a hearing, imagined presenting his arguments, and repeatedly asked God to answer. Now God grants the encounter, but reverses the expected roles. The one who challenged the Judge must answer the Judge’s questions.
To “reprove” God is more than expressing pain. Scripture permits lament, protest, and urgent prayer. Job’s error appears when his grief becomes a verdict that God has treated him as an enemy, denied him justice, or governed unfairly.
Job Lays His Hand on His Mouth
Job answers, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee?” The word can carry the sense of being small, insignificant, or of little account. Job is not necessarily confessing every crime the friends invented. He is recognizing the disproportion between himself and the Creator who has just questioned him about the earth, sea, stars, weather, and wild animals.
Placing a hand over the mouth is a deliberate end to self-defense. Job had often wished that God would stop terrifying him so he could speak freely. In the actual encounter, he discovers that silence is more fitting than another argument.
“Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further” does not mean Job spoke only two literal sentences. It is a way of admitting that he has already said too much and will not continue the same line of contention.
Will Job Condemn God to Justify Himself?
The Lord again speaks from the whirlwind and tells Job to gird up his loins like a man. The command calls for readiness and courage. God is not crushing Job into passive terror; He is summoning him to face the full consequence of his reasoning.
“Wilt thou also disannul my judgment?” asks whether Job would overturn God’s ordering of justice. “Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?” exposes the false choice that has developed in Job’s mind: either Job is guilty and God is just, or Job is innocent and God must be unjust.
The book has already shown that this choice is unnecessary. Job can be innocent of the friends’ accusations while still lacking the heavenly knowledge that explains his trial. Human beings often create similar false alternatives when they assume that an unexplained event must make either the sufferer blameworthy or God blameworthy.
God’s correction does not cancel Job’s integrity. In Job 42, the Lord will still rebuke the friends for not speaking rightly about Him as Job did. The lesson is more precise: Job spoke more truthfully than his accusers, yet some of his words about God exceeded what his knowledge justified.
Can Job Govern the Proud and Wicked?
God asks whether Job has an arm like His or a voice that can thunder like His. The “arm” represents effective power, especially power to rule, rescue, and judge. Job has evaluated the administration of justice, but can he actually perform the Judge’s work?
The Lord invites Job, in effect, to clothe himself with majesty, glory, and beauty; unleash righteous wrath; identify every proud person; humble them all; and tread down the wicked wherever they stand.
The challenge includes both knowledge and execution. A perfect judge must know every heart, every hidden act, every consequence, and the proper time for judgment. He must also possess power sufficient to enforce the verdict without error, corruption, delay caused by weakness, or unintended harm.
God says that if Job can accomplish this task, then He will acknowledge that Job’s own right hand can save him. The irony is forceful. Job cannot save himself from his disease, reverse his losses, or rule the wicked throughout the earth. He needs the very divine power whose wisdom he has questioned.
Behold Behemoth
God next directs Job to Behemoth, “which I made with thee.” The name is related to the ordinary Hebrew word for beast or cattle, but here it functions as the title of an extraordinary creature. Its exact identification is uncertain.
“Which I made with thee” places Job and Behemoth on the same side of the Creator-creature distinction. Job may be morally responsible and capable of speech, while Behemoth is an animal of enormous force, but both owe their existence and abilities to God.
Strength That Job Did Not Give
Behemoth eats grass like an ox, yet its diet should not be mistaken for weakness. Its power lies in its loins, belly, sinews, and bones. Brass and iron provide images of a body that appears almost unbreakable.
The statement that it moves its tail “like a cedar” has generated much debate. The comparison may concern strength, stiffness, sweeping movement, or another feature described in ancient poetic language. It should be interpreted cautiously rather than made to carry an argument the chapter itself does not develop.
Behemoth is called “the chief of the ways of God,” emphasizing its impressive place among God’s works. Yet the creature is not divine. “He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him” means its Maker remains fully able to govern, confront, or subdue what human beings find overwhelming.
Secure in the River
The mountains provide Behemoth with food while other animals play nearby. It rests beneath lotus-like shady plants, reeds, willows, and the cover of the marsh. The scene combines massive strength with calm provision.
A flooding river does not make it panic. Even if the Jordan surges toward its mouth, it remains confident. Job, by contrast, has been overwhelmed by the flood of calamities that arrived in a single day and continued through bodily suffering.
Why Does God Show Job Behemoth?
Behemoth provides a living test of Job’s capacity to rule. If Job cannot safely capture one immense animal, how can he claim the knowledge and power necessary to administer every proud person, every act of injustice, and every dangerous force in the world?
God’s answer therefore moves Job away from a courtroom model in which he imagines himself evaluating God from an independent position. Job is not outside creation looking in. He stands within a world whose depths and powers exceed him, dependent on the Creator for life, knowledge, justice, and salvation.
Important Questions
Does Job’s confession mean the friends were right? No. Job does not confess the secret exploitation, greed, or hypocrisy they alleged. He acknowledges his smallness before God and stops defending himself in a way that condemns divine justice.
Was Job wrong to lament? Honest lament was not the central error. The problem arose when anguish hardened into claims that God had denied justice or acted as Job’s enemy. The chapter corrects presumption without forbidding grief.
Is Behemoth a hippopotamus or a dinosaur? The description has been identified in different ways, and the text does not provide enough detail to settle every modern classification. Its theological purpose is clear: it is a mighty created animal that Job cannot master but God can.
Why does God talk about power rather than explain Job’s losses? Job’s deepest need is not merely one hidden fact but restored trust in God’s wisdom and rule. The heavenly scene would explain the immediate trial, but it would not make Job capable of judging every unexplained event.
Application
Job 40 warns against defending our righteousness by placing God in the wrong. A person may be falsely accused and still speak wrongly while resisting the accusation. Integrity does not require pretending to know why God permitted every event.
The chapter also distinguishes humility from accepting false guilt. Job can stop condemning God without agreeing with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Believers should not pressure sufferers to confess invented sins merely because their circumstances are painful.
When evil appears unchecked, the desire for justice is proper. Yet the ability to identify, judge, and humble every proud person belongs to God. Our responsibility is to practice justice faithfully within our calling while refusing the fantasy that we can govern the whole moral order.
Behemoth teaches that realities beyond human control are not beyond divine control. The forces that appear immovable, unmanageable, or frightening remain created things. Their strength is borrowed, bounded, and known by God.
Finally, Job’s hand over his mouth models a needed spiritual discipline. Silence before God is not always the absence of faith or thought. Sometimes it is the moment when argument gives way to teachability. In Job 41, the Lord will deepen this lesson through Leviathan before Job gives his fuller response.