Job 39 - 42

“Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth?

Do you keep watch over the calving of the deer?

Can you count the months they fulfill,

Or do you know the time they give birth?

They kneel down; they bring forth their young;

They send out their labor pains.

Their children become strong; they grow up in the open field;

They leave and do not return to them.

“Who sent out the wild donkey free?

And who loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

For whom I have set the desert plain as a home

And the salt land as his dwelling place?

He laughs at the tumult of the city;

The shoutings of the driver he does not hear.

He explores the mountains for his pasture

And searches after every green thing.

Will the wild ox consent to serve you,

Or will he spend the night at your manger?

Can you bind the wild ox in a furrow with ropes,

Or will he harrow the valleys after you?

Will you trust him because his power is great

And leave your labor to him?

Will you believe him that he will return your seed of grain

And gather it from your threshing floor?

“The ostriches’ wings flap joyously

But are they the pinion and plumage of a stork?

For she leaves her eggs to the earth

And warms them in the dust,

And she forgets that a foot may crush them,

Or that a beast of the field may trample them.

She treats her children cruelly, as if they were not hers;

Though her labor be empty, she is without dread,

Because God has made her forget wisdom,

And has not given her a share of understanding.

When she raises herself up high,

She laughs at the horse and his rider.

“Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

Do you make him leap like the locust?

His splendid snorting is terrible.

He paws in the valley and rejoices in his power;

He goes out to meet the weapons.

He laughs at dread and is not dismayed;

And he does not turn back from the sword.

The quiver rattles against him,

The flashing spear and javelin.

With shaking and rage he races over the ground,

And he does not stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’

And he scents the battle from afar,

And the thunder of the commanders and the shout of war.

“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,

Stretching his wings toward the south?

Is it at your command that the eagle goes on high

And raises his nest high?

On the cliff he dwells and lodges,

Upon the rocky crag, a fortress.

From there he spies out food;

His eyes see it from afar.

His young ones also suck up blood;

And where the slain are, there is he.”

Job Places His Hand over His Mouth

Then Yahweh answered Job and said,
2

“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

Let him who reproves God answer it.”

3 Then Job answered Yahweh and said,
4

“Behold, I am insignificant; what can I respond to You?

I place my hand over my mouth.

Once I have spoken, and I will not answer;

Even twice, and I will add nothing more.”

Yahweh Will Ask Job

6 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,
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“Now gird up your loins like a man;

I will ask you, and you make Me know.

Will you really annul My judgment?

Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?

Or do you have an arm like God,

And can you thunder with a voice like His?

“Adorn yourself with exaltation and loftiness,

And clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.

Pour out the overflowings of your anger,

And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.

Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him,

And tread down the wicked in their place.

Hide them in the dust together;

Bind their faces in the hidden place.

Then I will also praise you,

That your own right hand can save you.

Behold the Behemoth

“Behold now, Behemoth, which I made along with you;

It eats grass like an ox.

Behold now, its power in its loins

And its vigor in the muscles of its belly.

It hangs its tail like a cedar;

The sinews of its thighs are knit together.

Its bones are tubes of bronze;

Its limbs are like bars of iron.

“It is the first of the ways of God;

Let its Maker bring near its sword.

Surely the mountains bring it food,

And all the beasts of the field play there.

Under the lotus plants it lies down,

In the hidden place of the reeds and the marsh.

The lotus plants cover it with shade;

The willows of the brook surround it.

If a river oppresses, it is not alarmed;

It is secure, though the Jordan bursts forth to its mouth.

Can anyone capture it before its eyes,

With snares can anyone pierce its nose?

Can You Draw Out Leviathan?

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?

Or press down its tongue with a cord?

Can you put a rope in its nose

Or pierce its jaw with a hook?

Will it make many supplications to you,

Or will he speak to you soft words?

Will it cut a covenant with you?

Will you take it for a slave forever?

Will you play with it as with a bird,

Or will you bind it for your young women?

Will the traders bargain over it?

Will they divide it among the merchants?

Can you fill its skin with harpoons,

Or its head with fishing spears?

Place your hand on it;

Remember the battle; you will not do that again!

Behold, his expectation is a lie;

Will he be laid low even at the sight of it?

No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse it;

Who then is he that can stand before Me?

Who has given to Me that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.

“I will not keep silence concerning its limbs,

Or its mighty strength or its graceful frame.

Who can strip off its outer armor?

Who can come with its doubled bridle?

Who can open the doors of its face?

Around its teeth there is dreadful terror.

Its strong scales are its pride,

Shut up as with a tight seal.

One is so near to another

That no air can come between them.

They cling one to another;

They are interlocked and cannot be separated.

Its sneezes flash forth light,

And its eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

Out of its mouth go burning torches;

Sparks of fire leap forth.

Out of its nostrils smoke goes forth

As from a boiling pot and burning reeds.

Its breath kindles coals,

And a flame goes forth from its mouth.

In its neck lodges strength,

And dismay leaps before it.

The folds of its flesh cling together,

Hardened upon it and is not shaken.

Its heart is as hard as a stone,

Even as hard as a lower millstone.

When it raises itself up, the mighty fear,

Because of the crashing they are bewildered.

The sword that reaches it cannot avail,

Nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

It regards iron as straw,

Bronze as rotten wood.

The arrow cannot make it flee;

Slingstones are turned into stubble for it.

Clubs are regarded as stubble;

It laughs at the rattling of the javelin.

Its underparts are like sharp potsherds;

It spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mire.

It makes the depths boil like a pot;

It makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

Behind it, it makes a wake to shine;

One would think the deep to be gray‑haired.

There is nothing upon the dust like it,

One made without terror.

It looks on everything that is high;

It is king over all the sons of pride.”

Job Repents in Dust and Ashes

Then Job answered Yahweh and said,
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“I know that You can do all things,

And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.

‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’

Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,

Things too marvelous for me, which I did not know.

‘Hear, now, and I will speak;

I will ask You, and You make me know.’

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;

But now my eye sees You;

Therefore I reject myself,

And I repent in dust and ashes.”

Yahweh’s Anger Towards Job’s Friends

7 Now it happened after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, that Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger burns against you and against your two friends because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. 8 So now, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will pray for you. For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as Yahweh told them; and Yahweh accepted Job.

Yahweh Restores Job’s Fortunes

10 And Yahweh restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and Yahweh increased all that Job had twofold. 11 Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the calamity that Yahweh had brought on him. And each one gave him one qesitah, and each a ring of gold. 12 And Yahweh blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 pairs of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he named the first Jemimah and the second Keziah and the third Keren-happuch. 15 Now in all the land no women were found so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. 17 Then Job died, an old man and full of days.