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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Job 40:15 - 40:24
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Job's Weakness Contrasted with the Strength Even of the Hippopotamus
v. 15. Behold now behemoth, a monster beast, the water-ox, or hippopotamus, which I made with thee, created by the hand of God like the human beings and living with them on the earth; he eateth grass as an ox, the tender plants, the reeds of the Nile, after the manner of domesticated cattle.
v. 16. Lo, now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly, in the sinews and muscles of his abdomen.
v. 17. He moveth his tail like a cedar, bending it like a cedar bough, with great firmness and elasticity; the sinews of his stones, rather, of his thighs, are wrapped together, firmly knit or twisted, like the tendrils of the vine or like a strong rope.
v. 18. His bones are as strong pieces of brass, tubes or channels of strength; his bones are like bars of iron, tenacious as wrought iron.
v. 19. He is the chief of the ways of God, the firstling of God's almighty power, among the mightiest of His creatures; He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him, literally, his Maker furnished to him his sword, the sharp teeth with which he cuts down his food and which he uses in his own defense.
v. 20. Surely the mountains bring him forth food, being obliged to provide food for him, if need be, where all the beasts of the field play, unhurt by him, since he is not a beast of prey, but a herbivorous animal.
v. 21. He lieth under the shady trees, the lotus-bushes of the lowlands of Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean countries, in the covert of the reed and fens; for the lowlands near the river are his habitat.
v. 22. The shady trees, the lotus-bushes, cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about, there are his favorite haunting-places.
v. 23. Behold, he drinketh up a river and hasteth not, rather, the river becomes violent, turbulent with a quick rise, but he is not startled; he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth, he is unconcerned even if a river with the swiftly rushing course of Jordan overflows its banks, swelling up to its mouth during the spring freshets.
v. 24. He taketh it with his eyes; his nose pierceth through snares. The Hebrew rather seems a challenging question: Will anyone take him before his eyes, with open force, or pierce through his nose with cords? The answer is implied: No man will dare to undertake such a dangerous attack; the only way of taking the hippopotamus being by guile, in pitfalls. This picture was painted before Job's eyes in order to make him realize his own insignificance, because one of his own fellow-creatures, entirely in the power of God's providence, was mightier than he himself. What little cause, then, did he have for arrogance and conceit!