God pauses briefly to let Job respond, and Job’s answer is the shortest speech in the whole book — five verses, and a hand over his own mouth. The whirlwind is not finished. Two untamable creatures, one on land and one in the water, become the closing argument for why Job’s advice on running the universe was never actually needed.
A study in Job 40-41 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 13 min read
Shall He That Contendeth With The Almighty Instruct Him?
“Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.”
Job 40:1-2
God pauses here, mid-speech, and directs the question squarely at Job for the first time — not another item in the catalog of creation, but a direct challenge to answer for the specific charges Job has repeatedly brought (He Destroyeth The Perfect And The Wicked).
Behold, I Am Vile
“Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”
Job 40:3-5
This is the shortest speech in the entire book, from the man who has spoken longer and more often than anyone else in it. Every earlier demand for a hearing (Oh That I Knew Where I Might Find Him!) dissolves the moment the hearing actually arrives. Job does not retract his innocence here — he simply stops talking, which is its own kind of answer.
Wilt Thou Condemn Me, That Thou Mayest Be Righteous?
“Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man… Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?”
Job 40:6-8
God is not finished, and this second round names precisely what has been at stake underneath Job’s repeated demand for vindication: to prove himself right, Job would effectively have to prove God wrong. The question exposes something Job’s own honest suffering had partly obscured even from himself.
Behold Now Behemoth
“Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins… His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God.”
Job 40:15-16, 18-19
Whatever specific animal “behemoth” describes — hippopotamus is the common guess, though the description strains even that — the point is scale: a creature grass-fed and grazing like an ox, yet built with the raw structural strength of iron and brass. God made this thing “with” Job, on the same creation days, and Job has never once had to manage it.
He Trusteth That He Can Draw Up Jordan Into His Mouth
“Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.”
Job 40:23-24
Behemoth’s calm confidence — unhurried even facing a flooding river, unbothered by traps set to catch it — is a portrait of total security in its own environment. It has nothing to fear because nothing in its world actually threatens it. Job, by contrast, has spent this entire book afraid.
Canst Thou Draw Out Leviathan With A Hook?
“Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?… Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?”
Job 41:1, 4
The second creature, likely some form of crocodile stretched into something closer to legend, cannot be fished, tamed, domesticated, or bound by covenant — every category of human control that might apply to an ordinary animal is tried and found useless here. Whatever leviathan represents, it belongs entirely to itself.
Who Then Is Able To Stand Before Me?
“None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.”
Job 41:10-11
Here the argument surfaces plainly: if no man dares provoke a mere creature God made, how much less can any man make demands of the Maker Himself? “Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine” closes off the last possible claim Job might have had — that God owes him anything he did not already freely receive.
A King Over All The Children Of Pride
“Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.”
Job 41:33-34
The whirlwind speeches end here, on a creature literally “without fear” ruling over every proud thing beneath it — the last and most pointed contrast the book draws before Job is finally allowed to answer for himself. If even leviathan has no equal on earth, the God who made leviathan for sport has nothing left to prove.
