Job 42:1-7

Job 40:6 to Job 42:6. The Lord's Second Answer to Job out of the Storm

Shall Man charge God with unrighteousness in His Rule of the World?

All that the first speech of the Lord touched upon was the presumption of a mortal man desiring to contend with the Almighty. The display from Creation of that which God is had the desired effect on Job's mind: he is abased, and will no more contend with the Almighty.

But Job had not only presumed to contend with God, he had charged Him with unrighteousness in His rule of the world and in His treatment of himself. This is the point to which the second speech from the storm is directed.

The passage has properly two parts.

First, Job 40:6, as Job had challenged the rectitude of God's rule of the world, he is ironically invited to clothe himself with the Divine attributes and assume the rule of the world himself.

Then follows, ch. Job 40:15 to Job 41:34, a lengthy description of two monsters, Behemoth and Leviathan.

Second, ch. Job 42:1-6, Job's reply to the Divine challenge. He confesses that he spoke things which he understood not. He had heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but now his eye saw Him, and he abhorred his former words and demeanour, and repented in dust and ashes.