Chapter 40

¹ And the Lord yet again answered and spoke to Job out of the cloud, saying,

² Nay, gird up now thy loins like a man; and I will ask thee, and do thou answer me. ³ Do not set aside my judgment: and dost thou think that I have dealt with thee in any other way, than that thou mightest appear to be righteous? ⁴ Hast thou an arm like the Lord's? or dost thou thunder with a voice like his? ⁵ Assume now a lofty bearing and power; and clothe thyself with glory and honour. ⁶ And send forth messengers with wrath; and lay low every haughty one. ⁷ Bring down also the proud man; and consume at once the ungodly. ⁸ And hide them together in the earth; and fill their faces with shame. ⁹ Then will I confess that thy right hand can save thee.

¹⁰ But now look at the wild beasts with thee; they eat grass like oxen. ¹¹ Behold now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. ¹² He sets up his tail like a cypress; and his nerves are wrapped together. ¹³ His sides are sides of brass; and his backbone is as cast iron. ¹⁴ This is the chief of the ¹creation of the Lord; made to be ²played with by his angels. ¹⁵ And when he has gone up to a steep mountain, he causes joy to the quadrupeds in ³the deep. ¹⁶ He lies under trees of every kind, by the papyrus, and reed, and bulrush. ¹⁷ And the great trees make a shadow over him with their branches, and so do the bushes of the ⁴field. ¹⁸ If there should be a flood, he will not perceive it; he trust that Jordan will rush up into his mouth. ¹⁹ Yet one shall take him in his sight; one shall catch him with a cord, and pierce his nose.

²⁰ But wilt thou catch the serpent with a hook, and put a halter about his nose? ²¹ Or wilt thou fasten a ring in his nostril, and bore his lip with a clasp? ²² Will he address thee with a petition? softly, with the voice of a suppliant? ²³ And will he make a covenant with thee? and wilt thou take him for a perpetual servant? ²⁴ And wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or bind him as a sparrow for a child? ²⁵ And do the nations feed upon him, and the nations of the Phoenicians share him? ²⁶ And all the ships come together would not be able to bear the mere skin of his tail; neither shall they carry his head in fishing-vessels. ²⁷ But thou shalt lay thy hand upon him once, remembering the war that is waged by his mouth; and let it not be done any more.