Job · chapter 40 of 42
Updated on
In Job 40 the Lord asks whether the one who faults the Almighty will correct him, and Job answers that he is small and puts his hand over his mouth. Then the Lord speaks again from the whirlwind: he asks Job whether he will condemn him to justify himself and whether he has an arm like God's. Then he invites him to look at Behemoth, a mighty creature God made just as he made Job.
Chapter 40 ends the Lord's first speech and begins the second. It is a chapter of change: Job, who had asked so many times for God to answer him, now falls silent. God does not stop there. He asks more of him and leads him to look at a creature that seems beyond control, to show that he sustains even what frightens most.
The Lord asks Job whether the one who contends with the Almighty will correct him, and tells him to answer (vv. 1-2). Job answers in few words: I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further (vv. 3-5).
The Lord speaks again from the whirlwind and repeats the challenge: dress for action like a man. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? He asks whether Job has an arm like God's and can thunder with a voice like his. He invites him to adorn himself with majesty and glory, to pour out the overflowings of his anger, to look on everyone who is proud and abase him, to tread down the wicked where they stand and bury them in the dust. Then, he says, I will also acknowledge that your own right hand can save you (vv. 6-14).
Next the Lord invites him to look at Behemoth, which he made just as he made Job. He eats grass like an ox, and his strength is in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar, the sinews of his thighs are knit together, his bones are tubes of bronze and bars of iron. He is the first of the works of God; only his Maker can approach him with the sword. The hills bring him food, where all the wild beasts play. Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh. If the river rages, he is not alarmed; who can capture him when he is on watch (vv. 15-24)?
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord asks whether the one who contends with the Almighty will correct him and tells him to answer. It is not mockery but an invitation to see proportions: Job had wanted to judge God, and God leads him to consider who each of them is.
Job answers that he is of small account and puts his hand over his mouth. He admits he has spoken much and will add nothing. It is the first step toward the repentance and trust that will appear in chapter 42.
The Lord asks whether Job will annul his judgment and condemn him in order to justify himself. It touches the delicate point: in his desire to defend his innocence, Job had come to question God's justice.
The Lord invites Job to look at Behemoth, whom he made just as he made Job. The creature shares Job's origin: both are God's work, and Behemoth, impressive in strength, is only a creature.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Whether the one who contends with the Almighty will correct him. — Job 40:2
Answer: As of small account; he lays his hand on his mouth. — Job 40:4
Answer: He will add nothing more: he spoke once and will not answer, and twice. — Job 40:5
Answer: Whether Job will annul it and condemn him in order to justify himself. — Job 40:8
Answer: That Job's own right hand can save him. — Job 40:14
Answer: Grass, like an ox. — Job 40:15
Job 40 shows a man who, before God, knows how to be silent. Sometimes the most honest answer before mystery is not an argument but silence and trust. In a small group this chapter can encourage us to distinguish between bringing a lament to God and demanding an account from him as if we stood at his height.
It also tells us that God does not fear Job's questions but asks him to look beyond himself. Before what we cannot control, the Lord is still the one who made it. For the believer, certainty is not being able to master the world but knowing that the one who made and sustains it cares for us.
Job 40 ends with Behemoth, the first of God's works, and an open question about who can capture him. In chapter 41 the Lord will present an even more fearsome creature, Leviathan, and Job will finally answer in chapter 42.
The text does not identify it with certainty. Many connect it with the hippopotamus; others with the elephant or a symbolic creature of creation's power. What matters for the book is that it is a work of God, strong and beyond Job's control.
Because he understands he had spoken of things he did not understand. It is not a defeat but a first step of humility. His full repentance will come in Job 42:1-6, when he admits he spoke without understanding.
It is an ironic challenge: if Job could govern the world and judge the proud as God does, then God would admit his hand saves him. Since he cannot, it is clear that the world's salvation and justice depend on God.