God’s speech to Job in Job 38–41 has two main parts. After the first part (chapters 38–39), God challenged Job:”Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it” (Job 40:2). Job responded by confessing his insignificance and promising to say no more (40:3–5). But God was not finished with him yet. The second part of his speech has three divisions. In the first (40:6–14) God again challenges Job. In the second he describes the behemoth (40:15–24), ann in the third he describes the leviathan (all of chapter 41).
Challenge to Job (40:6–14)
Chapter 40:6–7 are very similar to 38:1–3. The Lord again answers Job out of the whirlwind, revealing to him the greatness as well as the incomprehensibility of his power. And he again says to him, “Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” 38:2 has the additional words, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Though the Lord did not say it, the same question is implied in this part of the speech.
Verse 8 contains the key questions, “Would you indeed annul my judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?” “Annul My judgment” may mean simply that Job had tried to argue his way out of the affliction God had sent.( We may call that affliction judgment even though it was not sent for a specific sin on Job’s part.) Job’s position in all his speeches was that as a righteous man he should not be subjected to such affliction. But the phrase may also mean that Job wanted to enter into legal contest with God as if they were on equal footing. He wanted either to bring God down to his level, or exalt himself to the level of God so that he could present his case without terror of God’s might. He was like a prisoner at trial who wants to sit alongside the judge and have equal say in the deciding of his own case. That would annul the judgment of the judge.
The second question was also necessary. Job had justified himself, as we saw in chapter 32:2. He had also said, “God has taken away my justice” (27:2). The Lord puts those two together here and accuses Job of condemning God in order to justify himself. He had dared to say in defense of his own righteousness that God was unjust.
In verse 9, then, the Lord says to Job, as it were, “If that’s what you want to do, then you must also be equal to me in power and be able to thunder with a voice like mine. Can you do it?” The obvious answer is, of course, “No, I can’t.”
But the Lord presses the point in the following verses. If you have an arm and voice like mine, then put on the trappings of that power. “Adorn yourself with majesty and splendor” (v. 10). Reveal the glory that you claim to have. And, having revealed it, exercise judgment over the wicked. “Disperse the rage of your wrath. Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him.” Assume to yourself the divine prerogative and do what I do (vv. 11–13).
Finally, if you can do all that, “Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.” There is powerful irony in that question. Job had been crying to God for deliverance from his affliction and had argued that he could prove his righteousness if only he could meet with God on equal footing. God says to him here, if you can meet with me on equal footing then you can also save yourself. You have no need of me. Throw off the burden of your affliction without my help. He meant to crush Job’s pride and presumption.
The Behemoth (40:15–24)
In the rest of chapters 40 and 41, the Lord describes two great beasts, one who lives on land (the behemoth) and another who lives in the sea (the leviathan). Commentators have many different opinions about the identity of these beasts. Perhaps the position most frequently taken is that the behemoth is the hippopotamus and the leviathan the crocodile. The description of the behemoth fits the hippopotamus fairly well, but there are a couple points that raise a question. In verse 17 the Lord says that he “moves his tail like a cedar.” The hippopotamus’s tail is probably the least impressive part of his anatomy. And verse 20 says that “the mountains yield food for him.” Though the hippopotamus apparently does graze on dry ground at times, this seems a bit more than is reasonable. The description of the leviathan also fits the crocodile fairly well, if we allow for some hyperbole in verses 18–20 (also necessary with any other identification) and can think of him as inhabiting the sea rather than rivers (vv. 31–32).
Others have seen a correlation between these two chapters and Revelation 13 where John describes his vision of the two great beasts, one that rises from the sea and another that rises from the land. Those beasts are clearly symbolic of the power of evil, and John’s description of them as worshipping the dragon, speaking blasphemies and so makes it very clear. But the descriptions here are entirely of physical characteristics. There is very little indication, if any, that we are to understand this all as metaphorical descriptions of spiritual powers.
Christopher Ash in his commentary on Job takes the position that the behemoth represents death and the leviathan Satan. The Lord then is aking Job if he has the power to conquer death and Satan. There is some Scriptural ground for the latter identification. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses the Greek word “drakon” (dragon) to translate the Hebrew leviathan. This is the same word that Revelation 12 and 13 use when they call Satan “the Great Dragon.” But there is no similar support for the identification of behemoth with death.
I prefer, therefore, to take these descriptions as referring to literal beasts, creations of God. I wonder also if it is possible that they refer to dinosaurs. Job could certainly have had some knowledge of such beasts, at least from oral tradition preceding Noah’s time.
The behemoth is an animal of immense strength. “He is the first of the ways of God.” Only the creator can come near enough to kill him with his sword (v. 40). No man can do it. “Can anyone capture him when he is on watch, With barbs can anyone pierce his nose? (40: 24, NASB). Man is not as strong as the behemoth. How then can he stand against the Almighty?
The Leviathan (41:1-34)
The description of the leviathan is longer and more detailed. The Lord begins with questions to Job about his power to master this monster. Can you go fishing and take him with your hook and line (vv. 1–2)? Will he be subservient to you (vv. 3–4)? Will you make a pet of him (v. 5)? Can you kill him and eat him (vv. 6–7)? Beware even of attempting such a thing. You will wish you had never tried (v. 8).
In verses 9–10a the Lord extends this to all men: “No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up.”
If that is true, then who can stand against the Lord himself (vv. 10b–11). I made and govern the leviathan. He belongs to me along with all the rest of the creatures in my world. If men cannot cope with him, how will they be able to contend with me?
The rest of the description is mostly about leviathan’s appearance. His limbs, power, proportions, outer coat, terrible teeth (vv. 12–14), scales so hard and tightly fitted together that no weapon avails against him (vv. 15–17), the features of his face (nose, eyes, mouth, nostrils and breath, vv. 18–21), the strength of his neck and body (vv. 22–24), the fear he inspires even in the mighty (v. 25), the uselessness of weapons to kill him (vv. 26–30), and the size and strength that make the sea boil like a pot and create a huge frothy wake behind him (vv. 31–32). “On earth there is nothing like him” (v. 33). He is greater even than “the children of pride,” the majestic beasts like the lion and the warhorse and the eagle.
There God’s speech comes to an end. After the first part of the speech, God had renewed his challenge to Job: “Shall one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?”But here there is no such thing; we feel that Job was kind of left hanging. But the point God wanted to make was again that his creation reveals his immeasurable power. This is God’s answer to Job’s complaint.
Job’s Answer (42:1–6)
In his response to this part of the speech of God, Job first admits that God can do everything and that no one can frustrate his purposes. This is not a new idea to Job; he had know it before, but now he has a fresh and very personal understanding of it. He makes the same point in verse 6.
He also harks back to God’s first question to him (38:2): “Who is this who darkens counsel…?” And he admits that he was talking about things he did not understand, that were too wonderful for him. “Too wonderful” does not mean beautiful and remarkable, but beyond his comprehension. The word carries the same connotation as the word mystery that we use when we say, for example, that the doctrine of the Trinity is a great mystery. David uses the same word in Psalm 131:1: “LORD, my heart is not haughty, Nor my eyes lofty, Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Nor with things too profound [wonderful] for me.” Job had been haughty, but now he is properly humbled.
Finally, Job repented in dust and ashes (v. 6). This is important. After the first part of God’s speech Job had confessed his insignificance, but not sin (40:4, cf. ESV). That is probably why God continued to speak. But now he confesses sin as well. Both of these are necessary to our proper understanding of ourselves in relation to God. We are creatures and we are sinners. Without that knowledge we cannot fear him as we ought. The English poet George Herbert wrote: “Love bade me welcome but my soul drew back, guilty of dust and sin.” That must be our manner of approach to God.
That humility is the wisdom which Job described in chapter 28 when he said, “The fear of the LORD, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.” The Book of Job is rightly called wisdom literature, like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, because it teaches the fear of the Lord. But it teaches the fear of the Lord very differently. Proverbs teaches us that fear by showing us how to live a life of fear. Ecclesiastes shows us that life is vanity without it. Job teaches us that fear by showing us the omnipotence of God and our own insignificance. Proverbs teaches the practice of fear, Ecclesiastes the necessity of fear, and Job the posture of fear.
This fear of the Lord is also the book’s answer to suffering. It does not give reasons and explanations. God’s ways are too wonderful for us; we could not understand them even if he did condescend to explain them. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways.” Rather, we must submit to his yoke. In humbling ourselves under his mighty hand we will find that the yoke is easy and the burden light. But in rebellion, pride and questioning of the wisdom and justice of God, that yoke becomes a weight that crushes. The same is true of all who live in unbelief and rebellion.