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Piercing Leviathan: God’s Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job is unavailable, but you can change that!

One of the most challenging passages in the Old Testament book of Job comes in the Lord’s second speech (40–41). The characters and the reader have waited a long time for the Lord to speak—only to read what is traditionally interpreted as a long description of a hippopotamus and crocodile (Behemoth and Leviathan). The stakes are very high: is God right to run the world in such a way that allows...

Job finishes his opening lament by saying there is no reason for him to continue with life. He cannot participate in normal life (symbolized in v. 24 by eating) and finds no resolution or closure anywhere (v. 26; the triple negative is especially affecting).31 The last word of the verse, usually translated ‘trouble’ or ‘turmoil’, is more troubling than either, for it often refers to the waters of chaos (Exod. 15:10; Pss 29:3; 93:4; Isa. 17:12–13; Hab. 3:2, 16). Chaos has entered Job, and he has entered
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