Job 40 — The Holy Bible

Job 40, verse 1. Moreover the Lord God answered Job and said:

“Will anyone pervert judgment with the Mighty One?

He who rebukes God will answer for it.”

Job Responds

Job 40, verse 3. Then Job answered the Lord and said:

“Why am I still judged and admonished,

Even if I rebuke the Lord, hear such things, and am nothing?

But what answer will I give to these things?

I will put my hand over my mouth.

I have spoken once.

I will not do so a second time.”

The Lord Calls Job to Account

Job 40, verse 6. The Lord yet answered Job out of the cloud and said:

“No rather, gird up your waist like a man,

For I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

“Do you not reject My judgment?

Do you think I have dealt with you in any other way

Than might appear to you to be righteous?

Have you an arm like the Lord's?

Or can you thunder with a voice like His?

Assume now majesty and power,

And clothe yourself with glory and honor.

Send forth messengers with wrath

And humble every insolent man.

Extinguish the arrogant man

And consume at once the ungodly.

Hide them together in the earth

And fill their faces with disgrace.

Then I will also admit

That your own right hand can save you.

“But look now at the wild animals with you.

They eat grass like oxen.

Behold now, his strength is in his loins,

And his power is in the center of his stomach.

He sets up his tail like a cypress;

His nerves are tightly knit.

His ribs are like ribs of bronze,

And his backbone like bars of iron.

This is the ruler of the Lord's creation,

Made to be mocked at by His angels.

When he goes up to a rough mountain,

He causes joy to the four-footed animals in Tartarus.

He lies under trees of every kind,

Alongside the papyrus, and reed, and bulrush.

The great trees shade him with their branches;

So do the branches of the willow.

If there should be a flood, he will not notice it;

He is confident, though the Jordan beats against his mouth,

Though he takes it in his eyes,

Or one pierces his nose with a snare.

Will you catch the serpent with a hook

And put a halter about his nose?

Or will you fasten a ring in his nose

Or pierce his lip with a hook?

Will he speak to you in prayer,

Softly with the voice of a suppliant?

Will he make a covenant with you?

Will you take him as a servant forever?

Will you play with him as with a bird,

Or will you cage him as a sparrow for a child?

Do the nations feed upon him?

Will they apportion him among the nations of the Phoenicians?

All the ships come together would not be able

To bear the mere skin of his tail,

Or carry his head with fishing vessels.

Once you lay your hand on him,

Remembering the battle waged by his mouth,

Let it not be done again.