Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

New King James Version

Job 40:20

Surely the mountains yield food for him, And all the beasts of the field play there.

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.
Contemporary English Version
Undisturbed, it eats grass while the other animals 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 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 "Look now at the behemoth, [fn] which I made along with you;He eats grass like an ox. 16 See now, his strength is in his hips, And his power is in his stomach muscles. 17 He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. 18 His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron. 19 He is the first of the ways of God; Only He who made him can bring near His sword. 20 Surely the mountains yield food for him, And all the beasts of the field play there. 21 He lies under the lotus trees, In a covert of reeds and marsh. 22 The lotus trees cover him with their shade; The willows by the brook surround him. 23 Indeed the river may rage, Yet he is not disturbed; He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, 24 Though he takes it in his eyes, Or one pierces his nose with a snare.

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
Galatians 4:21-30">[xr] So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.
Genesis 40:1
It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
Genesis 40:2
And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker.
Genesis 40:13
Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler.
Genesis 40:19
Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you."
Genesis 40:23
Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
2 Kings 25:27
Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-Merodach [fn] king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison.
Esther 1:3
that in the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his officials and servants--the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the princes of the provinces being before him--
Job 3:1
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
Matthew 14:6
But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod.

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.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile