Job 40King James Version
God pauses. Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? Job says, 'Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.' Then God describes behemoth, a vast creature whose tail moves like a cedar, whose bones are like bars of iron.
God pauses and asks Job to answer. Job says he will say nothing; he puts his hand over his mouth. God resumes: do you have an arm like God's? Can you abase the proud? Can you put them down with a look? Then God describes Behemoth, a great beast made with Job, eating grass like an ox, bones like iron, tail like a cedar, lying in the reeds, its strength in its loins. Only God can approach it with a sword.
Job cannot answer God's questions. His silence is not defeat; it is the first appropriate response Job has made to the divine presence. Then God points to Behemoth: something made alongside Job that dwarfs him.
9: "Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?" God's challenge to Job is not a punishment but an invitation to recognize the scale of what Job has been arguing with.
Behemoth in the Jordan region, lying under lotus and willow trees, drawing up water: the hippopotamus was known in ancient Egypt and may have ranged further north into the Levant in earlier millennia. Ancient Near Eastern iconography often depicted hippos as powerful, untameable creatures. God made this. Job did not.
Job speaks for the first time since God began: two verses of submission and silence. God continues. Behemoth appears as a creature made alongside humanity that operates on a completely different scale.
Behemoth (likely hippopotamus, though possibly a mythological chaos creature) is the first of two great creatures God points to as evidence of his creative power beyond human comprehension. The point is not to frighten Job but to situate him correctly in the created order.
Job's hand over his mouth is not defeat or shame; it is the beginning of a different kind of knowing. The man who has been asking for an audience with God has the audience, and what he discovers is that the audience itself is the answer.
1Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
2Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
3Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
4Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
5Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
6Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
7Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
8Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
9Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
10Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.
11Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.
12Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.
13Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.
14Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.
15Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
16Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
17He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
18His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
19He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
20Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
21He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
22The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
23Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
24He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.