“Take a look at Behemoth, which I made, just as I made you. It eats grass like an ox.
Parallel translations
- WEB “See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox.
- KJV Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
- BSB Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He feeds on grass like an ox.
- NKJV “Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox.
- NASB ¶“Behold, Behemoth, which I made as well as you; He eats grass like an ox.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God points Job to Behemoth, a mighty creature he made as he made Job, that feeds on grass like an ox. This great beast displays God's creative power.
Overview
God now turns to Behemoth, a massive land creature whose identity is debated among faithful interpreters (often understood as the hippopotamus, though some see a more grandiose or symbolic creature). Whatever its precise identity, the point is plain: God made this powerful beast as surely as he made Job. Confronted with a creature he cannot master, Job is led to bow before the Creator who governs all.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Gen 1:24–26God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
- Job 40:20Surely the mountains produce food for him, where all the animals of the field play.
- Ps 104:14He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
- Job 39:8The range of the mountains is his pasture, He searches after every green thing.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 40:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.