Job 40–42

CHAPTER 40

Job Places His Hand Over His Mouth

¹Then Yahweh answered Job and said,

²“Will the faultfinder ^acontend with the Almighty?

Let him who ^breproves God answer it.”

³Then Job answered Yahweh and said,

⁴“Behold, I am insignificant; what can I respond to You?

I ^aplace my hand over my mouth.

⁵“Once I have spoken, and ^aI will not answer;

Even twice, and I will add nothing more.”

Yahweh Will Ask Job

⁶Then ^aYahweh answered Job out of the ¹whirlwind and said,

⁷“Now ^agird up your loins like a man;

I will ^bask you, and you make Me know.

⁸“Will you really ^aannul My judgment?

Will you ^bcondemn Me ^cthat you may be justified?

⁹“Or do you have an arm like God,

And can you ^athunder with a voice like His?

¹⁰“^aAdorn yourself with exaltation and loftiness,

And clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.

¹¹“Pour out ^athe overflowings of your anger,

And look on everyone who is ^bproud, and make him low.

¹²“Look on everyone who is proud, and ^ahumble him,

And ^btread down the wicked ¹in their place.

¹³“^aHide them in the dust together;

Bind their faces in the hidden place.

¹⁴“Then I will also praise you,

That your own right hand can save you.

Behold the Behemoth

¹⁵“Behold now, ¹Behemoth, which ^aI made along with you;

It eats grass like an ox.

¹⁶“Behold now, its power in its loins

And its vigor in the muscles of its belly.

¹⁷“It hangs its tail like a cedar;

The sinews of its thighs are knit together.

¹⁸“Its bones are tubes of bronze;

Its ¹limbs are like bars of iron.

¹⁹“It is the ^afirst of the ways of God;

Let its ^bMaker bring near its sword.

²⁰“Surely the mountains ^abring it food,

And all the beasts of the field ^bplay there.

²¹“Under the lotus plants it lies down,

In the hidden place of the reeds and the marsh.

²²“The lotus plants cover it with ¹shade;

The willows of the brook surround it.

²³“If a river oppresses, it is not alarmed;

It is secure, though the ^aJordan bursts forth to its mouth.

²⁴“Can anyone capture it before its eyes,

With snares can anyone pierce its nose?

CHAPTER 41

Can You Draw Out Leviathan?

¹“¹Can you draw out ^2aLeviathan with a fishhook?

Or press down its tongue with a cord?

²“Can you ^aput a ¹rope in its nose

Or pierce its jaw with a ²hook?

³“Will it make many supplications to you,

Or will he speak to you soft words?

⁴“Will it cut a covenant with you?

Will you take it for a slave forever?

⁵“Will you play with it as with a bird,

Or will you bind it for your young women?

⁶“Will the ¹traders bargain over it?

Will they divide it among the merchants?

⁷“Can you fill its skin with harpoons,

Or its head with fishing spears?

⁸“Place your hand on it;

Remember the battle; ¹you will not do that again!

⁹“¹Behold, ²his expectation is a lie;

Will ³he be laid low even at the sight of it?

¹⁰“No one is so fierce that he dares to ^aarouse it;

Who then is he that can stand before Me?

¹¹“Who has ^1agiven to Me that I should repay him?

Whatever is ^bunder the whole heaven is Mine.

¹²“I will not keep silence concerning its limbs,

Or its mighty strength or its graceful frame.

¹³“Who can ¹strip off its ²outer armor?

Who can come with its doubled ³bridle?

¹⁴“Who can open the doors of its face?

Around its teeth there is dreadful terror.

¹⁵“Its ¹strong scales are its pride,

Shut up as with a tight seal.

¹⁶“One is so near to another

That no air can come between them.

¹⁷“They cling one to another;

They are interlocked and cannot be separated.

¹⁸“Its sneezes flash forth light,

And its eyes are like the ^aeyelids of the morning.

¹⁹“Out of its mouth go burning torches;

Sparks of fire ¹leap forth.

²⁰“Out of its nostrils smoke goes forth

As from a boiling pot and burning reeds.

²¹“Its breath kindles coals,

And a flame goes forth from its mouth.

²²“In its neck lodges strength,

And dismay leaps before it.

²³“The folds of its flesh cling together,

Hardened upon it and is not shaken.

²⁴“Its heart is as hard as a stone,

Even as hard as a lower millstone.

²⁵“When it raises itself up, the ¹mighty fear,

Because of the crashing they are ²bewildered.

²⁶“The sword that reaches it cannot avail,

Nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

²⁷“It regards iron as straw,

Bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸“The ¹arrow cannot make it flee;

Slingstones are turned into stubble for it.

²⁹“Clubs are regarded as stubble;

It laughs at the rattling of the javelin.

³⁰“Its underparts are like sharp potsherds;

It ¹spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mire.

³¹“It makes the depths boil like a pot;

It makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

³²“Behind it, it makes a wake to shine;

One would think the deep to be gray-haired.

³³“^aThere is nothing upon the ¹dust like it,

One made without terror.

³⁴“¹It looks on everything that is high;

It is king over all the ^asons of pride.”

CHAPTER 42

Job Repents in Dust and Ashes

¹Then Job answered Yahweh and said,

²“I know that ^aYou can do all things,

And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.

³‘Who is this that ^ahides counsel without knowledge?’

Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,

Things ^btoo marvelous for me, which I did not know.

⁴‘Hear, now, and I will speak;

I will ^aask You, and You make me know.’

⁵“I have ^aheard of You by the hearing of the ear;

But now my ^beye sees You;

⁶Therefore I reject myself,

And I repent in dust and ashes.”

Yahweh’s Anger Towards Job’s Friends

⁷Now it happened after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, that Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger burns against you and against your two friends because you have not spoken of Me what is right ^aas My servant Job has.

⁸“So now, take for yourselves ^aseven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a ^bburnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will ^cpray for you. ^dFor I will ¹accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as Yahweh told them; and Yahweh ¹accepted Job.

Yahweh Restores Job’s Fortunes

¹⁰And Yahweh ^arestored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and Yahweh increased all that Job had twofold.

¹¹Then all his ^abrothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they ^bconsoled him and comforted him for all the calamity that Yahweh had brought on him. And each one gave him one ¹qesitah, and each a ring of gold.

^12aAnd Yahweh blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; ^band he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 pairs of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys.

^13aHe also had seven sons and three daughters.

¹⁴And he named the first Jemimah and the second Keziah and the third Keren-happuch.

¹⁵Now in all the land no women were found so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers.

¹⁶And after this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations.

^17aThen Job died, an old man and full of days.