Job 40

Chap. XL. Ver. 1—24. Job’s confession—and a farther address to him from the Almighty.—Here seems to have been a solemn pause, as if for Job to answer, which not doing, he is called upon in these words:— This produces the desired effect: he confesses himself vile; that is “‘light,’—‘‘weighed in the balances” of heaven, an ((Jeremiah 2:24).) See note on ver. “found wanting.” (See (Daniel 5:27).) * The voice from the whirlwind now proceeds to point out two other animals, that must have been known to Job, as objects of astonishment and terror. First, the behemoth, on which the critics and commentators are much divided. Our translators have marked it in the margin to be the elephant. Schultens, and Messrs.

Scott (the poet and commentator,) with most of the old expositors. Dr. T. M. Harris, (of North America,) author of a Natural History of the Bible, in his first edition contended for the elephant; but in his second, confesses a change of opinion. We quote from him the following extracts, which are in favour of the hippopotamus, or river horse, which the Egyptians are said to call pi-he-mout, or the water ox. Ily admitted, that the leviathan is ‘“I believe that it is genera ld not be the elephant, which the crocodile; his fellow then could not be the elephant, which was not known in Egypt; was not, at least peculiar to that country, though inhabiting the interior of Africa. In the great work published under the authority of the King of Naples, containing prints from antiquities found in Herculaneum, are some pictures of Egyptian landscapes, in which are figures of the crocodile, lying among the reeds, and of the hippopotamus browsing on the aquatic plants of an island.

And in that famous piece of antiquity commonly called the ‘Prenestine Pavement,’ the crocodile and river horse are associated; as they are also on the base of the famous statue of the Nile. The hippopotamus is nearly as large as the rhinoceros. The male has been found 17 feet in length, 18 in circumference, and seven in height. The head is enormously large, the jaws fixed, are unconnected with membranes. The hide is so thick as to resist the edge of a sword or sabre. “Although an inhabitant of the waters, the hippopotamus is well known to breathe air, like land animals. On land, indeed, he finds the chief part of his food. It has been pretended that he devours vast quantities of fish; but it appears, with the fullest evidence, both from the relations of many travellers, and from the structure of the stomach, in specimens that have been inspected, that he is nourished solely, or almost solely, on vegetable food; though occasionally on aquatic plants, yet he very often leaves the waters, and commits wide devastations through all the cultivated fields adjacent to the river.”’

Notes on the verses

What! has he nothing to reply?—He that reproveth (or argueth with) Ver. 18. He scorneth the horse and his rider.—The Arabians call the ostrich the camel-bird, and they compare to its flight a swift camel, (or dromedary,) and a fleet race-horse. ‘ Ver. 20. Canst thou make him afraid? &c.— Canst thou make him leap like a locust?” Scott (the poet). 4.: Ver. 24, Neither believeth.—He is so rejoiced, that he scarcely believeth his own ears. See (Job 29:24).; Ver. 26. Doth the hawk.—(Heb. netz, Arabic naz, isu) called from natzah, to shoot away, ‘fly, because of the rapidity of its flight; whence Homer calls it “the swiftest of birds.” It probably, like the Arabic term, comprehends various species of the falcon family, as the gerfalcon, goshawk and sparrow-hawk.— Fly by thy wisdom.—Is it through thy teaching that the falcon, or any other bird of passage, knows the precise time for taking flight; and the direction in which she is to go to arrive at a warmer [clime]?

Ver. 29. Her eyes behold. proverbial.—[The eagle was proverbial for her strong and clear sight. Often Homer calls her “the most quick-sighted of birds under.”]—Bagster. Heath and Kennicott contend that the first 14 verses of this chapter should follow chapter xlii. 6. and Dr. Boothroyd has so placed them, but we think without sufficient reason. Ver. 7. Gird up, &c.—A repetition of ch. xxxviii. 3. Hi mee: 11. Behold every one.—Bishop Lowth, ‘Behold every proud thing, and abase it.” —In the secret place. To cover the face Ver.

13. Bind their faces in secret. i but to bind the face, of a person, is to treat him as a criminal, see (Job 9:24). seems rather the treatment of the dead. “the great beast.” See the satin nisus, the hawk, so Ver. 15. Behold now behemoth.—Literally, e Exposition. It is used for cattle, (Psalms 1:10). (Isaiah 22:22).——He eateth grass like an ov.—It inhabits the rivers of Africa; feeds on grass and other vegetables; moves slowly and heavily; swims dexterously; sleeps in reedy places; has a tremendous voice, between the lowing of the ox and roar of the ele-phant; and when irritated, will attack boats and men with fury. ]—Bagster. Ver. 17. He moveth (“he setteth up,” erecteth) his tail—The sinews, &c.

of his haunches are braced together. Good.; 4 with his sword.” Ver. 19. He that made him, &c.—* Hath furnished him to the tusks of the Heath. So Scott (the poet) and Boothroyd, who apply this elephant, as others do to those of the hippopotamus. sai