Teks -- Job 40:23 (NET)

40:23 If the river rages, it is not disturbed, it is secure, though the Jordan should surge up to its mouth.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Job 40:23 - River

A great quantity of water, hyperbolically called a river.

Wesley: Job 40:23 - Hasteth not

He drinks not with fear and caution; but such is his courage, that he fears no enemy either by water or by land. He drinks as if he designed, to drink up the whole river. He mentions Jordan, as a river well known, in and nigh unto Job's land.

JFB: Job 40:23

Rather, "(Though) a river be violent (overflow), he trembleth not"; (for though living on land, he can live in the water, too); he is secure, though a Jordan swell up to his mouth. "Jordan" is used for any great river (consonant with the "behemoth"), being a poetical generalization (see on Job 40:15). The author cannot have been a Hebrew as UMBREIT asserts, or he would not adduce the Jordan, where there were no river horses. He alludes to it as a name for any river, but not as one known to him, except by hearsay.

Clarke: Job 40:23 - Behold, he drinketh up a river

Behold, he drinketh up a river - A similar mode of expression, and of precisely the same meaning, as that in Job 39:24 : "He swalloweth the ground with fierceness."No river can stop his course: he wades through all; stems every tide and torrent; and hurries not as though he were in danger

Clarke: Job 40:23 - He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan

He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan - Even when the river overflows its banks, it is no stoppage to him: though the whole impetuosity of its stream rush against his mouth, he is not afraid. Mr. Good has seized the true idea in his translation of this verse: -

"If the stream rage, he revileth not

He is unmoved, though Jordan rush against his mouth.

From this mention of Jordan it is probable that the behemoth was once an inhabitant of the mountains, marshes, and woods, of the land of Palestine.

TSK: Job 40:23 - drinketh // hasteth // Jordan

drinketh : Heb. oppresseth, Isa 37:25

hasteth : Psa 55:8; Isa 28:16

Jordan : Gen 13:10; Jos 3:15

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Job 40:23 - He drinketh up // A river // Hasteth not // He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth

He drinketh up or, he snatcheth , or draweth , or drinketh up as it were with force and violence, as the word signifies.

A river i.e. a great quantity of water, hyperbolically called a river, as it is also Psa 78:16 105:41 . This may be fitly applied to the elephant, which because of its great bulk and vehement thirst drinks a great deal of water at one draught, as naturalists and historians have observed.

Hasteth not he drinks not with fear and caution, and sparingly, as the dogs do at Nilus, for fear of the crocodile; but such is his courage and self-confidence, that he fears no enemy, either by water or by land, but drinketh securely and liberally.

He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth he drinks as if he designed, or hoped, or desired to drink up the whole river. He mentions Jordan, either as a river well known in and nigh unto Job’ s land; or because possibly there were many elephants which used to drink at it; or as a river in some parts of it but small, which therefore might give more colour to the hyperbole, and to the elephant’ s fancy or expectation, than a vaster river, such as Euphrates, would have done. Bochart expounds this also of the hippopotamus, which though he cannot swim, and may be drowned, as naturalists report, yet will continue securely under water at the bottom of Nilus for some days together; and he renders the verse thus, Behold, if a river oppress or cover him, he fears not; he is confident or secure, though Jordan (which is here put for any river) should break forth or overflow above his mouth , i.e. should overwhelm him. But the judgment of this I leave to the reader.

Gill: Job 40:23 - Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not // he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan in his mouth

Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not,.... The elephant is indeed a very thirsty animal, and drinks largely; the philosopher ^l says it drinks nine Macedonian bushels at a feeding, and that it will drink fourteen Macedonian measures of water at once, and eight more at noon; but to drink up a river seems to be too great an hyperbole; wherefore the words may be rendered, "Behold, let a river oppress him", or "bear" ever so hard upon him, and come with the greatest force and pressure on him ^m, "he hasteth not" to get out of it; or he is not frightened or troubled, as the Targum; which agrees with the river horse, who walks into the river, and proceeds on in it, with the greatest ease and unconcernedness imaginable; now and then lifting up his head above water to take breath, which he can hold a long time; whereas the elephant cannot wade in the water any longer than his trunk is above it, as the philosopher observes ⁿ; and Livy ^o speaks of fear and trembling seizing an elephant, when about to be carried over a river in boats;

he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan in his mouth; so bold and confident he is, and not at all disturbed with its rapidity; or "though Jordan", or rather any descending flowing stream, "gushes into his mouth", so Mr. Broughton: for perhaps Jordan might not be known by Job; nor does it seem to have any connection with the Nile, the seat of the river horse; which has such large holes in its nostrils, and out of which, water being swallowed down, he can throw it with great force. Diodorus Siculus ^p represents it as lying all day in the water, and employing itself at the bottom of it, easy, careless, and unconcerned.