Job 40 commentary

Communion with the Lord effectually convinces and humbles a saint, and makes him glad to part with his most beloved sins. There is need to be thoroughly convinced and humbled, to prepare us for remarkable deliverances. After God had shown Job, by his manifest ignorance of the works of nature, how unable he was to judge of the methods and designs of Providence, he puts a convincing question to him; Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? Now Job began to melt into godly sorrow: when his friends reasoned with him, he did not yield; but the voice of the Lord is powerful. When the Spirit of truth is come, he shall convince. Job yields himself to the grace of God. He owns himself an offender, and has nothing to say to justify himself. He is now sensible that he has sinned; and therefore he calls himself vile. Repentance changes men's opinion of themselves. Job is now convinced of his error. Those who are truly sensible of their own sinfulness and vileness, dare not justify themselves before God. He perceived that he was a poor, mean, foolish, and sinful creature, who ought not to have uttered one word against the Divine conduct. One glimpse of God's holy nature would appal the stoutest rebel. How, then will the wicked bear the sight of his glory at the day of judgment? But when we see this glory revealed in Jesus Christ, we shall be humbled without being terrified; self-abasement agrees with filial love. (Job 40:6-14)

Those who profit by what they have heard from God, shall hear more from him. And those who are truly convinced of sin, yet need to be more thoroughly convinced and more humbled. No doubt God, and he only, has power to humble and bring down proud men; he has wisdom to know when and how to do it, and it is not for us to teach him how to govern the world. Our own hands cannot save us by recommending us to God's grace, much less rescuing us from his justice; and therefore into his hand we must commit ourselves. The renewal of a believer proceeds in the same way of conviction, humbling, and watchfulness against remaining sin, as his first conversion. When convinced of many evils in our conduct, we still need convincing of many more.

God, for the further proving of his own power, describes two vast animals, far exceeding man in bulk and strength. Behemoth signifies beasts. Most understand it of an animal well known in Egypt, called the river-horse, or hippopotamus. This vast animal is noticed as an argument to humble ourselves before the great God; for he created this vast animal, which is so fearfully and wonderfully made. Whatever strength this or any other creature has, it is derived from God. He that made the soul of man, knows all the ways to it, and can make the sword of justice, his wrath, to approach and touch it. Every godly man has spiritual weapons, the whole armour of God, to resist, yea, to overcome the tempter, that his never-dying soul may be safe, whatever becomes of his frail flesh and mortal body.

CHAPTER 40

Job 40:1-24. God's Second Address.

He had paused for a reply, but Job was silent.

1. the Lord--Hebrew, "Jehovah."

2. he that contendeth--as Job had so often expressed a wish to do. Or, rebuketh. Does Job now still (after seeing and hearing of God's majesty and wisdom) wish to set God right?

answer it--namely, the questions I have asked.

3. Lord--Jehovah.

4. I am (too) vile (to reply). It is a very different thing to vindicate ourselves before God, from what it is before men. Job could do the latter, not the former.

lay ... hand ... upon ... mouth--I have no plea to offer (Job 21:5; Jud 18:19).

5. Once ... twice--oftentimes, more than once (Job 33:14, compare with Job 33:29; Psa 62:11):

I have spoken--namely, against God.

not answer--not plead against Thee.

6. the Lord--Jehovah.

7. (See on Job 38:3). Since Job has not only spoken against God, but accused Him of injustice, God challenges him to try, could he govern the world, as God by His power doth, and punish the proud and wicked (Job 40:7-14).

8. Wilt thou not only contend with, but set aside My judgment or justice in the government of the world?

condemn--declare Me unrighteous, in order that thou mayest be accounted righteous (innocent; undeservingly afflicted).

9. arm--God's omnipotence (Is 53:1).

thunder--God's voice (Job 37:4).

10. See, hast thou power and majesty like God's, to enable thee to judge and govern the world?

11. rage--rather, pour out the redundant floods of, &c.

behold--Try, canst thou, as God, by a mere glance abase the proud (Is 2:12, &c.)?

12. proud--high (Da 4:37).

in their place--on the spot; suddenly, before they can move from their place. (See on Job 34:26; Job 36:20).

13. (Is 2:10). Abase and remove them out of the sight of men.

bind ... faces--that is, shut up their persons [Maurer]. But it refers rather to the custom of binding a cloth over the faces of persons about to be executed (Job 9:24; Es 7:8).

in secret--consign them to darkness.

14. confess--rather, "extol"; "I also," who now censure thee. But since thou canst not do these works, thou must, instead of censuring, extol My government.

thine own ... hand ... save--(Psa 44:3). So as to eternal salvation by Jesus Christ (Is 59:16; 63:5).

15-24. God shows that if Job cannot bring under control the lower animals (of which he selects the two most striking, behemoth on land, leviathan in the water), much less is he capable of governing the world.

behemoth--The description in part agrees with the hippopotamus, in part with the elephant, but exactly in all details with neither. It is rather a poetical personification of the great Pachydermata, or Herbivora (so "he eateth grass"), the idea of the hippopotamus being predominant. In Job 40:17, "the tail like a cedar," hardly applies to the latter (so also Job 40:20, 23, "Jordan," a river which elephants alone could reach, but see on Job 40:23). On the other hand, Job 40:21, 22 are characteristic of the amphibious river horse. So leviathan (the twisting animal), Job 41:1, is a generalized term for cetacea, pythons, saurians of the neighboring seas and rivers, including the crocodile, which is the most prominent, and is often associated with the river horse by old writers. "Behemoth" seems to be the Egyptian Pehemout, "water-ox," Hebraized, so-called as being like an ox, whence the Italian bombarino.

with thee--as I made thyself. Yet how great the difference! The manifold wisdom and power of God!

he eateth grass--marvellous in an animal living so much in the water; also strange, that such a monster should not be carnivorous.

Moreover the Lord answered - That is, the Lord continued his discourse with Job. Answered does not refer to any thing said by Job, or any question asked. I think it very likely that this whole piece, from the beginning of this first verse to the end of the fourteenth, was originally the ending of the poem. Mr. Heath has noticed this, and I shall lay his words before the reader: "The former part of this chapter is evidently the conclusion of the poem; the latter part whereof seems to be in great disorder; whether it has happened from the carelessness of the transcriber, or, which appears most probable, from the skins of parchment composing the roll having by some accident changed their places. It is plain from the seventh verse of the forty-second chapter (Job 42:7) that Jehovah is the last speaker in the poem. If, then, immediately after the end of the thirty-ninth chapter, we subjoin the fifteenth verse of the forty-second chapter, and place the fourteen first verses of the fortieth chapter immediately after the sixth verse of the forty-second chapter, and by that means make them the conclusion of the poem, all will be right; and this seventh verse of the forty-second chapter will be in its natural order. The action will be complete by the judgment of the Almighty; and the catastrophe of the poem will be grand and solemn." To these reasons of Mr. Heath, Dr. Kennicott has added others, which the reader may find at the end of the chapter. (Job 40:24) Without taking any farther notice of the transposition in this place, I will continue the notes in the present order of the verses.

He that reproveth God, let him answer it - Let the man who has made so free with God and his government, answer to what he has now heard.

Behold, I am vile - I acknowledge my inward defilement. I cannot answer thee.

I will lay mine hand upon my mouth - I cannot excuse myself, and I must be dumb before thee.

Once have I spoken - See on Job 42:3 (note), etc.

I will proceed no farther - I shall attempt to justify myself no longer; I have spoken repeatedly; and am confounded at my want of respect for my Maker, and at the high thoughts which I have entertained of my own righteousness. All is impurity in the presence of thy Majesty.

Gird up thy loins - See Job 38:1-3. Some think that this and the preceding verse have been repeated here from Job 38:1-3, and that several of the words there, here, and Job 42:3, have been repeated, in after times, to connect some false gatherings of the sheets of parchment, on which the end of this poem was originally written. See on Job 40:1 (note), and at the end of the chapter.

Wilt thou condemn me - Rather than submit to be thought in the wrong, wilt thou condemn My conduct, in order to justify thyself? Some men will never acknowledge themselves in the wrong. "God may err, but we cannot," seems to be their impious maxim. Unwillingness to acknowledge a fault frequently leads men, directly or indirectly, to this sort of blasphemy. There are three words most difficult to be pronounced in all languages, - I Am Wrong.

Hast thou an arm like God? - Every word, from this to the end of Job 40:14, has a wonderful tendency to humble the soul; and it is no wonder that at the conclusion of these sayings Job fell in the dust confounded, and ascribed righteousness to his Maker.

Deck thyself now with majesty - Act like God, seeing thou hast been assuming to thyself perfections that belong to him alone.

Hide them in the dust together - Blend the high and the low, the rich and the poor, in one common ruin. Show them that thou art supreme, and canst do whatsoever thou pleasest.

Bind their faces in secret - This seems to refer to the custom of preserving mummies: the whole body is wrapped round with strong swathings of linen or cotton cloth. Not only the limbs, but the very head, face, and all, are rolled round with strong filleting, so that not one feature can be seen, not even the protuberance of the nose. On the outside of these involutions a human face is ordinarily painted; but as to the real face itself, it is emphatically bound in secret, for those rollers are never intended to be removed.

Thine own right hand can save thee - It is the prerogative of God alone to save the human soul. Nothing less than unlimited power, exerted under the direction and impulse of unbounded mercy, can save a sinner. This is most clearly asserted in this speech of Jehovah: When thou canst extend an arm like God, i.e., an uncontrollable power - when thou canst arm thyself with the lightning of heaven, and thunder with a voice like God - when thou canst deck thyself with the ineffable glory, beauty, and splendor of the supreme majesty of Jehovah - when thou canst dispense thy judgments over all the earth, to abase the proud, and tread down the wicked - when thou canst as having the keys of hell and death, blend the high and the low in the dust together; then I will acknowledge to thee that thy own right hand can save thee. In other words: Salvation belongeth unto the Lord; no man can save his own soul by works of righteousness which he has done, is doing, or can possibly do, to all eternity. Without Jesus every human spirit must have perished everlastingly. Glory be to God for his unspeakable gift!

Behold now behemoth - The word בהמות behemoth is the plural of בהמה behemah, which signifies cattle in general, or graminivorous animals, as distinguished from חיתו chayetho, all wild or carnivorous animals. See Gen 1:24. The former seems to mean kine, horses, asses, sheep, etc., and all employed in domestic or agricultural matters; the latter, all wild and savage beasts, such as lions, bears, tigers, etc.: but the words are not always taken in these senses.

In this place it has been supposed to mean some animal of the beeve kind. The Vulgate retains the Hebrew name; so do the Syriac and Arabic. The Chaldee is indefinite, translating creature or animal. And the Septuagint is not more explicit, translating by θηρια, beasts or wild beasts; and old Coverdale, the cruell beaste, perhaps as near to the truth as any of them. From the name, therefore, or the understanding had of it by the ancient versions, we can derive no assistance relative to the individuality of the animal in question; and can only hope to find what it is by the characteristics it bears in the description here given of it.

These, having been carefully considered and deeply investigated both by critics and naturalists, have led to the conclusion that either the elephant, or the hippopotamus or river-horse, is the animal in question; and on comparing the characteristics between these two, the balance is considerably in favor of the hippopotamus. But even here there are still some difficulties, as there are some parts of the description which do not well suit even the hippopotamus; and therefore I have my doubts whether either of the animals above is that in question, or whether any animal now in existence be that described by the Almighty.

Mr. Good supposes, and I am of the same opinion, that the animal here described is now extinct. The skeletons of three lost genera have actually been found out: these have been termed palaeotherium, anoplotherium, and mastodon or mammoth. From an actual examination of a part of the skeleton of what is termed the mammoth, I have described it in my note on Gen 1:24.

As I do not believe that either the elephant or the river-horse is intended here, I shall not take up the reader's time with any detailed description. The elephant is well known; and, though not an inhabitant of these countries, has been so often imported in a tame state, and so frequently occurs in exhibitions of wild beasts, that multitudes, even of the common people, have seen this tremendous, docile, and sagacious animal. Of the hippopotamus or river-horse, little is generally known but by description, as the habits of this animal will not permit him to be tamed. His amphibious nature prevents his becoming a constant resident on dry land.

The hippopotamus inhabits the rivers of Africa and the lakes of Ethiopia: feeds generally by night; wanders only a few miles from water; feeds on vegetables and roots of trees, but never on fish; lays waste whole plantations of the sugar-cane, rice, and other grain. When irritated or wounded, it will attack boats and men with much fury. It moves slowly and heavily: swims dexterously; walks deliberately and leisurely over head into the water; and pursues his way, even on all fours, on the bottom; but cannot remain long under the water without rising to take in air. It sleeps in reedy places; has a tremendous voice, between the lowing of an ox and the roaring of the elephant. Its head is large; its mouth, very wide; its skin, thick and almost devoid of hair; and its tail, naked and about a foot long. It is nearly as large as the elephant, and some have been found seventeen feet long. Mr. Good observes: "Both the elephant and hippopotamus are naturally quiet animals; and never interfere with the grazing of others of different kinds unless they be irritated. The behemoth, on the contrary, is represented as a quadruped of a ferocious nature, and formed for tyranny, if not rapacity; equally lord of the floods and of the mountains; rushing with rapidity of foot, instead of slowness or stateliness; and possessing a rigid and enormous tail, like a cedar tree, instead of a short naked tail of about a foot long, as the hippopotamus; or a weak, slender, hog-shaped tail, as the elephant."

The mammoth, for size, will answer the description in this place, especially Job 40:19 : He is the chief of the ways of God. That to which the part of a skeleton belonged which I examined, must have been, by computation, not less than twenty-five feet high, and sixty feet in length! The bones of one toe I measured, and found them three feet in length! One of the very smallest grinders of an animal of this extinct species, full of processes on the surface more than an inch in depth, which shows that the animal had lived on flesh, I have just now weighed, and found it, in its very dry state, four pounds eight ounces, avoirdupois: the same grinder of an elephant I have weighed also, and found it just two pounds. The mammoth, therefore, from this proportion, must have been as large as two elephants and a quarter. We may judge by this of its size: elephants are frequently ten and eleven feet high; this will make the mammoth at least twenty-five or twenty-six feet high; and as it appears to have been a many-toed animal, the springs which such a creature could make must have been almost incredible: nothing by swiftness could have escaped its pursuit. God seems to have made it as the proof of his power; and had it been prolific, and not become extinct, it would have depopulated the earth. Creatures of this kind must have been living in the days of Job; the behemoth is referred to here, as if perfectly and commonly known.

He eateth grass as an ox - This seems to be mentioned as something remarkable in this animal: that though from the form of his teeth he must have been carnivorous, yet he ate grass as an ox; he lived both on animal and vegetable food.

His strength is in his loins - This refers to his great agility, notwithstanding his bulk; by the strength of his loins he was able to take vast springs, and make astonishing bounds.

He moveth his tail like a cedar - Therefore it was neither the elephant, who has a tail like that of the hog, nor the hippopotamus, whose tail is only about a foot long.

The sinews of his stones - I translate with Mr. Good, and for the same reasons, the sinews of his haunches, which is still more characteristic; as the animal must have excelled in leaping.

His bones are as strong pieces of brass-bars of iron - The tusk I have mentioned above is uncommonly hard, solid, and weighty for its size.

He is the chief of the ways of God - The largest, strongest, and swiftest quadruped that God has formed.

He that made him - No power of man or beast can overcome him. God alone can overcome him, and God alone could make his sword (of extinction) approach to him.

The mountains bring him forth food - It cannot therefore be the hippopotamus, as he is seldom found far from the rivers where he has his chief residence.

Where all the beasts of the field play - He frequents those places where he can have most prey. He makes a mock of all the beasts of the field. They can neither resist his power, nor escape from his agility. All this answers to what we know of the mammoth, but not at all to the hippopotamus.

He lieth under the shady trees - This and the following verses refer to certain habits of the behemoth, with which we are and must be unacquainted,

The willows of the brook compass him - This would agree well enough with the hippopotamus.

Behold, he drinketh up a river - A similar mode of expression, and of precisely the same meaning, as that in Job 39:24 : "He swalloweth the ground with fierceness." No river can stop his course: he wades through all; stems every tide and torrent; and hurries not as though he were in danger.

He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan - Even when the river overflows its banks, it is no stoppage to him: though the whole impetuosity of its stream rush against his mouth, he is not afraid. Mr. Good has seized the true idea in his translation of this verse: - "If the stream rage, he revileth not:

He is unmoved, though Jordan rush against his mouth."

From this mention of Jordan it is probable that the behemoth was once an inhabitant of the mountains, marshes, and woods, of the land of Palestine.

He taketh it with his eyes - He looks at the sweeping tide, and defies it.

His nose pierceth through snares - If fences of strong stakes be made in order to restrain him, or prevent him from passing certain boundaries, he tears them in pieces with his teeth; or, by pressing his nose against them, breaks them off. If other parts of the description would answer, this might well apply to the elephant, the nose here meaning the proboscis, with which he can split trees, or even tear them up from the roots! Thus ends the description of the behemoth; what I suppose to be the mastodon or mammoth, or some creature of this kind, that God made as the chief of his works, exhibited in various countries for a time, cut them off from the earth, but by his providence preserved many of their skeletons, that succeeding ages might behold the mighty power which produced this chief of the ways of God, and admire the providence that rendered that race extinct which would otherwise, in all probability, have extinguished every other race of animals! I am not unapprized of the strong arguments produced by learned men to prove, on the one hand, that behemoth is the elephant; and, on the other, that he is the hippopotamus or river-horse, and I have carefully read all that Bochart, that chief of learned men, has said on the subject. But I am convinced that an animal now extinct, probably of the kind already mentioned, is the creature pointed out and described by the inspiration of God in this chapter.

On Job 40:1 of this chapter we have seen, from Mr. Heath's remarks, that the fourteen first verses were probably transposed. In the following observations Dr. Kennicott appears to prove the point. "It will be here objected, that the poem could not possibly end with this question from Job; and, among other reasons, for this in particular; because we read in the very next verse, That after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, etc. If, therefore, the last speaker was not Job, but the Lord, Job could not originally have concluded this poem, as he does at present. "This objection I hold to be exceedingly important; and, indeed, to prove decisively that the poem must have ended at first with some speech from God. "And this remark leads directly to a very interesting inquiry: What was at first the conclusion of this poem? This may, I presume, be pointed out and determined, not by the alteration of any one word, but only by allowing a dislocation of the fourteen verses which now begin the fortieth chapter. Chapters 38, 39, 40, and 41, contain a magnificent display of the Divine power and wisdom in the works of the Creator; specifying the lion, raven, wild goat, wild ass, unicorn, peacock, ostrich, horse, hawk, eagle, behemoth, and leviathan. "Now, it must have surprised most readers to find that the description of these creatures is strangely interrupted at Job 40:1, and as strangely resumed afterwards at Job 40:15; and therefore, if these fourteen verses will connect with and regularly follow what now ends the poem, we cannot much doubt that these fourteen verses have again found their true station, and should be restored to it. "The greatness of the supposed transposition is no objection: because so many verses as would fill one piece of vellum in an ancient roll, might be easily sewed in before or after its proper place. In the case before us, the twenty-five lines in the first fourteen verses of chapter xl. seem to have been sewed in improperly after Job 39:30, instead of after Job 42:6. That such large parts have been transposed in rolls to make which the parts are sewed together is absolutely certain; and that this has been the case here, is still more probable for the following reason: - "The lines here supposed to be out of place are twenty-five, and contain ninety-two words; which might be written on one piece or page of vellum. But the MS. in which these twenty-five lines made one page, must be supposed to have the same, or nearly the same, number of lines in each of the pages adjoining. And it would greatly strengthen this presumption if these twenty-five lines would fall in regularly at the end of any other set of lines, nearly of the same number; if they would fall in after the next set of twenty-five, or the second set, or the third, or the fourth, etc. Now, this is actually the case here; for the lines after these twenty-five, being one hundred or one hundred and one, make just four times twenty-five. And, therefore, if we consider these one hundred and twenty-five lines as written on five equal pieces of vellum, it follows that the fifth piece might be carelessly sewed up before the other four. "Let us also observe that present disorder of the speeches, which is this. In chapters 38 and 39, God first speaks to Job. The end of chapter 39 is followed by, 'And the Lord answered Job and said,' whilst yet Job had not replied. At Job 40:3-5, Job answers; but he says, he had then spoken Twice, and he would add no more; whereas, this was his first reply, and he speaks afterwards. From Job 40:15-41:34 are now the descriptions of behemoth and leviathan, which would regularly follow the descriptions of the horse, hawk, and eagle. And from Job 42:1-6 is now Job's speech, after which we read in Job 42:7, 'After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job!' "Now, all these confusions are removed at once if we only allow that a piece of vellum containing the twenty-five lines, (Job 40:1-14), originally followed Job 42:6. For then, after God's first speech, ending with leviathan, Job replies: then God, to whom Job replies the second time, when he added no more; and then God addresses him the third, when Job is silent, and the poem concludes: upon which the narrative opens regularly, with saying, 'After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job,' etc. Job 42:7." - Kennicott's Remarks, p. 161. The reader will find much more satisfaction if he read the places as above directed. Having ended chapter 29, proceed immediately to Job 40:15; go on regularly to the end of Job 42:6, and immediately after that add Job 40:1-14. We shall find then that the poem has a consistent and proper ending, and that the concluding speech was spoken by Jehovah.

1. MOreover, the LORD answered Job , and said,

Having made a little pause to try what Iob could answer to his questions, and Iob, being it seems astonished with Gods Rebukes, or expecting what God would further say, continued silent.

2. Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him ? he that reproveth God , let him answer it .

Shall Iob, who presumeth to contend with me in Judgment, and to dispute the reasonableness and equity of my proceedings, give me instructions or Directions how to manage my own Affairs, and govern my Creatures? He justly mentions his Almightiness, as a convincing Argument of his Justice. For how can he be unjust to his Creatures, who hath no obligation to them, and never did nor can receive any thing from them, and who hath an absolute, soveraign, and uncontrollable Dominion over them, and who being infinitely and necessarily perfect, and all sufficient within himself, can neither have any inclination to Unrighteousness, which is an imperfection, nor any temptation to it, from any need he hath of it to accomplish his designs, which he can do by his own Omnipotence, or from any advantage accruing to him by it.

That boldly censureth his ways or works; which thou hast done.

Let him answer my former and further questions at his peril.

Marginal references: Heb. to plead with the [illegible: 1+ letters] mighty, is it to instruct?

4. Behold, I am vile , what shall I answer thee ? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth .

What am I a mean and contemptible Creature, that I should presume to contend with my Maker and Judge? I confess my fault and folly.

I neither desire nor am able to dispute with thee.

I will for the future bridle my Tongue, and instead of contesting with thee, do here humbly and willingly submit my self to thee.

Marginal references: Psal. 39. [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪

5. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer : yea, twice , but I will proceed no further .

Or, speak again, answering being oft put for speaking. I will contend no more with thee.

i. e. Oft times, or again and again, the definite number being used indefinitely.

In such bold and presumptuous Expressions and Accusations of thy Providence towards me. Vain therefore are the Excuses which some Interpreters make for Iob, as if he were faultless in his foregoing Discourses, when both God chargeth him with faultiness therein, and Iob himself confesseth it.

6. Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the Whirl-wind , and said,

Which was renewed when God renewed his charge upon Iob. whom he intended to humble more throughly than yet he had done. Both this and the next Verse are repeated out of Ch. 38. 1, 3. where they are explained.

8. Wilt thou also disanul my judgment ? Wilt thou condemn me that thou maist be righteous ?

Every word is Emphatical, Wilt (Art thou resolved upon it) thou (thou Iob, whom I took to be one of a better mind and temper; had it been a Stranger, or my Enemy who had spoken thus of me, I could have born it, but I cannot bear it from thee) also (not only vindicate thy self, and thy own Integrity, but also accuse me) disanul (not only question and dispute, but even condemn, repeal and make void, as if it were ungrounded and unjust) my judgment? i. e. my Sentence against thee, and my Government and Administration of humane Affairs?

Wilt thou make me unrighteous that thou maist seem to be righteous?

Marginal references: Psal. 51. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Rom. 3▪ 4.

9. Hast thou an arm like God ? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him ?

Thou art infinitely short of God in Power, and therefore in Justice; for all his perfections are equal and infinite. Injustice is much more likely to be in thee, an impotent Creature, than in the Almighty God; of which see the Notes on v. 2.

Therefore do not presume to contend with him.

10. Deck thy self now with majesty and excellency , and aray thy self with glory and beauty.

Seeing thou makest thy self equal, yea, superior to me in Justice, and consequently in Power and Majesty, take to thy self thy great Power, come and sit in my Throne, and display thy divine Perfections in the sight of the World. These and the following are Ironical Expressions, to make Iob more sensible of his distance from, and Subjection to God.

Marginal references: Psal. 104. [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪

11. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath : and behold every one that is proud, and abase him .

Inflict heavy Judgments upon thine Enemies, the Chaldeans and Sabeans, and others who have injured or provoked thee.

Destroy him with an angry look, as I can do and delight to do with such Persons.

12. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low: and tread down the wicked in their place .

Either 1. wheresoever they are. Or, 2. Where they are in their greatest strength and glory, and therefore are most secure and confident. Or, 3. Forthwith, upon the spot, that the quickness and immediateness of the stroke may discover that it comes from a Divine hand.

13. Hide them in the dust together , and bind their faces in secret .

Kill every one of them (as he said, v. 12.) at one blow, as I can do, and bring them all to their Graves, that they may sleep in the dust, and never offend thee, nor trouble others more.

i. e. Condemn or destroy them. He alludes to the manner of covering the faces of condemned Persons, Esth. 7. 8. and of dead men. Ioh. 11. 44. & 20. 7. See on Iob 9. 24.

Either in a secret place; bury them in their Graves: Or, secretly, with a secret and invisible stroke, that it may appear it comes from the hand of a God.

14. Then will I also confess unto thee, that thine own right hand can save thee .

i. e. That thou art mine equal, and mayest venture to contend with me. But since thou canst do none of these things, it behoves thee to submit to me and to acquiesce in my dealings with thee.

15. Behold now Behemoth which I made with thee , he eateth grass as an Ox .

That some particular Beast is designed by this word is evident from v. 15. & from the peculiar Characters given to him, which are not common to all great Beasts. But what it is, is matter of some dispute amongst the Learned. The generality of them are agreed that this is the Elephant, and the following Leviathan the Whale; which being two of the goodliest and vastest Creatures which God made, the one of the Land, the other of the Sea, and withal such to whom the description here given for the most part manifestly agrees, and the like is presumed concerning the rest, may seem to be here intended. And the difficulty of reconciling some few passages to them may arise either from our ignorance of them, or from the different nature and qualities of Creatures of the same general kind in divers parts. But some late and very learned men take the Leviathan to be the Crocodile, and the Behemoth to be a Creature called the Hippopotamus, which may seem fitly to be joined with the Crocodile, both being very well known to Iob and his Friends, as being frequent in the adjacent parts, both Amphibious living and preying both in the Water and upon the Land, and both being Creatures of great bulk and strength. I shall not undertake to determine the Controversy; but shall shew how each part of the following description is or may be applied to them severally. And this being no point concerning Faith or a good Life, every one may take the more liberty to understand the place of one or other of them.

Either 1. upon the Earth where thou art, whereas the Leviathan is in the Sea. Or, 2. as I made thee, for this Hebrew Particle is oft used as a note of comparison, as Iob 9. 26. Psal. 143. 7. and elsewhere, in the same manner and upon the same day. Whereby he may intimate that being equally the Creatour and Soveraign Lord both of Iob, and of this Behemoth he had equal right to dispose of them in such manner as he thought meet. Or, nigh (as this Particle oft signifies) unto thee, i. e. in a place not far from thee, to wit, in the River Nile where the Hippopotamus, as well as the Crocodile, doth principally abide. But although those Creatures were now in that River, yet they were made elsewhere, even where the first Man was made.

This is mentioned as a thing strange and remarkable, as indeed it is, either 1. of the Elephant, in which God hath wisely and mercifully planted this disposition that he should not prey upon other Creatures, which if he had, being so strong and vast a Creature, he must needs have been very pernicious to them, but feed upon Grass as an Ox doth. Or, 2. of the Hippopotamus; of whom Historians relate that he comes out of the River upon the Land to feed upon Corn, and Hay, or Grass, as an Ox doth, to whom also he is not unlike in the form of his Head and Feet, and in the bigness of his Body, whence the Italians call him the Sea-Ox.

Marginal references: Or, the Elephant, as some think.

16. Lo now, his strength is in his loins , and his force is in the navel of his belly .

He hath strength answerable to his bulk, but this strength by God's wise and merciful providence is not an offensive strength, consisting in or put forth by horns or claws, as it is in ravenous Creatures, but onely defensive and seated in his Loins▪ as it is in other Creatures, whereby he is rendred more serviceable to men by the carrying of vast burdens.

which though in the Elephant it be weaker than his loins, whence the Rhinoceros fighting with him aims at that part, yet hath a more than ordinary strength it it, as appears by the binding of the heaviest burdens under and about it. This also agrees to the Hippopotamus in an eminent degree, whose whole skin is noted by ancient Writers to be harder than any other Creatures and almost impenetrable.

17. He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapt together.

Which though it be but short both in the Elephant and in the Hippopotamus, yet when it is erected is exceeding stiff and strong. But this may be understood, either 1. of his generative part, which is oft called by that or the like name, which the following Clause of the Verse may seem to favour. Or 2. of the Elephants trunk, which being so eminent and remarkable a part would not probably be omitted in this description, to which these words very fitly agree, because of its admirable motion and strength. Not is it strange that this is called his Tail, because that word is oft used improperly for any end of a thing, as Isa. 7. 4. See also Deut. 25. 18. & 28. 13, 44.

This may be noted because the Elephants Testicles do not hang down below the belly, as they do in other Beasts, but are contained within his belly, where they are fastned by Ligaments of extraordinary strength. Or, the Sinews of the terror thereof, to wit, of the Trunk last mentioned under the name of the Tail, i. e. its terrible Sinews are strongly and strangely wrapped together that he can move it as he listeth with wonderful dexterity and strength. Or, the Sinews of his Thighs, as the latter word oft signifies in the Arabic Tongue which is very near akin to the Hebrew. The Thighs and Feet of the Hippopotamus are noted to be so sinewy and strong that one of them is able to break or overturn a large Boat.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

18. His bones are as strong pieces of Brass , his bones are like bars of iron.

Under which title are comprehended his Ribs (as the LXX. here render it) and his teeth.

Exceeding hard and strong, as they are in both these Creatures.

19. He is the chief of the wayes of God : he that made him, can make his sword to approach unto him .

i. e. Of God's works, to wit, of that sort, or among living and brute Creatures. This is eminently and unquestionably true of the Elephant, in regard of his vast bulk, and strength joyned with great activity, and especially of his admirable sagacity and aptness to learn, and of his singular usefulness to Mankind, his Lord and Master, and God's Vicegerent in the World, and many other commendable qualities. And the Hippopotamus also is in some sort as others note, the chief or one of the chief of God's works in regard of his great bulk and strength and sagacity, and the manner of his living both in the Water and upon the Land. But it most be granted that the Elephant doth exceed the Hippopotamus in many things.

Though he be so strong and terrible yet God can easily subdue and destroy him either immediately, or by arming other Creatures as the Rhinoceros or Dragon, or Tiger against him. Or, he that made him hath applied or given to him his Sword, or arms, to wit, his Trunk, which may not unfitly be called his Sword, because thereby he doth both defend himself and offend his enemies. And this Trunk of his being a thing very observable and admirable in him and therefore not likely to be neglected in his description, if it were not intended by his Tail v. 17. may seem to be designed in these words.

20. Surely the mountains bring him forth food : where all the beasts of the field play .

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.

They not onely feed securely, but sport themselves by him or with him, being taught by experience that he is gentle and harmless and never preys upon them.

21. He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reeds, and fens .

For the Elephant being a Creature naturally hot and living generally in hot Countries diligently seeks for and delights shady and waterish places, as is noted by Aristotle and after him by Pliny and Aelian.

o The Elephant lies down to rest himself: and it is but fabulous which some Writers affirm that they have no joints in their Legs and so cannot lie down, but sleep or rest themselves standing or leaning against a Tree. Which is denied and confuted by Aristotle in his History of Living Creatures, 2. 4. and by later Writers.

22. The shady trees cover him with their shadow, the willows of the brook compass him about.

Or, of Nilus, of which this word is oft used in Scripture. And this seems to be the chief argument by which the learned Bochart proves this to be meant of the Hipopotamus, whose constant residence is in or near the River of Nilus, or the Willows that grow by it. But it is well alledged by our learned and judicious Caryl, that this word Naal is never used to express Nilus when it is put by it self, as here it is but onely where the word Egypt is added to it, as it is in all the places which Bochart produceth. And this very phrase, the Willows of the Brook, is used of other Brooks or Rivers besides Nilus, as Levit. 23. 40. Comp. Isa. 15. 7.

23. Behold, he drinketh up a river and hasteth not : he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his Mouth .

Or, He snatcheth, or draweth, or drinketh up as it were with force and violence, as the word signifies.

i. e. A great quantity of water hyperbolically called a River, as it is also Psal. 78. 16. & 105. 41. This may be fitly applied to the Elephant, which because of its great bulk and vehement thirst drinks a great deal of Water at one draught, as Naturalists and Historians have observed.

He drinks not with fear and caution and sparingly, as the Dogs do at Nilus for fear of the Crocodile; but such is his courage and self-confidence that he fears no enemy either by Water or by Land, but drinketh securely and liberally.

He drinks as if he designed, or hoped, or desired to drink up the whole River. He mentions Iordan either as a River well known in and nigh unto Iob's land; or because possibly there were many Elephants which used to drink at it; or as a River in some parts of it but small, which therefore might give more colour to the Hyperbole and to the Elephants fancy or expectation, than a vaster River, such as Euphrates, would have done. Bochart expounds this also of the Hippopotamus, which, though he cannot swim, and may be drowned, as Naturalists report, yet will continue securely under Water at the bottom of Nilus for some days together, and he renders the Verse thus, Behold, if a River oppress or cover him, he fears not, he is confident or secure, though Iordan (which is here put for any River) should break forth or over-flow above his mouth, i. e. should overwhelm him. But the judgment of this, I leave to the Reader.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span]

24. He taketh it with his Eyes: his nose pierceth through snares .

According to this Translation the sense is this, He taketh, or snatcheth, or draweth up (as was now said, v. 23.) it (to wit, the River Iordan) with his Eyes, i. e. when he sees it, he trusteth that he can drink it all up; as we use to say, The Eye is bigger than the Belly his Nose or Snout pierceth, &c. i. e. He securely thrusteth his Snout into the River even to the bottom of it, to stir up the mud, because he delights to drink muddy Water, and if there be any Snares laid for other Creatures he breaks them to pieces. But this Verse is otherwise translated by others, Will or Can any man take him in his Eyes? (i. e. openly and by manifest force? Surely no. His force and strength is too great for Man to resist or overcome: and therefore men are forced to use many wiles and engines to catch him; which is true both of the Elephant and of the Hippopotamus:) Or pierce his Nose with Snares or Gins? No. He may be taken by art and cunning, but not by violence.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span]

Job 40:1-3   1  Then Jehovah answered Job, and said:   2  Will now the censurer contend with the Almighty?

Let the instructor of Eloah answer it!   3  Then Job answered Jehovah, and said:

With Job 40:1; Job 38:1 is again taken up, because the speech of Jehovah has now in some measure attained the end which was assigned to it as an answer to Job’s outburst of censure. רב is inf. abs., as Jdg 11:25; it is left to the hearer to give to the simple verbal notion its syntactic relation in accordance with the connection; here it stands in the sense of the fut. (comp. 2Ki 4:43): num litigabit, Ges. §131, 4, b. The inf. abs. is followed by יסּור as subj., which (after the form שׁכּור) signifies a censurer and fault-finder, moomeetee's. The question means, will Job persist in this contending with God? He who sets God right, as though he knew everything better than He, shall answer the questions put before him.

Job 40:4-5   4  Behold, I am too mean: what shall I answer Thee?

I lay my hand upon my mouth.   5  Once have I spoken, and will not begin again;

And twice - I will do it no more.

He is small, i.e., not equal to the task imposed, therefore he keeps his mouth firmly closed (comp. Job 21:5; Job 29:9), for whatever he might say would still not be to the point. Once he has dared to criticise God’s doings; a second time (שׁתּים = שׁנית, Ges. §120, 5) he ventures it no more, for God’s wondrous wisdom and all-careful love dazzle him, and he gladly bows.

But how? Is not the divine speech altogether different from what one ought to expect? One expects to hear from the mouth of Jehovah something unheard of in the previous course of the drama, and in this expectation we find ourselves disappointed at the outset. For one need only look back and read Job 9:4-10, where Job acknowledges and describes God as a wise and mighty Lord over the natural world, especially as an irresistible Ruler over everything great in it; Job 12:7-10, where he refers to the creatures of the sky and deep as proofs of God’s creative power; Job 12:11-25, where he sketches the grandest picture of God’s terrible doings in nature and among men; Job 26:5-14, where he praises God as the Creator and Lord of all things, and describes what he says concerning Him as only a faint echo of the thunder of His might; Job 28:23, where he ascribes absolute wisdom to Him as the Creator of and Ruler of the world. If one ponders these passages of Job’s speeches, he will not be able to say that the speech of Jehovah, in the exhibition of the creative power and wisdom of God, which is its theme, would make Job conscious of anything which was previously unknown to him; and it is accordingly asked, What, then, is there that is new in the speech of Jehovah by which the great effect is brought about, that Job humbles himself in penitence, and becomes ready for the act of redemption which follows?

It has indeed never occurred to Job to desire to enter into a controversy with God concerning the works of creation; he is far from the delusion of being able to stand such a test; he knows in general, that if God were willing to contend with him, he would not be able to answer God one in a thousand, Job 9:3. And yet God closely questioned him, and thereby Job comes to the perception of his sin - how comes it to pass? Has the plot of the drama perhaps failed in this point? Has the poet made use of means unsuited to the connection of the whole, to bring about the needful effect, viz., the repentance of Job, - because, perhaps, the store of his thoughts was exhausted? But this poet is not so poor, and we shall therefore be obliged to try and understand the disposition of the speech of Jehovah before we censure it.

When one of Job’s last words before the appearing of Jehovah was the word שׁדי יענני, Job thereby desired God’s decision concerning the testimony of his innocence. This wish is in itself not sinful; yea, it is even a fruit of his hidden faith, when he casts the look of hope away from his affliction and the accusation of the friends, into the future to God as his Vindicator and Redeemer. But that wish becomes sinful when he looks upon his affliction as a de facto accusation on the part of God, because he cannot think of suffering and sin as separable, and because he is conscious of his innocence, looks upon it as a decree of God, his opponent and his enemy, which is irreconcilable with the divine justice. This Job’s condition of conflict and temptation is the prevailing one; his faith is beclouded, and breaks through the night which hangs over him only in single rays. The result of this condition of conflict is the sinful character which that wish assumes: it becomes a challenge to God, since Job directs against God Himself the accusation which the friends have directed against him, and asserts his ability to carry through his good cause even if God would enter with him into a judicial contention; he becomes a יסור and מוכיח אלוה, and raises himself above God, because he thinks he has Him for an enemy who is his best friend. This defiance is, however, not common godlessness; on the contrary, Job is really the innocent servant of God, and his defiant tone is only the result of a false conception which the tempted one indulges respecting the Author of his affliction. So, then, this defiance has not taken full possession of Job’s mind; on the contrary, the faith which lays firm hold on confidence in the God whom he does not comprehend, is in conflict against it; and this conflict tends in the course of the drama, the nearer it comes to the catastrophe, still nearer to the victory, which only awaits a decisive stroke in order to be complete. Therefore Jehovah yields to Job’s longing שׁדי יענני, in as far as He really answers Job; and even that this takes place, and that, although out of the storm, it nevertheless takes place, not in a way to crush and destroy, but to instruct and convince, and displaying a loving condescension, is an indirect manifestation that Job is not regarded by God as an evil-doer mature for judgment. But that folly and temerity by which the servant of God is become unlike himself must notwithstanding be destroyed; and before Job can realize God as his Witness and Redeemer, in which character his faith in the brighter moments has foreseen Him, his sinful censuring and blaming of God must be blotted out by penitence; and with it at the same time his foolish imagination, by which his faith has been almost overwhelmed, must be destroyed, viz., the imagination that his affliction is a hostile dispensation of God.

And by what means is Job brought to the penitent recognition of his gloomy judgment concerning the divine decree, and of his contending with God? Is it, perhaps, by God’s admitting to him what really is the case: that he does not suffer as a sinner the punishment of his sin, but showing at the same time that the decree of suffering is not an unjust one, because its design is not hostile? No, indeed, for Job is not worthy that his cause should be acknowledged on the part of God before he has come to a penitent recognition of the wrong by which he has sinned against God. God would be encouraging self-righteousness if He should give Job the testimony of his innocence, before the sin of vainglory, into which Job has fallen in the consciousness of his innocence, is changed to humility, by which all uprightness that is acceptable with God is tested. Therefore, contrary to expectation, God begins to speak with Job about totally different matters from His justice or injustice in reference to his affliction. Therein already lies a deep humiliation for Job. But a still deeper one in God’s turning, as it were, to the abecedarium naturae, and putting the censurer of His doings to the blush. That God is the almighty and all-wise Creator and Ruler of the world, that the natural world is exalted above human knowledge and power, and is full of marvellous divine creations and arrangements, full of things mysterious and incomprehensible to ignorant and feeble man, Job knows even before God speaks, and yet he must now hear it, because he does not know it rightly; for the nature with which he is acquainted as the herald of the creative and governing power of God, is also the preacher of humility; and exalted as God the Creator and Ruler of the natural world is above Job’s censure, so is He also as the Author of his affliction. That which is new, therefore, in the speech of Jehovah, is not the proof of God’s exaltation in itself, but the relation to the mystery of his affliction, and to his conduct towards God in this his affliction, in which Job is necessitated to place perceptions not in themselves strange to him. He who cannot answer a single one of those questions taken from the natural kingdom, but, on the contrary, must everywhere admire and adore the power and wisdom of God-he must appear as an insignificant fool, if he applies them to his limited judgment concerning the Author of his affliction.

The fundamental tone of the divine speech is the thought, that the divine working in nature is infinitely exalted above human knowledge and power, and that consequently man must renounce all claim to better knowledge and right of contention in the presence of the divine dispensations. But at the same time, within the range of this general thought, it is also in particular shown how nature reflects the goodness of God as well as His wisdom (He has restrained the destructive power of the waters, He also sendeth rain upon the steppe, though untenanted by man); how that which accomplishes the purposes for which it was in itself designed, serves higher purposes in the moral order of the world (the dawn of day puts an end to the works of darkness, snow and hail serve as instruments of divine judgments); how divine providence extends to all creatures, and always according to their need (He provides the lion its prey, He satisfies the ravens that cry to Him); and how He has distributed His manifold gifts in a way often paradoxical to man, but in truth worthy of admiration (to the steinbock ease in bringing forth and growth without toil, to the wild ass freedom, to the antelope untameable fleetness, to the ostrich freedom from anxiety about its young and swiftness, to the horse heroic and proud lust for the battle, to the hawk the instinct of migration, to the eagle a lofty nest and a piercing sight). Everywhere the wonders of God’s power and wisdom, and in fact of His goodness abounding in power, and His providence abounding in wisdom, infinitely transcend Job’s knowledge and capacity. Job cannot answer one of all these questions, but yet he feels to what end they are put to him. The God who sets bounds to the sea, who refreshes the desert, who feeds the ravens, who cares for the gazelle in the wilderness and the eagle in its eyrie, is the same God who now causes him seemingly thus unjustly to suffer. But if the former is worthy of adoration, the latter will also be so. Therefore Job confesses that he will henceforth keep silence, and solemnly promises that he will now no longer contend with Him. From the marvellous in nature he divines that which is marvellous in his affliction. His humiliation under the mysteries of nature is at the same time humiliation under the mystery of his affliction; and only now, when he penitently reveres the mystery he has hitherto censured, is it time that its inner glory should be unveiled to him. The bud is mature, and can now burst forth, in order to disclose the blended colours of its matured beauty.

Job 40:6   6  Then Jehovah answered Job out of the storm, and said:

This second time also Jehovah speaks to Job out of the storm; not, however, in wrath, but in the profound condescension of His majesty, in order to deliver His servant from dark imaginings, and to bring him to free and joyous knowledge. He does not demand blind subjection, but free submission; He does not extort an acknowledgement of His greatness, but it is effected by persuasion. It becomes manifest that God is much more forbearing and compassionate than men. Observe the friends, the defenders of the divine honour, these sticklers for their own orthodoxy, how they rave against Job! How much better is it to fall into the hands of the living God, than into the hands of man! For God is truth and love; but men have at one time love without truth, at another truth without love, since they either connive at one or anathematize him. When a man who, moreover, like Job, is a servant of God, fails in one point, or sins, men at once condemn him altogether, and admit nothing good in him; God, however, discerns between good and evil, and makes the good a means of freeing the man from the evil. He also does not go rashly to work, but waits, like an instructor, until the time of action arrives. How long He listens to Job’s bold challenging, and keeps silence! And then, when He does begin to speak, He does not cast Job to the ground by His authoritative utterances, but deals with him as a child; He examines him from the catechism of nature, and allows him to say for himself that he fails in this examination. In this second speech He acts with him as in the well-known poem of Hans Sachs with St. Peter: He offers him to take the government of the world for once instead of Himself. Here also He produces conviction; here also His mode of action is a deep lowering of Himself. It is Jehovah, the God, who at length begets Himself in humanity, in order to convince men of His love.

Job 40:7-9   7  Gird up thy loins manfully:

I will question thee, and do thou answer me!   8  Wilt thou altogether annul my right,

Condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?   9  And hast thou then an arm like God,

And canst thou with the voice thunder like Him?

The question with האף stands to Job 40:2 in the relation of a climax: Job contended not alone with God, which is in itself wrong, let it be whatsoever it may; he went so far as to lose sight of the divine justice in the government of the world, and in order not to be obliged to give up his own righteousness, so far as to doubt the divine. ואם, Job 40:9, is also interrogative, as Job 8:3; Job 21:4; Job 34:17, comp. Job 39:13, not expressive of a wish, as Job 34:16. In the government of the world, God shows His arm, He raises His voice of thunder: canst thou perhaps - asks Jehovah - do the like, thou who seemest to imagine thou couldst govern the world more justly, if thou hadst to govern it? וּבקוּל כּמהוּ are to be combined: of like voice to Him; the translation follows the accents (ובקול with Rebia mugrasch).

Job 40:10-14 10  Deck thyself then with pomp and dignity,

And in glory and majesty clothe thyself! 11  Let the overflowings of thy wrath pour forth,

And behold all pride, and abase it! 12  Behold all pride, bring it low,

And cast down the evil-doers in their place; 13  Hide them in the dust together,

Bind their faces in secret: 14  Then I also will praise thee,

That thy right hand obtaineth thee help.

He is for once to put on the robes of the King of kings (עדה, comp. עטח, to wrap round, Psa 104:2), and send forth his wrath over pride and evil-doing, for their complete removal. הפיץ, effundere, diffundere, as Arab. afâda, vid., Job 37:11. עברות, or rather, according to the reading of Ben-Ascher, עברות ,rehcsA, in its prop. signif. oversteppings, i.e., overflowings. In connection with Job 40:11, one is directly reminded of the judgment on everything that is high and exalted in Isa 2, where beטמנם בּעפר also has its parallel (Isa 2:10). Not less, however, does Job 40:14 recall Isa 59:16; Isa 63:5 (comp. Psa 98:1); Isaiah I and II have similar descriptions to the book of Job. The ἁπ. λεγ. הדך is Hebraeo-Arab.; hadaka signifies, like hadama, to tear, pull to the ground. In connection with תמוּן (from טמן; Aram., Arab., טמר), the lower world, including the grave, is thought of (comp. Arab. mat - murât , subterranean places); חבשׁ signifies, like Arab. ḥbs IV, to chain and to imprison. Try it only for once - this is the collective thought - to act like Me in the execution of penal justice, I would praise thee. That he cannot do it, and yet venture with his short-sightedness and feebleness to charge God’s rule with injustice, the following pictures of foreign animals are now further intended to make evident to him: -

Job 40:15-18 15  Behold now the behêmôth,

Which I have made with thee:

He eateth grass like an ox. 16  Behold now, his strength is in his loins,

And his force in the sinews of his belly. 17  He bendeth his tail like a cedar branch,

The sinews of his legs are firmly interwoven. 18  His bones are like tubes of brass,

His bones like bars of iron. בּהמות (after the manner of the intensive plur. הוללות, חכמות, which play the part of the abstract termination), which sounds like a plur., but without the numerical plural signification, considered as Hebrew, denotes the beast κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν, or the giant of beasts, is however Hebraized from the Egyptian p - ehe - mau, (muau), i.e., the (p) ox (ehe) of the water (mau as in the Hebraized proper name משׁה). It is, as Bochart has first of all shown, the so-called river or Nile horse, Hippopotamus amphibius (in Isa 30:6, בּהמות נגב, as emblem of Egypt, which extends its power, and still is active in the interest of others), found in the rivers of Africa, but no longer found in the Nile, which is not inappropriately called a horse; the Arab. water-hog is better, Italian bomarino, Eng. sea-cow ?, like the Egyptian p - ehe - mau. The change of p and b in the exchange of Egyptian and Semitic words occurs also elsewhere, e.g., pug' and בּוּץ, harpu and חרב (ἅρπη), Apriu and עברים (according to Lauth). Nevertheless p - ehe - mau (not mau - t, for what should the post-positive fem. art. do here?) is first of all only the בהמות translated back again into the Egyptian by Jablonsky; an instance in favour of this is still wanting. In Hieroglyph the Nile-horse is called apet ; it was honoured as divine. Brugsch dwelt in Thebes in the temple of the Apet.In the astronomical representations the hippopotamus is in the neighbourhood of the North Pole in the place of the dragon of the present day, and bears the name of hes-mut, in which mut = t . mau , “the mother.” Hes however is obscure; Birch explains it by: raging.

In Job 40:15 עמּך signifies nothing but “with thee,” so that thou hast it before thee. This water-ox eats חציר, green grass, like an ox. That it prefers to plunder the produce of the fields - in Arab. chadı̂r signifies, in particular, green barley - is accordingly self-evident. Nevertheless, it has gigantic strength, viz., in its plump loins and in the sinews (שׁרירי, properly the firm constituent parts,Staring from its primary signification (made firm, fast), Arab. srı̂r, שׁרירא can signify e.g., also things put together from wood: a throne, a hand-barrow, bedstead and cradle, metaphor. the foundation. Wetzst. otherwise: “The שׂרירי הבטן are not the sinews and muscles, still less 'the private parts’ of others, but the four bearers of the animal body = arkân el - batn, viz., the bones of the מתנים, Job 40:16, together with the two shoulder-blades. The Arab. sarı̂r is that on which a thing is supported or rests, on which it stands firmly, or moves about. Neshwân (i. 280) says: ‛sarı̂r is the substratum on which a thing rests,' and the sarı̂r er - ra's, says the same, is the place where the head rests upon the nape of the neck. The Kâmûs gives the same signification primo loco, which shows that it is general; then follows in gen. Arab. muḍṭaja‛ , “the support of a thing.” therefore: ligaments and muscles) of its clumsy belly. The brush of a tail, short in comparison with the monster itself, is compared to a cedar (a branch of it), ratione glabritiei, rotunditatis, spissitudinis et firmitatis (Bochart); since the beast is in general almost without hair, it looks like a stiff, naked bone, and yet it can bend it like an elastic cedar branch; חפץ is Hebraeo-Arab., ḥfḍWetzst. otherwise: One may compare the Arab. chafaḍa , fut. i, to hold, sit, lie motionless (in any place), from which the signification of desiring, longing, has been developed, since in the Semitic languages the figure of fixing (ta‛alluq) the heard and the eye on any desired object is at the basis of this notion (wherefore such verbs are joined with the praep. בּ). According to this, it is to be explained, “his tail is motionless like (the short and thick stem of) The cedar,” for the stunted tail of an animal is a mark of its strength to a Semite. In 1860, as I was visiting the neighbouring mountain fortress of el-Hosn with the octogenarian Fêjâd, the sheikh of Fîk in Gôlân, we rode past Fêjâd’s ploughmen; and as one of them was letting his team go slowly along, the sheikh cried out to him from a distance: Faster! faster! They (the steers, which thou ploughest) are not oxen weak with age, nor are they the dower of a widow (who at her second marriage receives only a pair of weak wretched oxen from her father or brother); but they are heifers (3-4 year-old steers) with stiffly raised tails (wadhujûluhin muqashmare, מקשׁמר an intensive קשׁוּר or שׁלאנן comp. שׁלאנן, Job 21:23). is a word used directly of the bending of wood (el - ‛ûd).

Since this description, like the whole book of Job, is so strongly Arabized, פחד, Job 40:17, will also be one word with the Arab. fachidh, the thigh; as the Arabic version also translates: ‛urûku afchâdhihi (the veins or strings of its thigh). The Targ., retaining the word of the text here,Another Targ., which translates גבריה ושׁעבוזוהי, penis et testiculi ejus, vid., Aruch s.v. שׁעבז. has פּחדין in Lev 21:20 for אשׁך, a testicle, prop. inguina, the groins; we interpret: the sinews of its thighs or legsAccording to Fleischer, fachidh signifies properly the thick-leg (= thigh), from the root fach, with the general signification of being puffed out, swollen, thick. are intertwined after the manner of intertwined vine branches, שׂריגים.In the choice of the word ישׂרגו, the mushâgarat ed - dawâlı̂ (from שׁגר = שׂרג), “the interweaving of the vine branches” was undoubtedly before the poet’s eye; comp. Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitschr. xi. 477: “On all sides in this delightful corner of the earth (the Ghûta) the vine left to itself, in diversified ramifications, often a dozen branches resembling so many huge snakes entangled together, swings to and fro upon the shining stem of the lofty white poplar.” And ib. S. 491: “a twisted vine almost the thickness of a man, as though formed of rods of iron (comp. Job 40:18).”

But why is פחדיו pointed thus, and not פחדיו (as e.g., שׁעריו)? It is either an Aramaizing (with אשׁריו it has another relationship) pointing of the plur., or rather, as Köhler has perceived, a regularly-pointed dual (like רגליו), from פּחדים (like פּעמים), which is equally suitable in connection with the signification femora as testiculi. מטיל, Job 40:18, is also Hebraeo-Arab.; for Arab. mṭl signifies to forge, or properly to extend by forging (hammering), and to lengthen, undoubtedly a secondary formation of טוּל, tâla, to be long, as makuna of kâna, madana of dâna, massara (to found a fortified city) of sâra, chiefly (if not always) by the intervention of such nouns as makân , medı̂ne , misr (= מצור), therefore in the present instance by the intervention of this metı̂l (= memtûl)The noun מטיל is also found in the Lexicon of Neshwân, i. 63: “מטיל is equivalent to ממטוּל, viz., that which is hammered out in length, used of iron and other metals; and one says חדידה מטילה of a piece of iron that has been hammered for the purpose of stretching it.” The verb Neshwân explains: “מטל said of iron signifies to stretch it that it may become long.” The verb מטל can be regarded as a fusion of the root מדד (מטט, טוּט, comp. מוטה, and Arab. mûṭ Beduin: to take long steps) with the root טוּל, to be long. - Wetzst. The above explanation of the origin of the verb מטל seems to us more probable. whence probably μέταλλον (metal), properly iron in bars or rods, therefore metal in a wrought state, although not yet finished.Ibn-Koreisch in Pinsker, Likkute, p. קנא, explains it without exactness by sebikat hadı̂d, which signifies a smelted and formed piece of iron.

Its bones are like tubes of brass, its bones (גּרמיו, the more Aram. word) like forged rods of iron - what an appropriate description of the comparatively thin but firm as iron skeleton by which the plump mass of flesh of the gigantic boar-like grass-eater is carried!

Job 40:19-24 19  He is the firstling of the ways of God;

He, his Maker, reached to him his sword. 20  For the mountains bring forth food for him,

And all the beasts of the field play beside him. 21  Under the lote-trees he lieth down,

In covert of reeds and marsh. 22  Lote-trees cover him as shade,

The willows of the brook encompass him. 23  Behold, if the stream is strong, he doth not quake;

He remaineth cheerful, if a Jordan breaketh forth upon his mouth. 24  Just catch him while he is looking,

With snares let one pierce his nose!

God’s ways is the name given to God’s operations as the Creator of the world in Job 40:19 (comp. Job 26:14, where His acts as the Ruler of the world are included); and the firstling of these ways is called the Behêmôth, not as one of the first in point of time, but one of the hugest creatures, un chef-d'oeuvre de Dieu (Bochart); ראשׁית not as Pro 8:22; Num 24:20, of the priority of time, but as Amo 6:1, Amo 6:6, of rank. The art. in העשׁו is, without the pronominal suff. being meant as an accusative (Ew. §290, d), equal to a demonstrative pronoun (comp. Ges. §109, init): this its Creator (but so that “this” does not refer back so much as forwards). It is not meant that He reached His sword to behêmoth, but (on which account לו is intentionally wanting) that He brought forth, i.e., created, its (behêmoth’s) peculiar sword, viz., the gigantic incisors ranged opposite one another, with which it grazes upon the meadow as with a sickle: ἀρούρῃσιν κακὴν ἐπιβάλλεται ἅρπην (Nicander, Theriac. 566), ἅρπη is exactly the sickle-shaped Egyptian sword (harpu = חרב). Vegetable food (to which its teeth are adapted) is appointed to the behêmoth: “for the mountains produce food for him;” it is the herbage of the hills (which is scanty in the lower and more abundant in the upper valley of the Nile) that is intended, after which this uncouth animal climbs (vid., Schlottm.). בּוּל is neither a contraction of יבוּל (Ges.), nor a corruption of it (Ew.), but Hebraeo-Arab. = baul, produce, from bâla, to beget, comp. aballa, to bear fruit (prop. seed, bulal), root בל, to soak, wet, mix.Whether בּליל, Job 6:5; Job 24:6, signifies mixed provender (farrago), or perhaps ripe fruit, i.e., grain, so that jabol, Jdg 19:21, in the signification “he gave dry provender consisting of barley-grain,” would be the opposite of the jahushsh (יחשׁ) of the present day, “he gives green provender consisting of green grass or green barley, hashı̂sh,” as Wetzst. supposes, vid., on Isa 30:24.Job 40:20 describes how harmless, and if unmolested, inoffensive, the animal is; שׁם there, viz., while it is grazing.

In Job 40:21 Saadia correctly translates: Arab. tḥt 'l - ḍâl ; and Job 40:22, Abulwalid: Arab. ygṭı̂h 'l - ḍl mdlllâ lh , tegit eum lotus obumbrans eum, by interpreting Arab. 'l - ḍl , more correctly Arab. 'l - ḍâl , with es - sidr el - berrı̂ , i.e., Rhamnus silvestris (Rhamnus Lotus, Linn.), in connection with which Schultens’ observation is to be noticed: Cave intelligas lotum Aegyptiam s. plantam Niloticam quam Arabes Arab. nûfr. The fact that the wild animals of the steppe seek the shade of the lote-tree, Schultens has supported by passages from the poets. The lotus is found not only in Syria, but also in Egypt, and the whole of Africa.The Arab. ḍâl or Dûm -tree, which likes hot and damp valleys, and hence is found much on the northern, and in great numbers on the eastern, shores of the Sea of Galilee, is called in the present day sidra, collect. sidr ; and its fruit, a small yellow apple, dûma, collect. dûm, perhaps “the not ending, perennial,” because the fruit of the previous year only falls from the tree when that of the present year is ripe. Around Bagdad, as they told me, the Dûm-tree bears twice a year. In Egypt its fruit is called nebq (נבק, not nibq as in Freytag), and the tree is there far stronger and taller than in Syria, where it is seldom more than about four and twenty feet high. Only in the Wâdi 's-sidr on the mountains of Judaea have I seen several unusually large trunks. The Kâmûs places the signification “the sweet Dûm-tree” first of all to Arab. ḍâl, and then “the wild D.” In hotter regions there may also be a superior kind with fine fruit, in Syria it is only wild - Neshwân (ii. 192) says: “dâla, collect. dâl, is the wild Dûm-tree,” - yet I have always found its fruit sweet and pleasant to the taste. - Wetzst.

The plur. is formed from the primary form צאל, as שׁקמים from שׁקם, Olsh. §148, b; the single tree was perhaps called צאלה (= Arab. ḍâlt), as שׁקמה (Ew. §189, h). Ammianus Marc. xxii. 15 coincides with Job 40:21: Inter arundines celsas et squalentes nimia densitate haec bellua cubilia ponit. צללו, Job 40:22 (resolved from צלּו, as גּללו, Job 20:7, from גּלּו),Forms like גּלל, צלל, are unknown to the language, because it was more natural for ease of pronunciation to make the primary form סבבּ into סב than into סבב, גּללו (vid., p. 449), צללו, might more readily be referred to גּלל, צלל (in which the first a is a helping vowel, and the second a root vowel); but although the form קטל and the segolate forms completely pass into one another in inflection, still there does not exist a safe example in favour of the change of vowels of קטל into קטלי; wherefore we have also derived אגלי, Job 38:28, from אגל, not from אגל, although, moreover, ̇̇ frequently enough alternates with ̇̇ (e.g., ישׁעך), and a transition into ̇̇ of the ̇̇ weakened from ̇̇ (e.g., ידכם) also occurs. But there are no forms like נטפי = נטפי from נטף in reality, although they would be possible according to the laws of vowels. In Ges. Handwörterb. (1863) גּללו stands under גּלל (according to the form לבב, which, however, forms לבבו) and צללו under סלל ( a rare noun-form, which does not occur at all from verbs double Ayin). is in apposition with the subj.: Lote-trees cover it as its shade (shading it). The double play of words in Job 40:22 is not reproduced in the English translation. הן, Job 40:23, pointing to something possible, obtains almost the signification of a conditional particle, as Job 12:14; Job 23:8; Isa 54:15. The Arabic version appropriately translates Arab. 'n ṭgâ 'l - nhr , for Arab. ṭgâ denotes exactly like עשׁק, excessive, insolent behaviour, and is then, as also Arab. dlm , ‛tâ , and other verbs given by Schultens, transferred from the sphere of ethics to the overflow of a river beyond its banks, to the rush of raging waters, to the rising and bursting forth of swollen streams. It does not, however, terrify the behêmoth, which can live as well in the water as on the land; לא יחפּוז, properly, it does not spring up before it, is not disturbed by it. Instead of the Jordan, Job 40:23, especially in connection with יגיח, the 'Gaihûn (the Oxus) or the 'Gaihân (the Pyramus) might have been mentioned, which have their names from the growing force with which they burst forth from their sources (גּיח, גּוּח, comp. 'gâcha , to wash away). But in order to express the notion of a powerful and at times deep-swelling stream, the poet prefers the ירדּן of his fatherland, which moreover, does not lie so very far from the scene, according to the conception at least, since all the wadis in its neighbourhood flow directly or indirectly (as Wâdi el-Meddân, the boundary river between the district of Suwêt and the Nukra plain) into the Jordan. For ירדּן (perhaps from ירד)Certainly one would have expected ירדּן like גּרזן, while ירדּן like יעבּץ, יעזר, appears formed from רדן; nevertheless ירדּן (with changeable Ssere) can be understood as a change of vowel from ירדּן (comp. ישׁב for ישׁב). does not here signify a stream (rising in the mountain) in general; the name is not deprived of its geographical definiteness, but is a particularizing expression of the notion given above.

The description closes in Job 40:24 with the ironical challenge: in its sight (בּעיניו as Pro 1:17) let one (for once) catch it; let one lay a snare which, when it goes into it, shall spring together and pierce it in the nose; i.e., neither the open force nor the stratagem, which one employs with effect with other animals, is sufficient to overpower this monster. מוקשׁים is generally rendered as equal to חחים, Isa 37:29; Eze 19:4, or at least to the cords drawn through them, but contrary to the uniform usage of the language. The description of the hippopotamusVid., Grehm, Aus dem Leben des Nilpferds, Gartenlaube 1859, Nr. 48, etc. is not followed by that of the crocodile, which also elsewhere form a pair, e.g., in Achilles Tatius, iv. 2, 19. Behemoth and leviathan, says Herder, are the pillars of Hercules at the end of the book, the non plus ultra of another world distant from the scene. What the same writer says of the poet, that he does not “mean to furnish any contributions to Pennant’s Zoologie or to Linnaeus’ Animal Kingdom,” the expositor also must assent to.

Job's Humble Submission. (b. c. 1520.)

1 Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said, 2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. 3 Then Job answered the Lord , and said, 4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. 5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

Here is, I. A humbling challenge which God gave to Job. After he had heaped up many hard questions upon him, to show him, by his manifest ignorance in the works of nature, what an incompetent judge he was of the methods and designs of Providence, he clenches the nail with one demand more, which stands by itself here as the application of the whole. It should seem, God paused awhile, as Elihu had done, to give Job time to say what he had to say, or to think of what God had said; but Job was in such confusion that he remained silent, and therefore God here put him upon replying, v. 1, 2. This is not said to be spoken out of the whirlwind, as before; and therefore some think God said it in a still small voice, which wrought more upon Job than the whirlwind did, as upon Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 12, 13. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, and then it does wonders. Though Job had not spoken any thing, yet God is said to answer him; for he knows men's thoughts, and can return a suitable answer to their silence. Here, 1. God puts a convincing question to him: "Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? Shall he pretend to dictate to God's wisdom or prescribe to his will? Shall God receive instruction from every peevish complainer, and change the measures he has taken to please him?" It is a question with disdain. Shall any teach God knowledge? ch. xxi. 22. It is intimated that those who quarrel with God do, in effect, go about to teach him how to mend his work. For if we contend with men like ourselves, as not having done well, we ought to instruct them how to do better; but is it a thing to be suffered that any man should teach his Maker? He that contends with God is justly looked upon as his enemy; and shall he pretend so far to have prevailed in the contest as to prescribe to him? We are ignorant and short-sighted, but before him all things are naked and open; we are depending creatures, but he is the sovereign Creator; and shall we pretend to instruct him? Some read it, Is it any wisdom to contend with the Almighty? The answer is easy. No; it is the greatest folly in the world. Is it wisdom to contend with him whom it will certainly be our ruin to oppose and unspeakably our interest to submit to? 2. He demands a speedy reply to it: "He that reproaches God let him answer this question to his own conscience, and answer it thus, Far be it from me to contend with the Almighty or to instruct him. Let him answer all those questions which I have put, if he can. Let him answer for his presumption and insolence, answer it at God's bar, to his confusion." Those have high thoughts of themselves, and mean thoughts of God, who reprove any thing he says or does.

II. Job's humble submission thereupon. Now Job came to himself, and began to melt into godly sorrow. When his friends reasoned with him he did not yield; but the voice of the Lord is powerful. When the Spirit of truth shall come, he shall convince. They had condemned him for a wicked man; Elihu himself had been very sharp upon him (ch. xxxiv. 7, 8, 37); but God had not given him such hard words. We may sometimes have reason to expect better treatment from God, and a more candid construction of what we do, than we meet with from our friends. This the good man is here overcome by, and yields himself a conquered captive to the grace of God. 1. He owns himself an offender, and has nothing to say in his own justification (v. 4): "Behold, I am vile, not only mean and contemptible, but vile and abominable, in my own eyes." He is now sensible that he has sinned, and therefore calls himself vile. Sin debases us, and penitents abase themselves, reproach themselves, are ashamed, yea, even confounded. "I have acted undutifully to my Father, ungratefully to my benefactor, unwisely for myself; and therefore I am vile." Job now vilifies himself as much as ever he had justified and magnified himself. Repentance changes men's opinion of themselves. Job had been too bold in demanding a conference with God, and thought he could make his part good with him: but now he is convinced of his error, and owns himself utterly unable to stand before God or to produce any thing worth his notice, the veriest dunghill-worm that ever crawled upon God's ground. While his friends talked with him, he answered them, for he thought himself as good as they; but, when God talked with him, he had nothing to say, for, in comparison with him, he sees himself nothing, less than nothing, worse than nothing, vanity and vileness itself; and therefore, What shall I answer thee? God demanded an answer, v. 2. Here he gives the reason of his silence; it was not because he was sullen, but because he was convinced he had been in the wrong. Those that are truly sensible of their own sinfulness and vileness dare not justify themselves before God, but are ashamed that ever they entertained such a thought, and, in token of their shame, lay their hand upon their mouth. 2. He promises not to offend any more as he had done; for Elihu had told him that this was meet to be said unto God. When we have spoken amiss we must repent of it and not repeat it nor stand to it. He enjoins himself silence (v. 4): "I will lay my hand upon my mouth, will keep that as with a bridle, to suppress all passionate thoughts which may arise in my mind, and keep them from breaking out in intemperate speeches." It is bad to think amiss, but it is much worse to speak amiss, for that is an allowance of the evil thought and gives it an imprimatur—a sanction; it is publishing the seditious libel; and therefore, if thou hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth and let it go no further (Prov. xxx. 32) and that will be an evidence for thee that that which thou thoughtest thou allowest not. Job had suffered his evil thoughts to vent themselves: "Once have I spoken amiss, yea, twice," that is, "divers times, in one discourse and in another; but I have done: I will not answer; I will not stand to what I have said, nor say it again; I will proceed no further." Observe here what true repentance is. (1.) It is to rectify our errors, and the false principles we went upon in doing as we did. What we have long, and often, and vigorously maintained, once, yea, twice, we must retract as soon as we are convinced that it is a mistake, not adhere to it any longer, but take shame to ourselves for holding it so long. (2.) It is to return from every by-path and to proceed not one step further in it: "I will not add" (so the word is); "I will never indulge my passion so much again, nor give myself such a liberty of speech, will never say as I have said nor do as I have done." Till it comes to this, we come short of repentance. Further observe, Those who dispute with God will be silenced at last. Job had been very bold and forward in demanding a conference with God, and talked very boldly, how plain he would make his case, and how sure he was that he should be justified. As a prince he would go near unto him (ch. xxxi. 37); he would come even to his seat (ch. xxiii. 3); but he has soon enough of it; he lets fall his plea and will not answer. "Lord, the wisdom and right are all on thy side, and I have done foolishly and wickedly in questioning them."

Divine Justice and Power; God's Dominion over the Proud. (b. c. 1520.)

6 Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. 8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? 9 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? 10 Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty. 11 Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. 12 Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. 13 Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret. 14 Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.

Job was greatly humbled for what God had already said, but not sufficiently; he was brought low, but not low enough; and therefore God here proceeds to reason with him in the same manner and to the same purport as before, v. 6. Observe, 1. Those who duly receive what they have heard from God, and profit by it, shall hear more from him. 2. Those who are truly convinced of sin, and penitent for it, yet have need to be more thoroughly convinced and to be made more deeply penitent. Those who are under convictions, who have their sins set in order before their eyes and their hearts broken for them, must learn from this instance not to catch at comfort too soon; it will be everlasting when it comes, and therefore it is necessary that we be prepared for it by deep humiliation, that the wound be searched to the bottom and not skinned over, and that we do not make more haste out of our convictions than good speed. When our hearts begin to melt and relent within us, let those considerations be dwelt upon and pursued which will help to make a thorough effectual thaw of it.

God begins with a challenge (v. 7), as before (ch. xxxviii. 3): "Gird up thy loins now like a man; if thou hast the courage and confidence thou hast pretended to, show them now; but thou wilt soon be made to see and own thyself no match for me." This is that which every proud heart must be brought to at last, either by its repentance or by its ruin; and thus low must every mountain and hill be, sooner or later, brought. We must acknowledge,

I. That we cannot vie with God for justice, that the Lord is righteous and holy in his dealings with us, but that we are unrighteous and unholy in our conduct towards him; we have a great deal to blame ourselves for, but nothing to blame him for (v. 8): "Wilt thou disannul my judgment? Wilt thou take exceptions to what I say and do, and bring a writ of error, to reverse the judgment I have given as erroneous and unjust?" Many of Job's complaints had too much of a tendency this way: I cry out of wrong, says he, but I am not heard; but such language as this is by no means to be suffered. God's judgment cannot, must not, be disannulled, for we are sure it is according to truth, and therefore it is a great piece of impudence and iniquity in us to call in question. "Wilt thou," says God, "condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Must my honour suffer for the support of thy reputation? Must I be charged as dealing unjustly with thee because thou canst not otherwise clear thyself from the censures thou liest under?" Our duty is to condemn ourselves, that God may be righteous. David is therefore ready to own the evil he has done in God's sight, that God may be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges, Ps. li. 4. See Neh. ix. 33; Dan. ix. 7. But those are very proud, and very ignorant both of God and themselves, who, to clear themselves, will condemn God; and the day is coming when, if the mistake be not rectified in time by repentance, the eternal judgment will be both the confutation of the plea and the confusion of the prisoner, for the heavens shall declare God's righteousness and all the world shall become guilty before him.

II. That we cannot vie with God for power; and therefore, as it is great impiety, so it is great impudence to contest with him, and is as much against our interest as it is against reason and justice (v. 9): "Hast thou an arm like God, equal to his in length and strength? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him, as he did (ch. xxxvii. 1, 2), or does now out of the whirlwind?" To convince Job that he was not so able as he thought himself to contest with God, he shows him, 1. That he could never fight it out with him, nor carry his cause by force of arms. Sometimes, among men, controversies have been decided by battle, and the victorious champion is adjudged to have justice on his side; but, if the controversy were put upon that issue between God and man, man would certainly go by the worse, for all the forces he could raise against the Almighty would be but like briers and thorns before a consuming fire, Isa. xxvii. 4. "Hast thou, a poor weak worm of the earth, an arm comparable to his who upholds all things?" The power of creatures, even of angels themselves, is derived from God, limited by him, and dependent on him; but the power of God is original, independent, and unlimited. He can do every thing without us; we can do nothing without him; and therefore we have not an arm like God. 2. That he could never talk it out with him, nor carry his cause by noise and big words, which sometimes among men go a great way towards the gaining of a point: "Canst thou thunder with a voice like him? No; his voice will soon drown thine and one of his thunders will overpower and overrule all thy whispers." Man cannot speak so convincingly, so powerfully, nor with such a commanding conquering force as God can, who speaks, and it is done. His creating voice is called his thunder (Ps. civ. 7), so is that voice of his with which he terrifies and discomfits his enemies, 1 Sam. ii. 10. The wrath of a king may sometimes be like the roaring of a lion, but can never pretend to imitate God's thunder.

III. That we cannot vie with God for beauty and majesty, v. 10. "If thou wilt enter into a comparison with him, and appear more amiable, put on thy best attire: Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency. Appear in all the martial pomp, in all the royal pageantry that thou hast; make the best of every thing that will set thee off: Array thyself with glory and beauty, such as may awe thy enemies and charm thy friends; but what is it all to the divine majesty and beauty? No more than the light of a glow-worm to that of the sun when he goes forth in his strength." God decks himself with such majesty and glory as are the terror of devils and all the powers of darkness and make them tremble; he arrays himself with such glory and beauty as are the wonder of angels and all the saints in light and make them rejoice. David could dwell all his days in God's house, to behold the beauty of the Lord. But, in comparison with this, what is all the majesty and excellency by which princes think to make themselves feared, and all the glory and beauty by which lovers think to make themselves beloved? If Job think, in contending with God, to carry the day by looking great and making a figure, he is quite mistaken. The sun shall be ashamed, and the moon confounded, when God shines forth.

IV. That we cannot vie with God for dominion over the proud, v. 11-14. here the cause is put upon this short issue: if Job can humble and abase proud tyrants and oppressors as easily and effectually as God can, it shall be acknowledged that he has some colour to compete with God. Observe here,

1. The justice Job is here challenged to do, and that is to bring the proud low with a look. If Job will pretend to be a rival with God, especially if he pretend to be a judge of his actions, he must be able to do this.

(1.) It is here supposed that God can do it and will do it himself, else he would not have put it thus upon Job. By this God proves himself to be God, that he resists the proud, sits Judge upon them, and is able to bring them to ruin. Observe here, [1.] That proud people are wicked people, and pride is at the bottom of a great deal of the wickedness that is in this world both towards God and man. [2.] Proud people will certainly be abased and brought low; for pride goes before destruction. If they bend not, they will break; if they humble not themselves by true repentance, God will humble them, to their everlasting confusion. The wicked will be trodden down in their place, that is, Wherever they are found, though they pretend to have a place of their own, and to have taken root in it, yet even there they shall be trodden down, and all the wealth, and power, and interest, to which their place entitles them, will not be their security. [3.] The wrath of God, scattered among the proud, will humble them, and break them, and bring them down. If he casts abroad the rage of his wrath, as he will do at the great day and sometimes does in this life, the stoutest heart cannot hold out against him. Who knows the power of his anger? [4.] God can and does easily abase proud tyrants; he can look upon them, and bring them low, can overwhelm them with shame, and fear, and utter ruin, by one angry look, as he can, by a gracious look, revive the hearts of the contrite ones. [5.] He can and will at last do it effectually (v. 13), not only bring them to the dust, from which they might hope to arise, but hide them in the dust, like the proud Egyptian whom Moses slew and hid in the sand (Exod. ii. 12), that is, they shall be brought not only to death, but to the grave, that pit out of which there is no return. They were proud of the figure they made, but they shall be buried in oblivion and be no more remembered than those that are hidden in the dust, out of sight and out of mind. They were linked in leagues and confederacies to do mischief, and are now bound in bundles. They are hidden together; not their rest, but their shame together is in the dust, ch. xvii. 16. Nay, they are treated as malefactors (who, when condemned, had their faces covered, as Haman's was: He binds their faces in secret) or as dead men: Lazarus, in the grave, had his face bound about. Thus complete will be the victory that God will gain, at last, over proud sinners that set themselves in opposition to him. Now by this he proves himself to be God. Does he thus hate proud men? Then he is holy. Will he thus punish them? Then he is the just Judge of the world. Can he thus humble them? Then he is the Lord Almighty. When he had abased proud Pharaoh, and hidden him in the sand of the Red Sea, Jethro thence inferred that doubtless the Lord is greater than all gods, for wherein the proud enemies of his Israel dealt proudly he was above them, he was too hard for them, Exod. xviii. 11. See Rev. xix. 1, 2.

(2.) It is here proposed to Job to do it. He had been passionately quarrelling with God and his providence, casting abroad the rage of his wrath towards heaven, as if he thought thereby to bring God himself to his mind. "Come," says God, "try thy hand first upon proud men, and thou wilt soon see how little they value the rage of thy wrath; and shall I then regard it, or be moved by it?" Job had complained of the prosperity and power of tyrants and oppressors, and was ready to charge God with mal-administration for suffering it; but he ought not to find fault, except he could mend. If God, and he only, has power enough to humble and bring down proud men, no doubt he has wisdom enough to know when and how to do it, and it is not for us to prescribe to him or to teach him how to govern the world. Unless we had an arm like God we must not think to take his work out of his hands.

2. The justice which is here promised to be done him if he can perform such mighty works as these (v. 14): "They will I also confess unto thee that thy right hand is sufficient to save thee, though, after all, it would be too weak to contend with me." It is the innate pride and ambition of man that he would be his own saviour (would have his own hands sufficient for him and be independent), but it is presumption to pretend that he is. Our own hands cannot save us by recommending us to God's grace, much less by rescuing us from his justice. Unless we could by our own power humble our enemies, we cannot pretend by our own power to save ourselves; but, if we could, God himself would confess it. He never did nor ever will defraud any man of his just praise, nor deny him the honour he has merited. But, since we cannot do this, we must confess unto him that our own hands cannot save us, and therefore into his hand we must commit ourselves.

Description of Behemoth. (b. c. 1520.)

15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. 16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. 17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. 18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. 19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. 20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. 21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. 22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. 23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. 24 He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

God, for the further proving of his own power and disproving of Job's pretensions, concludes his discourse with the description of two vast and mighty animals, far exceeding man in bulk and strength, one he calls behemoth, the other leviathan. In these verses we have the former described. "Behold now behemoth, and consider whether thou art able to contend with him who made that beast and gave him all the power he has, and whether it is not thy wisdom rather to submit to him and make thy peace with him." Behemoth signifies beasts in general, but must here be meant of some one particular species. Some understand it of the bull; others of an amphibious animal, well known (they say) in Egypt, called the river-horse (hippopotamus), living among the fish in the river Nile, but coming out to feed upon the earth. But I confess I see no reason to depart from the ancient and most generally received opinion, that it is the elephant that is here described, which is a very strong stately creature, of very large stature above any other, of wonderful sagacity, and of so great a reputation in the animal kingdom that among so many four-footed beasts as we have had the natural history of (ch. xxxviii. and xxxix.) we can scarcely suppose this should be omitted. Observe,

I. The description here given of the behemoth.

1. His body is very strong and well built. His strength is in his loins, v. 16. His bones, compared with those of other creatures, are like bars of iron, v. 18. His back-bone is so strong that, though his tail be not large, yet he moves it like a cedar, with a commanding force, v. 17. Some understand it of the trunk of the elephant, for the word signifies any extreme part, and in that there is indeed a wonderful strength. So strong is the elephant in his back and loins, and the sinews of his thighs, that he will carry a large wooden tower, and a great number of fighting men in it. No animal whatsoever comes near the elephant for strength of body, which is the main thing insisted on in this description.

2. He feeds on the productions of the earth and does not prey upon other animals: He eats grass as an ox (v. 15), the mountains bring him forth food (v. 20), and the beasts of the field do not tremble before him nor flee from him, as from a lion, but they play about him, knowing they are in no danger from him. This may give us occasion, (1.) To acknowledge the goodness of God in ordering it so that a creature of such bulk, which requires so much food, should not feed upon flesh (for then multitudes must die to keep him alive), but should be content with the grass of the field, to prevent such destruction of lives as otherwise must have ensued. (2.) To commend living upon herbs and fruits without flesh, according to the original appointment of man's food, Gen. i. 29. Even the strength of an elephant, as of a horse and an ox, may be supported without flesh; and why not that of a man? Though therefore we use the liberty God has allowed us, yet be not among riotous eaters of flesh, Prov. xxiii. 20. (3.) To commend a quiet and peaceable life. Who would not rather, like the elephant, have his neighbours easy and pleasant about him, than, like the lion, have them all afraid of him?

3. He lodges under the shady trees (v. 21), which cover him with their shadow (v. 22), where he has a free and open air to breathe in, while lions, which live by prey, when they would repose themselves, are obliged to retire into a close and dark den, to live therein, and to abide in the covert of that, ch. xxxviii. 40. Those who are a terror to others cannot but be sometimes a terror to themselves too; but those will be easy who will let others be easy about them; and the reed and fens, and the willows of the brook, though a very weak and slender fortification, yet are sufficient for the defence and security of those who therefore dread no harm, because they design none.

4. That he is a very great and greedy drinker, not of wine or strong drink (to be greedy of that is peculiar to man, who by his drunkenness makes a beast of himself), but of fair water. (1.) His size is prodigious, and therefore he must have supply accordingly, v. 23. He drinks so much that one would think he could drink up a river, if you would give him time, and not hasten him. Or, when he drinks, he hasteth not, as those do that drink in fear; he is confident of his own strength and safety, and therefore makes no haste when he drinks, no more haste than good speed. (2.) His eye anticipates more than he can take; for, when he is very thirsty, having been long kept without water, he trusts that he can drink up Jordan in his mouth, and even takes it with his eyes, v. 24. As a covetous man causes his eyes to fly upon the wealth of this world, which he is greedy of, so this great beast is said to snatch, or draw up, even a river with his eyes. (3.) His nose has in it strength enough for both; for, when he goes greedily to drink with it, he pierces through snares or nets, which perhaps are laid in the waters to catch fish. He makes nothing of the difficulties that lie in his way, so great is his strength and so eager his appetite.

II. The use that is to be made of this description. We have taken a view of this mountain of a beast, this over-grown animal, which is here set before us, not merely as a show (as sometimes it is in our country) to satisfy our curiosity and to amuse us, but as an argument with us to humble ourselves before the great God; for, 1. He made this vast animal, which is so fearfully and wonderfully made; it is the work of his hands, the contrivance of his wisdom, the production of his power; it is behemoth which I made, v. 15. Whatever strength this, or any other creature, has, it is derived from God, who therefore must be acknowledged to have all power originally and infinitely in himself, and such an arm as it is not for us to contest with. This beast is here called the chief, in its kind, of the ways of God (v. 19), an eminent instance of the Creator's power and wisdom. Those that will peruse the accounts given by historians of the elephant will find that his capacities approach nearer to those of reason than the capacities of any other brute-creature whatsoever, and therefore he is fitly called the chief of the ways of God, in the inferior part of the creation, no creature below man being preferable to him. 2. He made him with man, as he made other four-footed beasts, on the same day with man (Gen. i. 25, 26), whereas the fish and fowl were made the day before; he made him to live and move on the same earth, in the same element, and therefore man and beast are said to be jointly preserved by divine Providence as fellow-commoners, Ps. xxxvi. 6. "It is behemoth, which I made with thee; I made that beast as well as thee, and he does not quarrel with me; why then dost thou? Why shouldst thou demand peculiar favours because I made thee (ch. x. 9), when I made the behemoth likewise with thee? I made thee as well as that beast, and therefore can as easily manage thee at pleasure as that beast, and will do it whether thou refuse or whether thou choose. I made him with thee, that thou mayest look upon him and receive instruction." We need not go far for proofs and instances of God's almighty power and sovereign dominion; they are near us, they are with us, they are under our eye wherever we are. 3. He that made him can make his sword to approach to him (v. 19), that is, the same hand that made him, notwithstanding his great bulk and strength, can unmake him again at pleasure and kill an elephant as easily as a worm or a fly, without any difficulty, and without the imputation either of waste or wrong. God that gave to all the creatures their being may take away the being he gave; for may he not do what he will with his own? And he can do it; he that has power to create with a word no doubt has power to destroy with a word, and can as easily speak the creature into nothing as at first he spoke it out of nothing. The behemoth perhaps is here intended (as well as the leviathan afterwards) to represent those proud tyrants and oppressors whom God had just now challenged Job to abase and bring down. They think themselves as well fortified against the judgments of God as the elephant with his bones of brass and iron; but he that made the soul of man knows all the avenues to it, and can make the sword of justice, his wrath, to approach to it, and touch it in the most tender and sensible part. He that framed the engine, and put the parts of it together, knows how to take it in pieces. Woe to him therefore that strives with his Maker, for he that made him has therefore power to make him miserable, and will not make him happy unless he will be ruled by him.

CHAP. XL. Verſe 1. Moreover the Lord anſwered Job and ſaid]

HIC veriſimile eſt aliquantiſpèr Deum tacuiſſe, ſaith Mercer. Here it is likely that God held his peace a while, and ſeeing that Job replyed not, he added the following words, the more fully to convince and affect him. There is ſomewhat to do to reduce a ſinner from the error of his way, yea, though he be in part regenerate, the fleſh will play its part againſt the Spirit. This muſt be conſidered, and all gentleneſs uſed to thoſe that offend of infirmity, aſter Gods example here.

Verſe 2. Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty inſtruct him?] Or,An diſputare cum Omnipotente eſt eruditio? Is it wiſdom to contend with the Almighty? No, but the greateſt folly and ſottiſhneſſe. Job might think otherwiſe, ſo long as he compared himſelf with others; but being once ſet by God in his ſuperexcellencies conſidered, he ſhall ſee his owne nothingneſſe, and ſit down in ſilence and patience, though ſeverely tryed, and ſharply afflicted.

He that reproveth God, let him anſwer it] Anſwer it if he can, or elſe yeeld the cauſe. Praeſtat herbam dare quàm turpitèr pugnare. But if Job have yet further a mind to queſtion and quarrel God in any his wayes and works, let it be heard what anſwer he can returne to what hath been already ſpoken.

Verſe 3. Then Job anſwered the Lord, and ſaid] 'Twas time for him, if ever, to ſtoop to the Moſt High, ſo far condeſcending to his meanneſſe, and to anſwer his expectation by acknowledging a fault, and promiſing amendment. Lo this is the guiſe of a godly perſon: He may be out, but he will not uſually be obſtinate. An humble man will never be an Heretick; convince him once, and he will yeeld: Not ſo the obſtinate and uncounſellable perſon; he runs away with conviction, as the unruly horſe doth with the bit between his teeth: and his wit will better ſerve him to deviſe a thouſand ſhifts to elude the truth, than his pride will ſuffer him once to yield to it, and acknowledge his errour.

Verſe 4. Behold I am vile] Light and little worth: and therefore deſerve to beſlighted and laid by, as a broken veſſel. The humble man vilifies, yea, nullifies himſelf before God, as Abraham, Gen. 18.27. as Agur, Prov. 30.2. as Paul, Epheſ. 3.8. as that Martyr who cryed out, Gehenna ſum Domine, Lord, thou art heaven, but I am hell, &c. Tantillitas noſtra, ſaith Ignatius of himſelf and his colleagues. Behold, 1 am an abject ſaith Job here, contemptible, and inconſiderable. This was well, but not all: an excellent confeſſion, but not full enough: his meanneſſe he acknowledgeth, and that he was no fit match for God: but not his ſinfulneſſe, with deſire of pardon, and deprecation of puniſhment: God therefore gives him not over ſo, but ſets upon him a ſecond time, verſ. 6. and brings him to it, chap. 42.1. There muſt be ſome proportion betwixt a mans ſin, and his repentance, Ezra. 9. and this, God will bring all his Jobs to, ere he leave them.

What ſhall I anſwer thee?] I am ſilenced, and ſet down; I ſee there is no reaſoning againſt thee. I acknowledge thy greatneſſe ſo plainly and plentifully demonſtrated in the fore-going diſcourſe: and am well pleaſed that thou ſhouldeſt be juſtified when thou ſpeakeſt, and over-come when thou judgeſt, Pſal. 51.4. Rom. 3.4.

I will lay my hand upon my mouth] I that have ſpoken more freely and boldly then I ought, Et ore patulo multa ſine judicio effutivi; and have opened my mouth more wide then was meet: will henceforth be better adviſed, and keep my mouth with a bridle, or muzzle, as Pſal. 39.1. See the Note on chap. 21. verſ. 5.

Verſe 5. Once have I ſpoken, but I will not anſwer] 'Tis enough of that Once: The Saints running out, and meeting with a bargain of ſin, come back by weepingcroſſe, and cry, What have I to do any more with wickedneſſe, Hoſ. 14.8? Judah knew his daughter Tamar no more, Gen. 38.26. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more, chap. 34.31, 32. That was Elihu's counſel; and now it is Jobs practiſe.

Tea, Twice] That is, Often: ſo eager was I ſet upon a diſpute. This was an Aggravation of Jobs ſin, the committing of it again and again. Numbers added to numbers are firſt ten times more; then, an hundred; then, a thouſand, &c. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, Jeremiah, 22.21. that was an ill buſineſſe.

But I will proceed no further] ſc. In this controverſie. I will not come into the liſts to contend with thee. I ſee there is no ſafety in ſuch a conteſt. In many things we offend all, ſaith St. James: and he is a perfect man who ſinneth not with his tongue. But as he who hath drunk poyſon, maketh haſte to caſt it up again, ere it get go the vitals: ſo ſhould we deal by our daily miſdoings. It is not falling into the water that drowns a man, but lying long under it. Bewaile thy ſin, and haſten to get out of it.

Verſe 6. Then anſwered the Lord unto Job out of a Whirl-Wind] As before, chap. 38.1. notwithſtanding Jobs ſubmiſſion. See the reaſon on verſ. 4. God took his out-burſts againſt him ſo very ill, that he is not eaſily pacified; but the better to abaſe Job, and quite to break the neck of his pride, he anſwereth him again angerly, not by a ſoft and ſtill voice, as he dealt by Eliah, but out of the whirl-wind, though with ſome abatement of terrour, as Rainban conceiveth from the leaving out here the notificative Article, ſet before Segnarab the whirl-wind in the 38 chapter. Peter was not over-forward to comfort thoſe that were prickt at heart with ſenſe of ſin, and fear of wrath; but preſſeth them yet further to repent, Act. 2.38. Men are apt to ſlight and ſlubber over the work, doing it to the halves; and muſt therefore be held hard to it, leſt it ſhould not be done to purpoſe.

Verſe 7. Gird up thy loynes now like a man] Reſume new ſtrength, and prepare your ſelf for a ſecond encounter: for I have not yet done with you. If therefore you think your ſelf able to ſtand in contention with me, ſhew your valour. See the Note on chap. 38.3.

Verſe 8. Wilt thou alſo diſannul my judgement?] Doſt thou think to ruin my juſtice, to eſtabliſh thine own innocency? and wilt thou needs be a ſuperiour judge over me? Wilt thou not revoke thy former expoſtulations and complaints againſt me, and with open mouth give me my due glory? Here God ſheweth his diſſatisfaction with Jobs former confeſſion.

Wilt thou condemne me, that thou maieſt be righteous?] Job had bolted out ſome words that either tended to this purpoſe, or ſeemed ſo to do to the juſt grief & offence of his friends. For this therefore he muſt be better humbled, and henceforth learn to abſtain not only from things ſimply evil, but ſeemingly ſo; quicquid fuerit malè coloratum, (as Bernard hath it) whatſoever looks but ill-favouredly.

Verſe 9. Haſt thou an arm like God?] That thou ſhouldeſt wreſtle a fall with him, and hope to over-match him? Thou haſt a mighty arm, ſaith David, ſtrong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Pſal. 89.13. It ſpans the heavens, and holds the earth in the hollow of it. The weight of it broke the Angels backs: and the terrour of it may be ſeen in all thoſe writs of execution recorded in the Scriptures. Oh its a fearful thing, ſaith the Apoſtle, to fall into the (puniſhing) hands of the living God, Heb. 10.

Or canſt thou thunder with a voice like him?] Of Pericles the Oratour it is ſaid, that when he declaimed, Intonabat, fulgurabat, totam Graeciam commiſcebat, &c. Cicero. he thundered, he lightned, he mingled all Greece together. And Livy, ſpeaking of a certain Roman Commander, ſaith, Haec cum intonuiſſet iracundus, &c. Theſe things when he had thundered out angerly, and with a courage, the people departed of their own accord. Alexander the Great, being once vexed at his Souldiers for mutining and tumultuating, thunder-ſtruck them with theſe words, Faceſſite hins acyùs, neminem teneo; liberate occulos meos ingratiſſimi milites; Get you quickly out of my preſence, and be packing hence, ye ungrateful Souldiers. And Severus the Emperour in like ſort dealt with his unruly Army, Diſcedite Quirites, ſaid he, et incertum an Quirites; Theſe were terrible hard words, and very reſolutely uttered: But what's any, or all of this to the voice of Gods thunder, whereof ſee before? Knoweſt thou not, O Job, that thine arm is an arm of fleſh? and thy voice ſo ſmall and low, that a Fly would not be frighted at it?

Verſe 10. Deck thy ſelf now with Majeſty and Excellency] Or, With magnificence, and ſublimity. &c. i. e. Deum age, ſhew thy ſelf as God: for he thus decks himſelf, Pſal. 93.1. & 96.6. & 104.1, 2. Job 29.14.

And array thy ſelf with glory and beauty] That thou maieſt appear, Os humeroſque Deo ſimilis, as Herod afterwards in his cloth of ſilver, which being beaten upon by the Sun-beams (ſaith Joſephus) dazeled the peoples eyes, and drew from them that fond acclamation, It is the voice of a God, Act. 12.22.

Verſe 11. Caſt abroad the rage of thy wrath] In this glorious equipage; make thy juſt indignation felt by all the rebels of the world. Nemo te impunè laceſſet.

And behold every one that is proud] Look upon him oculo minaci, with a flaming eye: look through him, let him ſee thy diſpleaſure. Upon ſome God looketh, to convert them, as Chriſt did upon Peter, Luk. 22.61. Upon others, to confound them, —[non-Latin text not transcribed].

And abaſe him] Abate his pride, and abaſe his pomp, and greatneſſe: this is God-like, Pſal. 147.6. Aeſop being asked by Chilo (one of the ſeven wiſe-men of Greece) What God was doing? Anſwered, He abaſeth the proud, and exalteth the lowly-minded. Tamberlain, to manifeſt that he knew how to puniſh the haughty, made Bajazet the great Turk to be ſhackled, and ſhut up in an iron cage, and ſo carried up and down as he paſſed through Aſia, to be ſcorned and derided of his own people. And when one of his Favourites requeſted him to remit ſome part of his ſeverity againſt the perſon of ſo great a Prince: Tamberlain anſwered,Turk. hiſt. f. 22[illegible: 1 letter] That he did not uſe that rigour againſt him out of hatred to the man, but to manifeſt the juſt judgement of God againſt the arrogant folly of ſo proud a Tyrant.

Verſe 12. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low] This God doeth, Iſai. 2.11, 12, 17. & 5.15. The Babel-builders, Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, Diocleſian, Attilas, and others for inſtances; Amurath the third King of Turks, in the pride of his heart, ſtiled himſelf, God of the Earth, Governour of the whole World,Turk. hiſt. f. 920 the Meſſenger of God, and faithful Servant of the great Prophet. This proud Prince was ſlain by an half-dead Chriſtian Souldier, who coming to crave his life of him after a battel,Ibid. 200. ſtabbed him in the bottom of his belly with a ſhort dagger; of which wound that King and Conquerour preſently died. See the Note on verſ. 11.

And tread down the wicked in their place] Heb Ʋnder them; lay them as low as may be. God putteth away all the wicked of the earth as droſſe, he treads them, as vile things, under his feet, Pſal. 110.1. till they bethink themſelves, and humble their ſouls at his feet for mercy: for then he will make the place of his feet glorious, as he promiſeth, Iſai. 60.13. and as Exod. 24.10. they ſaw under Gods feet as it were, a paved work of Sapphire ſtone; to ſhew that he had now changed their condition, the Bricks made in their bondage, into Sapphire. See Iſai. 54.11.

Verſe 13. Hide them in the duſt together] Make a hand of them all at once, as God can do his enemies by raking them all into the grave; yea, turning into hell; whole Nations that forget God, a whole rabble of rebels that fight againſt heaven, he can ſoon lay them low enough, even in that ſlimy valley, where are many already like them, and more ſhall come after them, chap. 21.31, 32. Now when God biddeth Job do all this, who was himſelf lying in the duſt, full of ſores and ſorrows, how could he but he greatly aſhamed, and affected with grief for his former follies?

And bind[illegible: 1 letter] their faces in ſecret] As Hamans face was covered when the King had ſentenced him, Eſth. 7.8. See the Note there: Or rather, as dead-mens faces uſe to be bound up and covered: for we like not to look on deaths face; Abraham was deſirous to bury his dead out of his ſight, Gen. 23.4. though ſhe had once been the deſire of his eyes, Ezek. 24.16. Lazarus came out of his grave with his face bound about with a napkin, Job. 11.14. See the like done to our Saviour, Job. 20.6, 7. though there was as little need to have done it, as was of thoſe ſweet ſpices brought by the good women to anoint his body, which could not ſee corruption, Mark 16.1.

Verſe 14. Then will I alſo confeſſe unto thee, &c.] Or, I will give praiſe unto thee, as thou by right ſhouldeſt do to me: not for my goodneſſe only, but for my greatneſſe and majeſty alſo, in deſtroying the wicked. See David doing it, Pſal. 18.27. and Moſes, Exod. 15.1. and the whole quire of heaven, Revel. 19.1, 2.

And that thine own right hand can ſave thee] That [illegible: 1 letter]hou art ſelf-ſufficient, and my compere;Et ego quoque praedicabo te beroa. Tig. ſtrong enough to maintain thine own cauſe, and that thou haſt ſome ſhew of reaſon to withſtand me. This is that which we all naturally (but fooliſhly) fancy. viz. that we are petty-gods within our ſelves: we would be abſolute and independent; when in truth all that we have is derivative; the Churches beauty is borrowed, Ezek. 16. and we may ſay of all that we are, as he did of his hatchet, Alas Maſter, I borrowed it, 2 King. 6.5.

Verſe 15. Behold now Behemoth which I made with thee] i.e. The Elephant called Behemoth; Vocatur Bellua per Antonomaſiam, & [non-Latin text not transcribed] Graec. that is Beaſts in the plural, for his hugeneſſe: as if he were made up of many beaſts. So David, aggravating his own brutiſhneſſe, ſaith, So fooliſh was I and ignorant: I was as a beaſt (Heb. Behemoth, beaſts in the plural) before thee, Pſal. 73.22. that is, as a great beaſt: his ſin ſwelled in his eyes, as a toad; he befools and be-beaſts himſelf, as reaſon required: for nothing is more irrational, than irreligion.

Which I made with thee] Thy fellow creature, made to ſerve thee. He is in the Chaldee called, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Pil; that is, Wonderful: becauſe the wonders of Gods glory do ſo marvellouſly appear in him. Made he was the ſame day with man, and hath a kind of familiarity and love to him, if brought up with him, doing him great good ſervice in Peace and War, and may be taught to adore Kings.

He eaieth graſſe like an Ox] He is not ravenous nor carnivorous; neither eateth he daily the graſſe upon a thouſand hills,Lyra. as the Hebrews fooliſhly fable, and that he is to be killed at the reſurrection to feaſt the Saints, as being a creature of a monſtrous bigneſſe. As the Ox li[illegible: 2 letters]eth up graſſe, Numb. 22.4. ſo doth the Elephant; yet not with his tongue, (which for ſo great a Beaſt is but little, neither read we here any thing at all of his voice, (to teach great men, faith One; not to ſpeak bigge ſwolne words) but with his Trunk or great Snout, called his tail, verſe 17 (as Beza thinketh) becauſe it beares the reſemblance of a taile,Ariſt. de N[illegible: 2 letters]. Anim l. 2. c. 5, 6. and is of moſt marvellous and neceſſary uſe to him. With this he grazeth, and with this he over-throweth trees, and then feedeth upon them. But he doth not proudly abuſe the mightineſſe of his limbs to the hurt of other cattle. yet he will not be wronged, and is of ſo great ſtrength, that no one man dare aſſault him.

Verſe 16. Lo now his ſtrength is in his loines] Wherein he is ſo ſtrong, that he can beare a wooden Tower upon his back, and upon that two and thirty men ſtanding to fight there-from. In India, where the hugeſt Elephants are, they ride upon the bigger, plow with the leſſer, and carry great loads and burdens with both. For which and the like purpoſes,Junius. totus robuſtiſſimus eſt ſupernè & infernè. Howbeit God hath chiefly placed his ſtrength, not in any offenſive part (his head hath no horns, nor his feet no clawes to do miſchief with) but in his loynes, and about his belly.

And his force is in the navel of his belly] Which muſt needs be very hard undergirded, when ſo great weight is made faſt to his back. Naturaliſts obſerve, That the ſofteſt part of the Elephant is his belly; and therefore the Rhinoceros, (his deadly enemy) ſetteth upon him there with his crooked horn whetted againſt a Rock, and overcometh him; yet is he ſtronger in his belly then other Creatures are in the back: and therfore his Navel is here called Navels in the plural. His skin is exceeding hard and rough, ſo that an Arrow can hardly pierce it. Yet Eleazer, Machab. 6 ruſhing into the enemies Army, gat under an Elephants belly, (upon which he thought King Antiochus rode) and killed him, being himſelf cruſhed to death with the weight of the Beaſt falling upon him.

Verſe 17. He moveth his tail like a Caedur] The Elephant hath but a ſmall and ſhort taile, for his bulk; Beza therefore rendreth it his prominent part which is as the Cedar, and interpreteth it of his Pr[illegible: 1 letter]bofeis, or large Snout,Sic. & Deodat. which truly (ſaith he) as being proper to the Elephant, and of very great uſe, might not in any wiſe, be pretermitted in this deſcription. See verſ. 15.

The ſinewes of his ſtones are wrapt together] This is alſo another of the Elephants properties, whoſe teſticles are hidden and ſtick to his belly, faſtned there by certaine ſinewes and ligaments, and do not hang as other beaſts teſticles do. As his genital members are but ſmall, conſidering his bigneſſe, ſo his luſt to the female is not great, never coupling with her but in ſecret, and when ſhe is once filled forbearing her company.

Verſe 18. His bones are as ſtrong pieces of braſſe] Or, As Conduit Pipes of braſſe. whereby may be underſtood his hollow bones. as by bars of Iron the ſolid ones and by both, (together with his Trunk, compoſed of griſtles, and his teeth and tuſhes eight foot long ſome of them) we may conjecture of the bigneſſe of his whole body; the hugeſt of all earthly creatures, ſaith Pliny; nine cubits high, ſaith Elian of ſome. Now can Job look upon ſuch a monſtrous creature, or hear his noiſe or ſtand before him without great horror? and will he not ſubmit to the great God and give him all his glory.

Verſe 19. He is the chief of the wayes of God] i.e. The Maſter-piece among all the beaſts (and perhaps firſt made) as Man is among all earthly creatures, being divini ingenii cura; as One calls him. Of all earthly irrational creatures, the Elephant is the hugeſt and ſtrongeſt and of moſt underſtanding.

He that made him can make his ſword to approach unto him] i.e. God alone can deal with him, and kill him. for no man dare undertake him unleſſe it be by Art and cunning; and that in Jobs dayes, likely, was not yet known or practiced. And if God had not given an horn to the Rhinoceros, and poiſon to the Dragon (who are the Elephants moſt mortal enemies) there were no beaſts to be found that could have the better of him. He is of himſelf long-lived, ſaith Ariſtotle. but God can, and doth cut him off at his pleaſure; and ſo he will thoſe maſterleſſe Monſters that perſecute his people, though they may ſeem to be out of the reach of his rod. Some read the words thus, He that made him, made his ſword to be near him; and intepret it of his Proboſcis, or Snout, wherewith, as with a ſword, he fights, and does many feats. Curtius ſaith, That when Porus the Indian King, being wounded in battle, fell down armed to the ground, his Elephant with his Trunk gently took him up, and ſet him upon his back again. Some in their wars have faſtned ſharp ſwords to the Snouts of the Elephants, and done much miſchief therewith to the enemy.

Verſe 20 Surely the Mountaines bring him forth food] And food enough, though he be of an huge body. Learne we to truſt unto Gods providence for our neceſſary proviſion: the earth is the Lords, and the fulneſſe thereof. See verſe 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 paſſe through the herds of other beaſts or cattle, he maketh way (ſaith Pliny) with his Snout, that he may not hurt any of them, and beckneth to them therewith, as it were with his hand, that he will only paſs by them, and do them no harm.

Verſe 21. He lyeth under the ſhady trees] Vatablus readeth the words queſtion-wiſe thus,Sic R. Levi. & Kimchi. Lyeth he under the ſhady trees in the covert of the reeds and fens? No ſuch matter, he is too big to be ſhaded by trees, neither can reeds and fens cover him. But Ariſtotle tells us, That he loves to lye by the banks of Rivers beſet with trees,Debiſt. anim. l. 9. c. 46 Plin. lib. 8. c. 10. as being naturally hot, and bred in hot Countries: and yet he is impatient of cold and winter. And therefore when Hannibal brought many Elephants out of Africa into Italy, they all periſhed in the cold Alps, except only that one whereupon Hannibal himſelf rode.

In the covert of the reed and fens] Hence Cardinus ſaith, That the Elephant is of a Swiniſh nature,Ad calorem frangendum craſſo caeno per. funduntur. Plin. delighted with mud and mire. And Gulielmus Pariſienſis applyeth, Behemoth in the fens, to the divel in ſenſual hearts. He ſleepeth in moiſt places, ſaith he; that is, in thoſe that lye melting in ſinful pleaſures and delights: therefore Luke 11. it is ſaid, that he walketh in dry places, ſeeking reſt, but finding none: and Ezek 47.11. when the waters of the Sanctuary overflowed, the miry places could not be healed.

Verſe 22. The ſhady trees cover him with their ſhadow &c.] He leaneth againſt thoſe trees, and ſleepeth, for lye downe and riſe again he cannot for want of joynts in his limbs. And why may not we conceive the trees in thoſe parts big enough to overſhade the Elephant; when as in America, but eſpecially in Braſile, the trees are ſo huge,Abbots Geog. pag. 271. that it is reported of them, that ſeveral families have lived in ſeveral armes of one tree, to ſuch a number as are in ſome petty Village or Pariſh amongſt us?

The willowes of the brook compaſſe him about] To ſhelter him from the wind and cold. And although they cannot ſwim, they are ſo big, yet they love to be about pooles and brooks for ſhade, and to eaſe their thirſt; for the Elephant drinketh off fourteen firkins of water in a morning, ſaith Ariſtotle, and eight at night, as it followeth,

Verſe 23. Behold he drinketh up a River, and haſteth not] Viz. Through fear, tanquam canis ad Nilum, as the dogs that drink at Nilus fear the Crocodile; or as they of this Land anciently drank in fear of their lives the whiles, and were therefore wont to have ſome friend to undertake for their ſafety: whence that expreſſion of him who is drunk to, I'll pledge for you. The Elephant as he drinks huge draughts (beyond that of the Camel,Lib. 8. cap. 18. who drinketh, ſaith Pliny, Et in praeteritum, & in futurum, for both the time paſt, and the time to come) ſo he drinks without diſturbance for who dare deal with him? Other cattle, through the frightfulneſſe of their diſpoſition, break their draughts to ſtare about them. Not ſo the Elephant, who drinks as if, he would exhauſt and drain dry the River, and ſteps into it with ſuch a big body as if he would ſtop the courſe of it; therefore ſome read the words thus, He hindreth the River that is haſteth not. Some by he haſteth not, underſtand that cuſtom of the Elephant, not to drink, till he have firſt by going into, and ſtirring the water made it pudley, for he loveth not clear waters, as Elian writeth. Neither yet doth he at any time enter higher into a River then he can breath through his large Snout, for ſwim he cannot by reaſon of the weightineſſe of his body, ſaith Ariſtotle. Hiſt. anim. l. 9. cap. 46.

He truſteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth] In the vaſt imagination of his fancy he conceits that he can devour and drink up whole Jordan at once. Jordan is the greateſt River of Canaan, running along the Land, and falling into the dead Sea which yet grows no bigger by ſwallowing it. Hereunto ſome think, that this Text alludeth. But better by Jordan here, (which ariſeth from the root of Lybanus, and as ſome ſay, from a double fountain, the one on the right ſide called Dan, and the other on the left called Jor) we may underſtand by a Synecdoche, any River; and ſo theſe words are nothing elſe but an hyperbolical repetition of the former.

Verſe 24 He taketh it with his eyes] It, that is, Jordan, which he thinks when he ſeeth it, to drink up at a draught; but it is better filling his belly then his eye, as we ſay. Others, He thruſteth his head in up to the eyes through extreme greedineſſe. Brentius readeth it, Oculis ſuis capitur ipſe, decipulis perforatur naſus; and ſaith, That this Creature is taken only by his eyes and noſe; for otherwiſe he is as ſlick and ſlippery as an Eele; ſo is Satan (ſaith he) neither can we ſhun his wiles but by the Spirit of faith.In Gen. 3. p. 67. But Nouns hoc ſpumoſum? Luther in one place calleth allegories, Spumam Scripturae, the froth of the Scriptures: and in another, the allegorical ſenſe is a beauteous harlot, that inticeth idle men, who think themſelves in Paradice, and in Gods boſom when they fall upon ſuch ſpeculations. Gregory and others (who have wholy allegorized this and the former chapter, applying all to the divel and Antichriſt) obſerved not what was the ſtate and ſcope of this diſputation. Some read the Text thus, Will any take him in his fight, will any pierce his noſe with ſnares? q.d. That is not the way to take him, or hold him when taken. He muſt be caught by wiles, and not by main force or open ſtrength (See Pliny to this purpoſe) although when he is once caught, he is ſoon tamed and made tractable to many uſes. See Ariſtotles hiſtory of living Creatures.Lib. 8. cap 8. et 9 Lib. 9. cap. 46. Pliny ſaith, he had ſeen Elephants dance on the Rope, and write Greek letters with their feet, &c.

His noſe pierceth through ſnares] Or, Will any bear his noſe to put in ſnares? Though he be apt enough to be tamed and taught, yet he will not endure halter, bridle, bit or ring in his noſe; as neither will Leviathan, of whom the like is ſpoken, chap. 41.1, 2.