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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Job 40 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/job/40.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/job/40.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/job/40-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../job/">Job</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../job/39.htm" title="Job 39">◄</a> Job 40 <a href="../job/41.htm" title="Job 41">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-1.htm">Job 40:1</a></div><div class="verse">Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,</div> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-2.htm">Job 40:2</a></div><div class="verse">Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct <i>him</i>? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.</div>XL.</span><p>(2) <span class= "bld">Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">Can he that reproveth </span>(<span class= "ital">e. g., </span>Job) <span class= "ital">contend with the Almighty? </span>or, <span class= "ital">Can the contending with the Almighty instruct Him? </span>“Art thou prepared still to dispute and contend with God? or, if thou dost, is there any hope that thou wilt instruct (<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, convince) Him in argument? Let him that argueth with God (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>Job) answer this question.” It might, perhaps, tend to make these verses (<a href="/context/job/40-4.htm" title="Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer you? I will lay my hand on my mouth.">Job 40:4-5</a>) more effective if we transposed them after <a href="/job/42-6.htm" title="Why I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.">Job 42:6</a>, and regarded them as the very climax of the poem, as some have done. But this is not necessary, and is an arrangement that has no support from external evidence. If, however, it were adopted, Job’s resolution, “Once have I spoken; but I will speak no more: yea, twice; but I will not again” (<a href="/job/40-5.htm" title="Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yes, twice; but I will proceed no further.">Job 40:5</a>), would not be literally inconsistent, as it now is, with what he says in <a href="/context/job/42-1.htm" title="Then Job answered the LORD, and said,">Job 42:1-6</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-8.htm">Job 40:8</a></div><div class="verse">Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Wilt thou also disannul my judgment?</span>—Comp. what Job said in <a href="/context/job/19-6.htm" title="Know now that God has overthrown me, and has compassed me with his net.">Job 19:6-7</a>; <a href="/job/27-2.htm" title="As God lives, who has taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who has vexed my soul;">Job 27:2</a>. God is about to show Job his inability to govern the world and administer judgment among men, so as to rule them morally, from his acknowledged inability to govern the more formidable animals of the brute creation. If he cannot restrain them, how is it likely that he will be able to tread down the wicked in their place? And if he cannot hold the wicked in check and compel them to submission, how, any more, can he protect himself from their violence? how can he save himself from the outbursts of their fury? or, if not save himself from them, how much less can he deliver himself from the hand of God? If he cannot hide them in the dust together, and bind them (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>restrain the threatenings of their rage in the hidden world) in the secret prison-house, how much less can he save himself, and be independent of the help of a saviour?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-15.htm">Job 40:15</a></div><div class="verse">Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Behemoth.</span>—The identification of behemoth has always been a great difficulty with commentators. The word in Hebrew is really the natural plural of behēmāh, which means <span class= "ital">domestic cattle; </span>and this fact would suggest the idea that more than one animal may be meant in the description (<a href="/context/job/40-15.htm" title="Behold now behemoth, which I made with you; he eats grass as an ox.">Job 40:15-24</a>), which scarcely seems to answer to one and the same. In this way the <a href="/context/job/40-15.htm" title="Behold now behemoth, which I made with you; he eats grass as an ox.">Job 40:15-20</a> would describe very well the elephant, and <a href="/context/job/40-21.htm" title="He lies under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.">Job 40:21-24</a> the hippopotamus. The objection to this is, that behēmāh is commonly used of domestic cattle in contrast to wild beasts, whereas neither the elephant nor the hippopotamus can come under the category of domestic animals. There is a word in Coptic (p-ehe-emmou, meaning water-ox), used for the hippopotamus, which may, perhaps, lie concealed in behemoth. Then the difficulty is to make the description answer throughout to the hippopotamus (<span class= "ital">e.g., </span><a href="/job/40-20.htm" title="Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.">Job 40:20</a>), since the hippopotamus does not frequent mountains, neither does it exactly eat grass like an ox (<a href="/job/40-15.htm" title="Behold now behemoth, which I made with you; he eats grass as an ox.">Job 40:15</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Which I made with thee.</span>—Fellow-creatures of thine, to inhabit the world with thee: thus skilfully reminding him that he had a common origin with the beasts.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-16.htm">Job 40:16</a></div><div class="verse">Lo now, his strength <i>is</i> in his loins, and his force <i>is</i> in the navel of his belly.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">In the navel.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">in the sinews, or muscles.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-17.htm">Job 40:17</a></div><div class="verse">He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.</div>(</span>17<span class= "ital">)</span> <span class= "bld">The sinews of his stones.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">of his thighs.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-18.htm">Job 40:18</a></div><div class="verse">His bones <i>are as</i> strong pieces of brass; his bones <i>are</i> like bars of iron.</div>(</span>18<span class= "ital">)</span> <span class= "bld">Strong pieces.</span>—Or, perhaps, <span class= "ital">tubes. </span>His limbs are like bars of iron.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-19.htm">Job 40:19</a></div><div class="verse">He <i>is</i> the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach <i>unto him</i>.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">He is the chief of the ways of God.</span>—This is surely more applicable to the elephant than the hippopotamus, considering the great intelligence and usefulness of the elephant. The last clause is very obscure. Some render, “He only that made him can bring his sword near unto him;” or, “He that made him hath furnished him with his sword.” Others, “He that would dress him (as meat) let him come near him with his sword !” indicating the inequality of the contest. Perhaps a combination of the first and last is best—“Let his Maker (but no one else venture to) approach him with His sword.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-21.htm">Job 40:21</a></div><div class="verse">He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">He lieth under the shady trees.</span>—If this description applies to any <span class= "ital">one </span>animal, it seems on the whole more appropriate to the elephant than the hippopotamus. No doubt the judgment of critics has been biased by their pre-conceived notions about the circumstances under which they suppose the Book of Job to have been written; and the author was more likely, it is thought, to have been acquainted with the river-horse of Egypt than with the elephant of India, though, to be sure, elephants abound also in Africa, and may very well have been known to the writer of Job from that quarter, if the other is less likely.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-23.htm">Job 40:23</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, he drinketh up a river, <i>and</i> hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Behold, he drinketh up a river.</span>—This verse is better rendered, <span class= "ital">Behold, if a river overflow </span>(or, <span class= "ital">is violent</span>)<span class= "ital">, he trembleth not </span>(or, <span class= "ital">hasteneth not</span>)<span class= "ital">; he is confident, though Jordan swell up to his mouth.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/40-24.htm">Job 40:24</a></div><div class="verse">He taketh it with his eyes: <i>his</i> nose pierceth through snares.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">His nose pierceth through snares.</span>—Some render, “Shall any take him with snares? while he is looking, shall any pierce through his nose?” The sense seems to be rather, <span class= "ital">Let one take him by his eyes: i.e., </span>by allurements placed before him, as elephants are taken. <span class= "ital">By means of snares one may pierce his nose. </span>The Authorised Version seems to be less probably right.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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