Giobbe 40:24 Commento

Many humbling confounding questions God had put to Job, in the foregoing chapter; now, in this chapter, I. He demands an answer to them (Job 40:1, Job 40:2). II. Job submits in a humble silence (Job 40:3-5). III. God proceeds to reason with him, for his conviction, concerning the infinite distance and disproportion between him and God, showing that he was by no means an equal match for God. He challenges him (Job 40:6, Job 40:7) to vie with him, if he durst, for justice (Job 40:8), power (Job 40:9), majesty (Job 40:10), and dominion over the proud (Job 40:11-14), and he gives an instance of his power in one particular animal, here called "Behemoth," (Job 40:15-24).

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 40 In this chapter Job is called upon to give in his answer, Job 40:1, which he does in the most humble manner, acknowledging his vileness and folly, Job 40:3; and then the Lord proceeds to give him further conviction of his superior justice and power, Job 40:6; and one thing he proposes to him, to humble the proud, if he could, and then he would own his own right hand could save him, Job 40:10; and observes to him another instance of his power in a creature called behemoth, which he had made, and gives a description of, Job 40:15.

In his eyes He will take him as with a hook. 14. It is much to be observed, that the Lord, tempering in His mercy the words of His Scripture, alarms us at one time with sharp excitements, comforts us at another with gentle consolations, and blends terror with comforts, and comforts with terror; in order that, while they are both tempered towards us with wonderful skill of management, we may be found neither to despair through fear, nor yet incautiously secure. For when He had pointed out in manifold expressions the cunning crafts, and the unrestrained strength of Behemoth, He immediately sets forth the coming of His Only-begotten Son our Redeemer, and teaches in what way this Behemoth is to be destroyed; in order that, having oppressed our heart by recounting his might, He might speedily alleviate our sorrow by pointing out his destruction. Therefore, after He had said, He will drink up a river, and will not wonder, and trusteth that Jordan can flow into his mouth, He immediately announces the coming of the Lord's Incarnation, saying, In his eyes He will take him as with a hook. Who can be ignorant that in a 'hook' a bait is shewn, a point is concealed? For the bait tempts, that the point may wound. Our Lord therefore, when coming for the redemption of mankind, made, as it were, a kind of hook of Himself for the death of the devil; for He assumed a body, in order that this Behemoth might seek therein the death of the flesh, as if it were his bait. But while he is unjustly aiming at that death in His person, he lost us, whom he was, as it were, justly holding. He was caught, therefore, in the 'hook' of His Incarnation, because while he sought in Him the bait of His Body, he was pierced with the sharp point of His Divinity. For there was within Him His Humanity, to attract to Him the devourer, there was there His Divinity to wound; there was there His open infirmity to excite, His hidden virtue to pierce through the jaw of the spoiler. He was, therefore, taken by a hook, because he perished by means of that which he swallowed. And this Behemoth knew indeed the Incarnate Son of God, but knew not the plan of our redemption. For he knew that the Son of God had been incarnate for our redemption, but he was quite ignorant that this our Redeemer was piercing him by His own death. Whence it is well said, In his eyes He will take him as with a hook. For we are said to have in our eyes that which we see placed before us. But the ancient enemy of mankind saw placed before him the Redeemer, Whom he confessed in knowing, feared in confessing, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God? Hast Thou come to torment us before the time? [Matt. 8, 29] He was taken therefore with a hook in his eyes, because he both knew, and seized it; and he first knew Whom to fear, and yet afterwards feared Him not, when hungering in Him for the death of the Flesh, as if it were his proper bait. Because then we have heard what our Head has done by Himself, let us now hear what He is doing by His own members. It follows; And bore through his nostrils with stakes. 15. What else do we understand by stakes ['sudes'], that is, poles ['palos'], (which are sharpened indeed in order to be fixed in the ground,) but the sharp counsels of the Saints? And these perforate the nostrils of this Behemoth, while they both watchfully behold on every side his most ingenious stratagems, and pierce, by overcoming them. But a scent is drawn through the nostrils, and by drawing our breath deep, an object is detected even when placed at some distance. By the nostrils of Behemoth are, therefore, designated his cunning stratagems, by which he most ingeniously endeavours both to learn the secret good qualities of our heart, and to scatter them by his most fatal persuasion. The Lord, therefore, perforates his nostrils with stakes, because, penetrating his crafty stratagems by the acute senses of the Saints, He takes from them their power. But he often hovers about the paths of the righteous with such insidious art, as to seek to approach them for their hurt, even by means of the good qualities which he knows to exist in them. For from observing the liberality of one person, he inflames another with the fire of discord; and when he sees one person compassionate, he persuades another to be angry, in order that, by suggesting that a good deed has not been done in common, he may cut off accordant minds from the benefit of a common favour. For since he is not able to break down the resolutions of the just by persuading them to sin, he is busy in sowing evils therein by means of their good deeds. But holy men overcome these his stratagems the more speedily, the more acutely they detect them. A point which we set forth the better, if we bring forward Paul, one of many maintainers of the truth in evidence. For when a certain Corinthian under his care had committed the sin of incest, the illustrious teacher delivered him up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, for the satisfaction of penance, and reserved his spirit to be saved to the day of the Lord Jesus. [1 Cor. 5, 5] For by great skill in discipline he was forcibly delivered for punishment to the very person, to whom he had in his sin voluntarily submitted; in order that he who had been the author of the sin of wickedness, might himself become the scourge of discipline. But when this penance had been well gone through, on learning that the Corinthians had been already moved with compassion towards him, he says, To whom ye forgive any thing, I also; for I forgave any thing, for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ. [2 Cor. 2, 10] As thinking of the blessing of communion, he says, To whom ye forgive any thing, I also. As if he were saying, I agree with your good doings; may whatever you have done be counted as mine. And he immediately added, And if I forgave any thing, for your sakes I forgave it. As if he were saying, Whatever I have done compassionately, has added further good to your doings. My goodness is, therefore, your profit, your goodness is my profit. And he immediately added and subjoined that binding of hearts ['compagem cordium'], in which he is thus held, In the person of Christ. For as if we were presuming to say to him, Why dost thou so carefully couple thyself with thy disciples? why dost thou so anxiously conform either thyself to them, or them to thyself in thy doings? he immediately subjoined, That we may not be circumvented by Satan. [ib. 11] And with what acuteness he penetrates his crafty stratagems, he teaches, adding, For we are not ignorant of his devices. As if he said in other words, We are sharp stakes of the Lord's making, and we penetrate the nostrils of this Behemoth by subtle circumspection, lest he should pervert to an evil end that which the mind enters on aright. 16. By 'stakes' can be signified the acute words of Wisdom Himself manifested in the flesh, so that by the nostrils of Behemoth may be typified (since scent is drawn in by the nostrils) that prying search of the ancient enemy. For when he doubted whether God were incarnate, he wished to ascertain this by tempting and asking of Him miracles, saying, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. [Matt. 4, 3] Because then he wished to learn the scent of His Divinity from the evidence of miracles, he drew in the breath, as it were, by his nostrils. But when it is immediately said to him in answer, Man liveth not by bread alone, and, Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God, [ib. 4, 7] because the Truth repelled the searching enquiry of the ancient enemy by the sharpness of his sayings, he pierced his nostrils, as it were, with stakes. But because this Behemoth spreads forth with various arguments of deceit, he is marked still further by the addition of another name; for it is subjoined,

Yet there are some who are not overcome by the devil but rather obtain victory over him. This principally pertains to Christ, about whom the Apocalypse says, "Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered." (5:5) Consequently, this happens to others through the grace of Christ, as 1 Cor. says, "Thanks be to God, who gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (15:57) The Lord describes this victory using the image of hunting the elephant, saying, "In his eyes they (the hunter) will capture him like a fish on a hook." The hunter is Christ and those who belong to him. There is said to be one manner of hunting elephants which consists, "in digging a deep pit in the path of the elephant into which he falls without knowing. One hunter approaches the pit, strikes and stabs him. Another hunter comes, strikes the first hunter and moves him away so that he does not strike the elephant and gives the elephant barley to eat. When he has done this three or four times the elephant loves him who has freed him and so he in time becomes tame and obeys him." So they are captured by food offered to them like fish by a hook. There is another way of hunting elephants. As Aristotle says in The History of Animals IX, "the hunters ride tame elephants, pursue wild elephants and wound them with various kinds of weapons." He expresses this saying, "They pierce his nose with stakes," where he has more sensitive flesh, and that is why he is more often wounded there by hunters. In the spiritual sense this describes that Christ overcame the devil, by showing a weak nature to him so that he might be caught by him as though he used a hook, and afterwards he might exercise his power against him, as Colossians says, "He disarmed the principalities and his powers, and made a public display of him." (2:15)

Job humbles himself before the Lord, Job 40:1-5. And God again challenges him by a display of his power and judgments, Job 40:6-14. A description of behemoth, Job 40:15-24.

He taketh it with his eyes - He looks at the sweeping tide, and defies it. His nose pierceth through snares - If fences of strong stakes be made in order to restrain him, or prevent him from passing certain boundaries, he tears them in pieces with his teeth; or, by pressing his nose against them, breaks them off. If other parts of the description would answer, this might well apply to the elephant, the nose here meaning the proboscis, with which he can split trees, or even tear them up from the roots! Thus ends the description of the behemoth; what I suppose to be the mastodon or mammoth, or some creature of this kind, that God made as the chief of his works, exhibited in various countries for a time, cut them off from the earth, but by his providence preserved many of their skeletons, that succeeding ages might behold the mighty power which produced this chief of the ways of God, and admire the providence that rendered that race extinct which would otherwise, in all probability, have extinguished every other race of animals! I am not unapprized of the strong arguments produced by learned men to prove, on the one hand, that behemoth is the elephant; and, on the other, that he is the hippopotamus or river-horse, and I have carefully read all that Bochart, that chief of learned men, has said on the subject. But I am convinced that an animal now extinct, probably of the kind already mentioned, is the creature pointed out and described by the inspiration of God in this chapter. On Job 40:1 of this chapter we have seen, from Mr. Heath's remarks, that the fourteen first verses were probably transposed. In the following observations Dr. Kennicott appears to prove the point. "It will be here objected, that the poem could not possibly end with this question from Job; and, among other reasons, for this in particular; because we read in the very next verse, That after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, etc. If, therefore, the last speaker was not Job, but the Lord, Job could not originally have concluded this poem, as he does at present. "This objection I hold to be exceedingly important; and, indeed, to prove decisively that the poem must have ended at first with some speech from God. "And this remark leads directly to a very interesting inquiry: What was at first the conclusion of this poem? This may, I presume, be pointed out and determined, not by the alteration of any one word, but only by allowing a dislocation of the fourteen verses which now begin the fortieth chapter. Chapters 38, 39, 40, and 41, contain a magnificent display of the Divine power and wisdom in the works of the Creator; specifying the lion, raven, wild goat, wild ass, unicorn, peacock, ostrich, horse, hawk, eagle, behemoth, and leviathan. "Now, it must have surprised most readers to find that the description of these creatures is strangely interrupted at Job 40:1, and as strangely resumed afterwards at Job 40:15; and therefore, if these fourteen verses will connect with and regularly follow what now ends the poem, we cannot much doubt that these fourteen verses have again found their true station, and should be restored to it. "The greatness of the supposed transposition is no objection: because so many verses as would fill one piece of vellum in an ancient roll, might be easily sewed in before or after its proper place. In the case before us, the twenty-five lines in the first fourteen verses of chapter xl. seem to have been sewed in improperly after Job 39:30, instead of after Job 42:6. That such large parts have been transposed in rolls to make which the parts are sewed together is absolutely certain; and that this has been the case here, is still more probable for the following reason: - "The lines here supposed to be out of place are twenty-five, and contain ninety-two words; which might be written on one piece or page of vellum. But the MS. in which these twenty-five lines made one page, must be supposed to have the same, or nearly the same, number of lines in each of the pages adjoining. And it would greatly strengthen this presumption if these twenty-five lines would fall in regularly at the end of any other set of lines, nearly of the same number; if they would fall in after the next set of twenty-five, or the second set, or the third, or the fourth, etc. Now, this is actually the case here; for the lines after these twenty-five, being one hundred or one hundred and one, make just four times twenty-five. And, therefore, if we consider these one hundred and twenty-five lines as written on five equal pieces of vellum, it follows that the fifth piece might be carelessly sewed up before the other four. "Let us also observe that present disorder of the speeches, which is this. In chapters 38 and 39, God first speaks to Job. The end of chapter 39 is followed by, 'And the Lord answered Job and said,' whilst yet Job had not replied. At Job 40:3-5, Job answers; but he says, he had then spoken Twice, and he would add no more; whereas, this was his first reply, and he speaks afterwards. From Job 40:15-41:34 are now the descriptions of behemoth and leviathan, which would regularly follow the descriptions of the horse, hawk, and eagle. And from Job 42:1-6 is now Job's speech, after which we read in Job 42:7, 'After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job!' "Now, all these confusions are removed at once if we only allow that a piece of vellum containing the twenty-five lines, (Job 40:1-14), originally followed Job 42:6. For then, after God's first speech, ending with leviathan, Job replies: then God, to whom Job replies the second time, when he added no more; and then God addresses him the third, when Job is silent, and the poem concludes: upon which the narrative opens regularly, with saying, 'After the Lord had spoken these words unto Job,' etc. Job 42:7." - Kennicott's Remarks, p. 161. The reader will find much more satisfaction if he read the places as above directed. Having ended chapter 29, proceed immediately to Job 40:15; go on regularly to the end of Job 42:6, and immediately after that add Job 40:1-14. We shall find then that the poem has a consistent and proper ending, and that the concluding speech was spoken by Jehovah.

GOD'S SECOND ADDRESS. (Job 40:1-24) the Lord--Hebrew, "JEHOVAH."

Rather, "Will any take him by open force" (literally, "before his eyes"), "or pierce his nose with cords?" No; he can only be taken by guile, and in a pitfall (Job 41:1-2). Next: Job Chapter 41