Job 40:20

_BEHOLD NOW BEHEMOTH, WHICH I MADE WITH THEE; HE EATETH GRASS AS AN OX._ God shows that if Job cannot bring under control the lower animals, of which he selects the two most striking (Behemoth on land, Leviathan in the water), how much less is he capable of governing the world! Verse 15. BEHEMOTH, х_ BªHEEMOWT_ (H929)]. The description in part agrees with the hippopotamus, in part with the elephant, but exactly in all details with neither. It is rather a poetical personification of the great Pachydermata, or Herbiuora (so "he eateth grass," etc.), the idea of the hippopotamus being predominant. In Job 40:17 "the tail like a cedar" hardly applies to the elephant (so also Job 40:20;...

15-24 God, for the further proving of his own power, describes two vast animals, far exceeding man in bulk and strength. Behemoth signifies beasts. Most understand it of an animal well known in Egypt, called the river-horse, or hippopotamus. This vast animal is noticed as an argument to humble ourselves before the great God; for he created this vast animal, which is so fearfully and wonderfully made. Whatever strength this or any other creature has, it is derived from God. He that made the soul of man, knows all the ways to it, and can make the sword of justice, his wrath, to approach and touch it. Every godly man has spiritual weapons, the whole armour of God, to resist, yea, to overcome the tempter, that his never-dying soul may be safe, whatever becomes of his frail flesh and mortal body....

Verse Job 40:20. _THE MOUNTAINS BRING HIM FORTH FOOD_] It cannot therefore be the _hippopotamus_, as he is seldom found far from the rivers where he has his chief residence. _WHERE ALL THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD PLAY._] He frequents those places where he can have most _prey_. He makes a mock of all the beasts of the field. They can neither resist his _power_, nor escape from his _agility_. All this answers to what we know of the _mammoth_, but not at all to the _hippopotamus_....

SURELY THE MOUNTAINS BRING HIM FORTH FOOD - That is, though he lies commonly among the reeds and fens, and is in the water a considerable portion of his time, yet he also wanders to the mountains, and finds his food there. But the point of the remark here does not seem to be, that the mountains brought forth food for him, but that he gathered it “while all the wild beasts played around him, or sported in his very presence.” It was remarkable that an animal so large and mighty, and armed with such a set of teeth, should not be carnivorous, and that the wild beasts on the mountains should continue their sports without danger or alarm in his very presence. This fact could be accounted for partly because the “motions” of the hippopotamus were so very slow and clumsy that the wild beasts had nothing to fear from him, and could easily escape from him if he were disposed to attack them, and par...

EXPOSITION JOB 40:1 Between the first and the second part of the Divine discourse, at the end of which Job wholly humbles himself (Job 42:1), is interposed a short appeal on the part of tile Almighty, and a short reply on Job's part, which, however, is insufficient. God calls upon Job to make good his charges (verses 1, 2). Job declines, acknowledges himself to be of no account, and promises silence and submission for the future (verses 3-5). But something more is needed; and therefore the discourse is further prolonged. JOB 40:1, JOB 40:2 Moreover the Lord

SURELY THE MOUNTAINS BRING HIM FORTH FOOD,.... Grass, which grows on mountains, and is the food of the river horse as well as of the elephant; and therefore is furnished with teeth like a scythe to mow it down; and it is not a small quantity that will suffice it, mountains only can supply it; and marvellous it is that a creature bred in a river should come out of it to seek its food on mountains. There is a creature in the northern parts, as in Russia, Greenland, c. which is called morss and sea morss, and by the description of it is much like the river horse, of the size of an ox, and having an head like one, with two large long teeth standing out of its upper jaw, and an hairy skin a, said to be an inch thick, and so tough that no lance will enter it b it comes out of the sea, and by its teeth gets up to the tops of mountains, and having fed on grass rolls itself down again into the se...

CHAPTER 40 _ 1. The answer demanded (Job 40:1)_ 2. Job's answer (Job 40:3) 3. Jehovah's appeal to Job (Job 40:6) 4. Behold behemoth! (Job 40:15) Job 40:1. Now comes the direct word of Jehovah out of the storm-cloud to Job. He addresses him as “he that reproveth God.” He had contended with the Almighty and now the Almighty Job had judged faces him and demands an answer. Let him answer. Job 40:3. And Job answers; and what an answer it is! It is the answer for which

JOB 40:15 TO JOB 41:34. BEHEMOTH AND LEVIATHAN. Most scholars regard this passage as a later addition to the poem. The point of Job 40:8 is God's reply to Job's criticism of His righteousness; the description of these beasts, however, illustrates at great length man's impotence, which is only a secondary thought in the previous Divine speech. They therefore divert attention from the main issue. Moreover, there is a great difference between these descriptions and those of Job 38:39 to Job 39:30. Here the descriptions are heavy and laboured, gaining their effect, such as it is, by an a

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 rul

2. Jehovah relates more marvels of his creation. (Job 40:15, Job 41:34) TEXT 40:15-24 15 BEHOLD NOW, BEHEMOTH, WHICH I MADE AS WELL AS THEE; He eateth grass as an ox. 16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, And his force is in the muscles of his belly. 17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: The sinews of his thighs are knit together. 18 His bones are _as_ tubes of brass; His limbs are like bars of iron. 19 He is the chief of the ways of God: He _only_ that made him giveth him his sword. 20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, Where all the beasts of the field do play. 21 He lieth under the lotus-trees, In the covert of the reed, and the fen. 22 The lotus-trees cover him with their shade; The willows of th