Job 40:18-20

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Job 40:19 tn Heb “the ways of God.”sn This may be a reference to Gen 1:24, where the first of the animal creation was the cattle—b^ehemah (בְּהֵמָה).
2. Job 40:19 tc The literal reading of the MT is “let the one who made him draw near [with] his sword.” The sword is apparently a reference to the teeth or tusks of the animal, which cut vegetation like a sword. But the idea of a weapon is easier to see, and so the people who favor the mythological background see here a reference to God’s slaying the Beast. There are again many suggestions on how to read the line. The RV probably has the safest: “He that made him has furnished him with his sword” (the sword being a reference to the sharp tusks with which he can attack).
3. Job 40:20 tn The word בּוּל (bul) probably refers to food. Many take it as an abbreviated form of יְבוּל (y^evul, “produce of the field”). The vegetation that is produced on the low hills is what is meant.