Job 40:20

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Job 40:15-24

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 40:8-2 Chronicles : 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... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Job 40:20

Though this creature be vastly great, and require much food, and no man careth for it; yet God provides for it out of his own stores, and makes even desert mountains to afford him sufficient sustenance. The hippopotamus also, though he live most in the water, fetched his food from the land, and from the mountains or hills, which are nigh unto the river Nile. Where all the beasts of the field play; they not only feed securely, but sport themselves by him or with him, being taught by experience... read more

Joseph Exell

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - Job 40:1-24

NotesJob 40:15. “Behold turn behemoth.” Various opinions as to what is meant by the term “behemoth.” According to GESENIUS, בְּהֵמוֹת (behemoth) is the plural of בְּהֵמָה (behemah, from the unused Root בָהַס baham = بهم in the Xth conjugation, “to be dumb”), a quadruped of the larger sort, living on the land; here the plural of majesty, denoting a large quadruped: the hippopotamus. So BOCHART: the river-horse or hippopotamus; like the Leviathan, an inhabitant of the Nile: the termination וֹת... read more

Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith Bible Commentary - Job 40:1-24

Chapter 40Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said, Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct him? ( Job 40:1-2 )"Job, are you trying to instruct me?" Isn't that ridiculous? Can you think of anybody trying to instruct God? How foolish! But you're looking at one. How many times I've tried to instruct God. "Now, God, this is the way I see it, and I think You ought to work it out this way." "Lord, why aren't you doing it this way?" I have been so foolish thinking that I can instruct God,... read more

Joseph Sutcliffe

Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments - Job 40:1-24

Job 40:4 . Behold, I am vile. Job boldly answered his friends; but when the Lord speaks, he lays his mouth in the dust. Job 40:15 . Behold now behemoth. Here sacred criticism is divided in opinion; and not less than about the unicorn and the rhinoceros. The ancients believed that the behemoth, ta therial, the beast, was an elephant. The description of this noble animal is too large to be transcribed here. It should be remarked that there is little of hyperbole in the description of... read more

Joseph Exell

The Biblical Illustrator - Job 40:1-24

Job 40:1-24Moreover, the Lord answered Job, and said.Jehovah’s answerIts language has reached, at times, the “high-water mark” of poetry and beauty. Nothing can exceed its dignity, its force, its majesty, the freshness and vigour of some of its pictures of nature and of life. But what shall we say next? It is no answer, we may say, to Job’s agonised pleadings. It is no answer to the riddle and problem which the experience and history of human life suggests, even to ourselves. Quite true. There... read more

John Trapp

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Job 40:20

Job 40:20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. Ver. 20. Surely the mountains briny him forth food ] And food enough, though he be of a huge body. Learn we to trust unto God’s providence for our necessary provision: the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. See Job 40:15 . Where all the beasts of the field play ] And play they may securely for him; for he is so far from using his sword to destroy them, that when he is to pass through the... read more

Samuel Bagster

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge - Job 40:20

the mountains: Job 40:15, Psalms 147:8, Psalms 147:9 where: Psalms 104:14, Psalms 104:26 Reciprocal: Genesis 1:30 - General Genesis 6:21 - General Job 39:8 - General read more

John Wesley

Wesley's Explanatory Notes - Job 40:20

Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.Mountains — Though he lives most in the water, yet he often fetches his food from the land, and from the mountains or hills, which are nigh the river Nile.Play — They not only feed securely, but sport themselves by him, being taught by experience that he is gentle and harmless. read more

Daniel Whedon

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Job 40:20

20. Surely Yet; used adversatively. The mountains Ezekiel (Ezekiel 43:15) calls the altar a הר , “mountain” of God. The word הרים may also mean “hills.” In the Praeneste pavement, hippopotami are pictured on eminences. “Not only do these animals visit the margin of the river,” says Sir Samuel Baker, “but they wander at night to great distances from the water, attracted by good pasturage; and, although clumsy and ungainly in appearance, they clamber up steep banks and precipitous... read more

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