Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, July 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Contemporary English Version

Job 40:20

Undisturbed, it eats grass while the other animals play nearby.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Animals;   God;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Behemoth;   Leviathan;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Behemoth;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Animals;   Behemoth;   Hippopotamus;   Job, the Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Behemoth;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Be'hemoth;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The hills yield food for him,while all sorts of wild animals play there.
Hebrew Names Version
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, Where all the animals of the field do play.
King James Version
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
English Standard Version
For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play.
New Century Version
The hills, where the wild animals play, provide food for it.
New English Translation
For the hills bring it food, where all the wild animals play.
Amplified Bible
"Surely the mountains bring him food, And all the wild animals play there.
New American Standard Bible
"Indeed the mountains bring him food, And all the animals of the field play there.
World English Bible
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, Where all the animals of the field do play.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Surely the mountaines bring him foorth grasse, where all the beastes of the fielde play.
Legacy Standard Bible
Surely the mountains bring it food,And all the beasts of the field play there.
Berean Standard Bible
The hills yield him their produce, while all the beasts of the field play nearby.
Complete Jewish Bible
The mountains produce food for him there, where all the wild animals play.
Darby Translation
For the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
Easy-to-Read Version
He eats the grass that grows on the hills where the wild animals play.
George Lamsa Translation
He roams about the mountains, and all the wild beasts of the field lie down under his protection.
Good News Translation
Grass to feed him grows on the hills where wild beasts play.
Lexham English Bible
Yes, the mountains yield produce for it, and all wild animals play there.
Literal Translation
For the mountains yield food for him, and all the beasts of the field play there.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yt the mountaynes shulde geue him grasse, where all the beastes off the felde take their pastyme.
American Standard Version
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, Where all the beasts of the field do play.
Bible in Basic English
He takes the produce of the mountains, where all the beasts of the field are at play.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, and all the beasts of the field play there.
King James Version (1611)
Surely the mountaines bring him foorth foode: where all the beasts of the field play.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Surely the mountaines bring him foorth grasse, where all the beastes of the fielde take their pastime.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But wilt thou catch the serpent with a hook, and put a halter about his nose?
English Revised Version
Surely the mountains bring him forth food; where all the beasts of the field do play.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Hillis beren eerbis to this behemot; alle the beestis of the feeld pleien there.
Update Bible Version
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, Where all the beasts of the field play.
Webster's Bible Translation
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
New King James Version
Surely the mountains yield food for him, And all the beasts of the field play there.
New Living Translation
The mountains offer it their best food, where all the wild animals play.
New Life Bible
For sure the mountains bring food to him where all the animals of the field play.
New Revised Standard
For the mountains yield food for it where all the wild animals play.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Surely the mountains bring, produce, to him, where, all the wild beasts of the field, do play;
Douay-Rheims Bible
(40-15) To him the mountains bring forth grass: there all the beasts of the field shall play.
Revised Standard Version
For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play.
Young's Literal Translation
For food do mountains bear for him, And all the beasts of the field play there.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Surely the mountains bring him food, And all the beasts of the field play there.

Contextual Overview

15 I created both you and the hippopotamus. It eats only grass like an ox, 16 but look at the mighty muscles in its body 17 and legs. Its tail is like a cedar tree, and its thighs are thick. 18 The bones in its legs are like bronze or iron. 19 I made it more powerful than any other creature, yet I am stronger still. 20 Undisturbed, it eats grass while the other animals play nearby. 21 It rests in the shade of trees along the riverbank 22 or hides among reeds in the swamp. 23 It remains calm and unafraid with the Jordan River rushing and splashing in its face. 24 There is no way to capture a hippopotamus— not even by hooking its nose or blinding its eyes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the mountains: Job 40:15, Psalms 147:8, Psalms 147:9

where: Psalms 104:14, Psalms 104:26

Reciprocal: Genesis 1:30 - General Genesis 6:21 - General Job 39:8 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 21:8
The time came when Sarah no longer had to nurse Isaac, and on that day Abraham gave a big feast.
Genesis 40:1
While Joseph was in prison, both the king's personal servant and his chief cook made the king angry. So he had them thrown into the same prison with Joseph.
Genesis 40:13
and in three days the king will pardon you. He will make you his personal servant again, and you will serve him his wine, just as you used to do.
Genesis 40:19
and in three days the king will cut off your head. He will hang your body on a pole, and birds will come and peck at it.
Genesis 40:23
but the king's personal servant completely forgot about Joseph.
2 Kings 25:27
Jehoiachin was a prisoner in Babylon for thirty-seven years. Then Evil-Merodach became king of Babylonia, and in the first year of his rule, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, he let Jehoiachin out of prison.
Esther 1:3
During the third year of his rule, Xerxes gave a big dinner for all his officials and officers. The governors and leaders of the provinces were also invited, and even the commanders of the Persian and Median armies came.
Job 3:1
Job's First Speech Finally, Job cursed the day of his birth
Matthew 14:6
When Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests. She pleased Herod
Matthew 25:19
Some time later the master of those servants returned. He called them in and asked what they had done with his money.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Surely the mountains bring him forth food,.... Grass, which grows on mountains, and is the food of the river horse as well as of the elephant; and therefore is furnished with teeth like a scythe to mow it down; and it is not a small quantity that will suffice it, mountains only can supply it; and marvellous it is that a creature bred in a river should come out of it to seek its food on mountains. There is a creature in the northern parts, as in Russia, Greenland, c. which is called morss and sea morss, and by the description of it is much like the river horse, of the size of an ox, and having an head like one, with two large long teeth standing out of its upper jaw, and an hairy skin a, said to be an inch thick, and so tough that no lance will enter it b it comes out of the sea, and by its teeth gets up to the tops of mountains, and having fed on grass rolls itself down again into the sea; and this it does by putting its hinder feet to its teeth, and so falls from the mountain with great celerity, as on a sledge c;

where all the beasts of the field play; skip and dance, and delight in each other, being in no fear of behemoth; whether understood of the elephant or river horse; since neither of them are carnivorous creatures that feed on other animals, but on grass only; and therefore the beasts of the field may feed with them quietly and securely. Pliny d says of the elephant, that meeting with cattle in the fields, it will make signs to them not to be afraid of it, and so they will go in company together.

a Olaus Magus ut supra, (De Ritu. Septent. Gent.) l. 21. c. 19. Vid. Bochart. ut supra, (Apud Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 14.) col. 763. Eden's Travels, p. 318. b See the North West Fox, p. 232. Voyage to Spitzbergen, p. 115, 120. Supplement, p. 194. c Olaus Magnus, ut supra, (De Ritu. Septent. Gent. l. 21. c. 19.) & Eden's Travels, ut supra. (p. 318.) d Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Surely the mountains bring him forth food - That is, though he lies commonly among the reeds and fens, and is in the water a considerable portion of his time, yet he also wanders to the mountains, and finds his food there. But the point of the remark here does not seem to be, that the mountains brought forth food for him, but that he gathered it “while all the wild beasts played around him, or sported in his very presence.” It was remarkable that an animal so large and mighty, and armed with such a set of teeth, should not be carnivorous, and that the wild beasts on the mountains should continue their sports without danger or alarm in his very presence. This fact could be accounted for partly because the “motions” of the hippopotamus were so very slow and clumsy that the wild beasts had nothing to fear from him, and could easily escape from him if he were disposed to attack them, and partly from the fact that he seems to have “preferred” vegetable food. The hippopotamus is seldom carnivorous, except when driven by extreme hunger, and in no respect is he formed to be a beast of prey. In regard to “the fact” that the hippopotamus is sometimes found in mountainous or elevated places, see Bochart.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 40:20. The mountains bring him forth food — It cannot therefore be the hippopotamus, as he is seldom found far from the rivers where he has his chief residence.

Where all the beasts of the field play. — He frequents those places where he can have most prey. He makes a mock of all the beasts of the field. They can neither resist his power, nor escape from his agility. All this answers to what we know of the mammoth, but not at all to the hippopotamus.


 
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