Job 40:15 · Bible study
Job 40:15 Commentary: Behemoth: God’s Creation of Power and Sovereignty
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
An analysis of the biblical behemoth in Job 40:15, exploring its identity, the message of God’s sovereign power over creation, and what it means for
Research Summary
- Meaning: God points Job to behemoth, a massive herbivore, to illustrate divine power and human limitation.
- Key words: “behemoth” (intensive plural or Egyptian loanword for water-ox), “grass,” “ox.”
- Main debate: Whether behemoth is the hippopotamus, the elephant, or an extinct creature.
- Theological theme: God’s sovereign creativity and the proper humility of humanity before Him.
- Best use: Preaching God’s majesty and the limits of human control; teaching on pride and dependence.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He feeds on grass like an ox.
WEB World English Bible 2000
“See now behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox.
KJV King James Version 1769
Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Behold now, behemoth, which I made as well as thee; He eateth grass as an ox.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Lo, I pray thee, Behemoth, that I made with thee: Grass as an ox he eateth.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
See now the behemoth, which I made with thee: he eateth grass as an ox.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
To him the mountains bring forth grass: there all the beasts of the field shall play.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Ciertamente los montes producen hierba para él: y toda bestia del campo retoza allá.
Observa o beemote, ao qual eu fiz contigo; ele come erva come como o boi.
Il trouve sa pâture dans les montagnes,
Siehe da, den Behemoth, den ich neben dir gemacht habe; er frißt Gras wie ein Ochse.
Zie nu Behemoth, welken Ik gemaakt heb nevens u; hij eet hooi, gelijk een rund.
Guarda l’ippopotamo che ho fatto al par di te; esso mangia l’erba come il bove.
Jemuć pastwę góry przynoszą, a wszystek zwierz polny tam igra.
горы приносят ему пищу, и там все звери полевые играют;
你且 觀看 河馬； 我造 你也造牠。牠吃 草 與牛一樣；
See now the Great Beast, whom I made, even as I made you; he takes grass for food, like the ox.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Job 40:15
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that this verse opens the final section of God's speech from the whirlwind, drawing Job’s attention to a creature of enormous size and strength. The name “behemoth” is an intensive plural (Keil and Delitzsch note it means “the beast par excellence”) or a Hebraized Egyptian term for “water-ox” (Cambridge Bible, Lange). Most modern commentators, following Bochart, identify the animal as the hippopotamus (Barnes, Keil and Delitzsch, Lange). Clarke and Good argue that the description fits an extinct pachyderm, while others suggest the elephant (Gill, JFB). Despite the debate over the specific creature, all agree on the verse’s thrust: God made this mighty beast “with thee”, as a fellow creature, yet vastly different in power. And though it is huge, “he eats grass as an ox,” an unexpected detail underscoring God’s wise design and provision. The point is to humble Job: if he cannot control behemoth, he cannot contend with the God who made it.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Hippopotamus interpretation: Supported by Bochart, Keil & Delitzsch, Lange, Cambridge Bible; details like tail, habitat, and bones fit the Nile hippopotamus.
- Elephant or extinct creature: Based on size, trunk-like tail, and some early commentators (Gill, Thomas Aquinas); Clarke suggests extinct pachyderm given discrepancies.
- Symbolic/mythological reading: Early church fathers read behemoth as a symbol of evil; some moderns see a mythological chaos monster, though less common today.
What is clear: God made this creature, it is under His control, and it serves as a powerful lesson in human humility before the Creator.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Identity of behemoth | The creature is a real, earthly animal made by God, immense in size and strength. | Hippopotamus (Bochart, Cambridge, Keil & Delitzsch, Lange) vs. Elephant (Gill, some earlier commentators) vs. Extinct pachyderm (Clarke, Good). |
| Purpose in the context of Job | Behemoth serves to humble Job and demonstrate God’s power over creation. | Some see it as a direct challenge to Job’s pride (most Reformers), while others emphasize it as an invitation to wonder and awe (more pastoral readings). |
| Symbolic interpretation | The passage highlights God’s sovereignty and the order of creation. | Early church fathers (e.g., Augustine) allegorized behemoth as the devil or chaos; modern commentators generally read it as a literal creature, though some allow poetic elements. |
| Relation to leviathan | Both are paired to show God’s dominion over land and water. | Whether they represent actual animals (hippopotamus and crocodile) or mythological monsters (Less common but some hold this view). |
Historical & Cultural Context
This verse appears in the climax of God’s speech to Job from the whirlwind (Job 38, 41). After challenging Job to answer divine questions about creation, God turns to two animals: behemoth on land and leviathan in the water. Together they cover every domain of living creatures, showing God’s absolute sovereignty over all.
Behemoth likely refers to the hippopotamus (Nile horse), a creature well known to ancient audiences in Egypt and the Levant. The Bible often pairs this animal with the crocodile (as Poole notes, both are amphibious and live near the Nile). Some older commentators (e.g., Gill) argued for the elephant, but most modern scholars since Bochart see the hippo. The text describes its tail “like a cedar” (v.17) and its bones “like bars of iron” (v.18), details that fit the hippo’s stout body and thick hide.
The cultural background is significant. In the ancient Near East, gods often fought chaos monsters (e.g., Tiamat in Mesopotamia). But here the biblical God presents behemoth not as a cosmic foe but as a creature under His care, “he made him gives him his sword” (v.19). This subverts old myths: behemoth is not a rival but a dependent. Job had earlier complained that God was against him, but God’s answer points to the wonders of creation. Behemoth, despite its immense power, eats grass like an ox and lies peacefully in the reeds (v.21). It reminds Job (and the reader) of the Creator’s wisdom and strength, and of human limits. As the Geneva Bible notes, the mountains bring forth food for this beast; Job cannot supply its needs or control its power.
Textual Notes
The supplied commentary sources note no significant textual variants for Job 40:15. The Hebrew text is well established, and the Masoretic reading is consistent across versions. The ancient versions (Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac) differ only in how they render the name “behemoth”, translating it as “beasts,” “wild animals,” or simply transliterating the Hebrew.
Reception History
Christian reception of Job 40:15 has varied widely. The early church fathers (Origen, Augustine) often interpreted behemoth allegorically as a type of Satan or the forces of chaos, drawing on the creature’s strength and perceived threat. This reading persisted through the medieval period, though some (Thomas Aquinas) saw the elephant as the literal referent. Following Bochart’s Hierozoicon (1663), the hippopotamus view became dominant among Protestant commentators. In the modern era, Clarke and others suggested the description matches extinct megafauna like the mastodon. Jewish tradition (Rashi, Ibn Ezra) tended to read the text literally, identifying behemoth with the wild ox or hippopotamus. Across all eras, the fundamental lesson remains: the Creator who formed behemoth is worthy of worship and trust.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- God grounds Job in creation. The behemoth is presented as a creature made “with thee”, on the same earth, yet far more powerful than Job. This sets the stage for humility: Job is not the center of the universe.
- Strength and gentleness coexist. “He eats grass as an ox.” Though behemoth could crush anything, it is herbivorous. God’s power is often accompanied by wise restraint and provision.
- Human limitation points to divine sufficiency. If Job cannot tame behemoth, how can he challenge the God who made it? The answer to suffering is not human control but trust in a sovereign Creator.
Five-point outline
- God speaks to Job’s pride. The behemoth is a living argument against human self-sufficiency.
- God’s creative variety. Behemoth and leviathan show the range of divine power, land and water, herbivore and carnivore.
- The paradox of power. A monster that eats grass displays God’s ability to combine strength with gentleness.
- Provision in the wild. Verse 20: “the mountains produce food for him.” God cares for all creatures, even the mightiest.
- The proper response: worship, not complaint. Job’s encounter with behemoth leads him to repentance (Job 42:1, 6) and restored relationship.
Illustration hooks
- A parent watches a toddler try to move a large rock. The child’s frustration mirrors our attempts to control life. We need the steady hand of someone stronger.
- Standing before a massive whale or elephant in a zoo: words fail; awe takes over. The behemoth evokes that holy silence.
- Trying to train a huge, powerful dog. It obeys only because it trusts its owner. We trust not our own strength but the Creator’s character.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is behemoth a dinosaur? (Many wonder if this verse points to extinct creatures like the brachiosaurus.)
- Why does God answer Job’s suffering by describing animals? (It can feel indirect; help them see the deeper lesson about sovereignty.)
- What does this verse say about God’s attitude toward suffering? (It does not give a direct explanation but points to trust in the One who holds all things.)
Leading a Discussion
Job 40:15 opens a window onto God’s creative power and our proper place before Him. As you read the full description (vv.15, 24), notice the tone: God does not rebuke Job harshly but invites him to marvel at a strange, magnificent creature. The behemoth is both a challenge and an invitation, a challenge to human pride and an invitation to worship.
Discussion questions
- What stands out to you about the way God introduces behemoth? (Consider the phrase “which I made with thee.”)
- Why do you think God chooses an animal that eats grass rather than a predator to make his point about power?
- How does the description of behemoth (vv.16, 24) emphasize its strength and its dependence on God?
- In what ways might this passage challenge our modern assumption that we can control our world through technology or wisdom?
- If you were Job, hearing God’s voice from the whirlwind and seeing behemoth, what would you feel? How might that change how you pray?
- The Bible often uses nature to teach about God (Psalm 104, Romans 1:20). How can paying attention to animals and creation deepen your faith?
- What is one small step you could take this week to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over things that feel overwhelming?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Genesis 1:24 | God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so. |
| Genesis 1:26 | God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” |
| Job 39:8 | The range of the mountains is his pasture. He searches after every green thing. |
| Job 40:20 | Surely the mountains produce food for him, where all the animals of the field play. |
| Psalms 104:14 | He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth: |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke believes the beast described in Job 40:15 is either an extinct animal like a mammoth or no living creature exists that fits the description. He hopes future research might reveal what this powerful animal truly was.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes argues that the behemoth is the hippopotamus, not the elephant, based on specific details in the description. Its habitat among marshes and reeds, its grass diet, the strength in its loins and belly, and its unique tail motion all point to the river-horse. The placement of the passage, coming before the leviathan, confirms it as an aquatic wonder.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges notes that behemoth is likely an Egyptian name translated into Hebrew rather than a Hebrew term meaning a strong ox. It also says this creature was created along with humans and eats grass like ordinary cattle.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva Note points out that even the remote, untended mountains produce grass for wild animals at God's command. This detail shows that God's provision extends beyond domesticated flocks to every creature, even those that seem to wander without purpose or care. His care reaches the wildest places.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill notes that the word for behemoth can refer to either elephants or river horses. He believes the creature described in Job was likely a river horse living near Job in Egypt.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary notes that behemoth is not a real animal but a poetic name for a large herbivore like an elephant. It also points out that leviathan refers to sea creatures such as whales and crocodiles. Both names show God’s great wisdom and power.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch identify behemoth specifically as the hippopotamus, arguing its Hebrew name derives from the Egyptian phrase meaning water-ox. They develop the physical description through detailed word studies, comparing the tail to a cedar branch and the sinews to intertwined vine branches, all to emphasize the creature's immense strength as the giant among beasts.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange argues that the descriptions of behemoth and leviathan are not merely displays of God's power but living mirrors of His justice inseparably united with omnipotence. They humble Job's presumption that he could judge God's ways, showing that divine power is always morally qualified and never a bare, arbitrary force.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry says the description shows God’s power by showing creatures far stronger than humans. He believes this proves Job was wrong and encourages people to submit to God instead of arguing.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley notes that not every eagle species feeds on carcasses, but many do. He then emphasizes the eagle's remarkable speed, flying to the prey in an instant with astonishing swiftness.