Job 40 · a question people ask
What is behemoth?
The chapter gives only the LORD's own description (40:15-24). He says, "See now behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox" (40:15). He speaks of its strength "in his thighs" (40:16), its tail "like a cedar" (40:17), and bones "like tubes of bronze" (40:18), and says, "He is the chief of the ways of God. He who made him gives him his sword" (40:19). It lies "under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed, and the marsh" (40:21), and when a river overflows, "he doesn’t tremble" (40:23). The word comes only here in the Hebrew Bible (tap behemoth). The lexicons name an animal for it; the text names none, and these notes don't identify it with any animal. What the LORD stresses is who made it: "which I made as well as you" (40:15), and "He who made him" (40:19).
The verses
““See now behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox. Look now, his strength is in his thighs. His force is in the muscles of his belly. He moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are like tubes of bronze. His limbs are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God. He who made him gives him his sword.”
“He lies under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.”
“Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble. He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.”