Job 40 explained: God Asks Job to Run the World

God's pointed question (vv. 1-2)

After the long list of questions about nature in the chapters before, God sums it up: does the one who has been arguing with him now want to correct him? Job has repeatedly asked for a hearing with God, and now he is being asked to reply.

Job falls silent (vv. 3-5)

Job says he is too small to answer and puts his hand over his mouth, a gesture of having nothing more to say. "Once, twice" is a way of saying "I have already said plenty"; readers differ on whether this is true repentance or simply stunned silence.

The real charge (vv. 6-8)

God speaks again from the storm and names the core problem: Job has been declaring God unjust in order to prove himself innocent. God does not call Job wicked, as his friends did, but objects to Job making his own case by condemning God.

Try ruling the world yourself (vv. 9-14)

God invites Job to put on royal splendor, use God-like power, and bring down every proud and wicked person on the spot. Covering their faces may echo the custom of covering the face of someone condemned; if Job could do all this, God says, he could rescue himself.

Behemoth's raw strength (vv. 15-18)

God points to Behemoth, a massive grass-eating beast made just as Job was made, with a powerful body and bones like bronze and iron. It is often taken to be a hippopotamus or elephant, though the description fits neither exactly, and some scholars see a larger-than-life or mythic creature.

A beast only God controls (vv. 19-24)

Behemoth is called first among God's works; only its Maker can come at it with a sword, though the wording of verse 19 is uncertain. It lounges peacefully in the marshes, flood waters do not bother it, and no hunter can catch it head-on, which leaves Job to wonder how he could govern a whole world.

Key verse: Job 40:8

Where Christians differ

Christians differ over whether God's speeches truly answer Job's complaint about suffering or deliberately set it aside, and over whether Job's silence here is real repentance or only a stunned refusal to argue further.

Something to think about

When someone is suffering, is being shown how vast and complex the world is a fair answer, or does it leave their real question untouched?