Job

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40 
Then[a] Yahweh answered Job and said,
2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with Shaddai?

Anyone who argues with God must answer it.”

Job Responds to Yahweh

3 So Job answered Yahweh and said,

4 “Look, I am insignificant.

What shall I answer you?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

5 Once I have spoken, and I will not answer;

even[b] twice, but[c] I will not proceed.”

Yahweh Challenges Job Again

6 Then[d] Yahweh answered Job from the storm, and he said,

7 “Prepare yourself for a difficult task like a man,[e]

and I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

Yahweh Interrogates Job Again

8 “Indeed, would you annul my justice?

Would you condemn me, so that you might be righteous?

9 Or do you have an arm like God,

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

10 Adorn[f] yourself with pride and dignity,

and clothe yourself with splendor.

11 Pour out the overflowing of your anger,

and look at all the proud, and humble them.

12 Look at all the proud, humble them,

and tread down the wicked where they stand.[g]

13 Hide them in the dust together;

bind their faces in the grave.

14 And I will also praise you,

that your own right hand can save you.

15 “Look, Behemoth,[h] which I have made just as I made you;

it eats grass like the ox.

16 Look, its strength is in its loins

and its power in the muscles of its stomach.

17 It keeps its tail straight like a cedar;

the sinews of its thighs are tightly wound.

18 Its bones are tubes of copper,

its limbs like rods of iron.

19 “It is the first of God’s actions;

the one who made him furnishes it with his sword.[i]

20 Yes, the mountains yield produce for it,

and all wild animals[j] play there.

21 Under the lotus tree it lies,

in the hiding place of the reeds and in the marsh.

22 The lotus trees cover it with their shade;

the wadi’s[k] poplar trees surround it.

23 Look, if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened;

it is confident even though the Jordan rushes against its mouth.

24 Can anyone take it by its eyes?

Can he pierce its nose with a snare?

Footnotes

  1. Job 40:1 Hebrew “And”
  2. Job 40:5 Hebrew “And”
  3. Job 40:5 Or “and”
  4. Job 40:6 Or “And”
  5. Job 40:7 Literally “Gird up like a man your loins”
  6. Job 40:10 The particle sometimes translated “please” is present, but an almighty God or sovereign king does not say “please” when commanding his subjects
  7. Job 40:12 Literally “in place of them”
  8. Job 40:15 Some interpret as a hippopotamus
  9. Job 40:19 See NET; nearly all other English translations: “Only his Maker can draw the sword against him” (NJPS; compare NLT), or “only its Maker can approach it with the sword” (NRSV, NIV, ESV, HCSB, NASU)
  10. Job 40:20 Literally “all the animals of the field”
  11. Job 40:22 A seasonal stream that is often dry