Ayub 38:39-41

38:39 “Do you hunt prey for the lioness,

and satisfy the appetite ¹  of the lions,

38:40 when they crouch in their dens,

when they wait in ambush in the thicket?

38:41 Who prepares prey for the raven,

when its young cry out to God

and wander about ²  for lack of food?

Ayub 39:4

39:4 Their young grow strong, and grow up in the open; ³ 

they go off, and do not return to them.

Ayub 39:8

39:8 It ranges the hills as its pasture,

and searches after every green plant.

Ayub 39:30

39:30 And its young ones devour the blood,

and where the dead carcasses ⁴  are,

there it is.”

Ayub 40:15

The Description of Behemoth ⁵ 

40:15 “Look now at Behemoth, ⁶  which I made as ⁷  I made you;

it eats grass like the ox.

Ayub 40:20

40:20 For the hills bring it food, ⁸ 

where all the wild animals play.

[38:39]  ¹ tn Heb “fill up the life of.”

[38:41]  ² tn The verse is difficult, making some suspect that a line has dropped out. The little birds in the nest hardly go wandering about looking for food. Dhorme suggest “and stagger for lack of food.”

[39:4]  ³ tn The idea is that of the open countryside. The Aramaism is found only here.

[39:30]  ⁴ tn The word חֲלָלִים (khalalim) designates someone who is fatally wounded, literally the “pierced one,” meaning anyone or thing that dies a violent death.

[40:15]  ⁵ sn The next ten verses are devoted to a portrayal of Behemoth (the name means “beast” in Hebrew). It does not fit any of the present material very well, and so many think the section is a later addition. Its style is more like that of a textbook. Moreover, if the animal is a real animal (the usual suggestion is the hippopotamus), then the location of such an animal is Egypt and not Palestine. Some have identified these creatures Behemoth and Leviathan as mythological creatures (Gunkel, Pope). Others point out that these creatures could have been dinosaurs (P. J. Maarten, NIDOTTE, 2:780; H. M. Morris, The Remarkable Record of Job, 115-22). Most would say they are real animals, but probably mythologized by the pagans. So the pagan reader would receive an additional impact from this point about God’s sovereignty over all nature.

[40:15]  ⁶ sn By form the word is the feminine plural of the Hebrew word for “beast.” Here it is an abstract word – a title.

[40:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “with you.” The meaning could be temporal (“when I made you”) – perhaps a reference to the sixth day of creation (Gen 1:24).

[40:20]  ⁸ tn The word בּוּל (bul) probably refers to food. Many take it as an abbreviated form of יְבוּל (yÿvul, “produce of the field”). The vegetation that is produced on the low hills is what is meant.