Chapter 41

God’s Power Shown in Creatures

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

Or press down his tongue with a cord?

2 “Can you aput a 1rope in his nose

Or pierce his jaw with a 2hook?

3 “Will he make many supplications to you,

Or will he speak to you soft words?

4 “Will he make a covenant with you?

Will you take him for a servant forever?

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

Or will you bind him for your maidens?

6 “Will the 1traders bargain over him?

Will they divide him among the merchants?

7 “Can you fill his skin with harpoons,

Or his head with fishing spears?

8 “Lay your hand on him;

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

9 “1Behold, 2your expectation is false;

Will 3you be laid low even at the sight of him?

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

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 his limbs,

Or his mighty strength, or his 1orderly frame.

13 “Who can 1strip off his outer armor?

Who can come within his double 2mail?

14 “Who can open the doors of his face?

Around his teeth there is terror.

15 “His 1strong scales are his pride,

Shut up as with a tight seal.

16 “One is so near to another

That no air can come between them.

17 “They are joined one to another;

They clasp each other and cannot be separated.

18 “His sneezes flash forth light,

And his eyes are like the aeyelids of the morning.

19 “Out of his mouth go burning torches;

Sparks of fire leap forth.

20 “Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth

As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

21 “His breath kindles coals,

And a flame goes forth from his mouth.

22 “In his neck lodges strength,

And dismay leaps before him.

23 “The folds of his flesh are joined together,

Firm on him and immovable.

24 “His heart is as hard as a stone,

Even as hard as a lower millstone.

25 “When he raises himself up, the 1mighty fear;

Because of the crashing they are bewildered.

26 “The sword that reaches him cannot avail,

Nor the spear, the dart or the javelin.

27 “He regards iron as straw,

Bronze as rotten wood.

28 “The 1arrow cannot make him flee;

Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.

29 “Clubs are regarded as stubble;

He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.

30 “His underparts are like sharp potsherds;

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

31 “He makes the depths boil like a pot;

He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

32 “Behind him he makes a wake to shine;

One would think the deep to be gray-haired.

33 “aNothing on 1earth is like him,

One made without fear.

34 “1He looks on everything that is high;

He is king over all the asons of pride.”

Chapter 42

Job’s Confession

1 Then Job answered the Lord 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 wonderful for me, which I did not know.”

4 ‘Hear, now, and I will speak;

I will aask You, and You instruct me.’

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

But now my beye sees You;

6 Therefore I retract,

And I repent in dust and ashes.”

God Displeased with Job’s Friends

7 It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right aas My servant Job has.

8 “Now therefore, 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.”

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

God Restores Job’s Fortunes

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

11 Then 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 adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him one 1piece of money, and each a ring of gold.

12 aThe Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; band he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys.

13 aHe had seven sons and three daughters.

14 He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.

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

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

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

THE PSALMS

The following expressions occur often in the Psalms:

Selah May mean Pause, Crescendo or Musical Interlude

Maskil Possibly, Contemplative, or Didactic, or Skillful Psalm

Mikhtam Possibly, Epigrammatic Poem, or Atonement Psalm

Sheol The nether world