40 The Lord went on:

² “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? Or will you yield? Do you—God’s critic—have the answers?”

³ Then Job replied to God:

⁴ “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I lay my hand upon my mouth in silence. ⁵ I have said too much already.”

⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Job again from the whirlwind:

⁷ “Stand up like a man and brace yourself for battle. Let me ask you a question, and give me the answer. ⁸ Are you going to discredit my justice and condemn me so that you can say you are right? ⁹ Are you as strong as God, and can you shout as loudly as he? ¹⁰ All right then, put on your robes of state, your majesty and splendor. ¹¹ Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. ¹² Humiliate the haughty with a glance; tread down the wicked where they stand. ¹³ Knock them into the dust, stone-faced in death. ¹⁴ If you can do that, then I’ll agree with you that your own strength can save you.

¹⁵ “Take a look at the hippopotamus!^[a] I made him, too, just as I made you! He eats grass like an ox. ¹⁶ See his powerful loins and the muscles of his belly. ¹⁷ His tail is as straight as a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit together. ¹⁸ His vertebrae lie straight as a tube of brass. His ribs are like iron bars. ¹⁹ How ferocious he is among all of God’s creation, so let whoever hopes to master him bring a sharp sword! ²⁰ The mountains offer their best food to him—the other wild animals on which he preys. ²¹ He lies down under the lotus plants, hidden by the reeds, ²² covered by their shade among the willows there beside the stream. ²³ He is not disturbed by raging rivers, not even when the swelling Jordan rushes down upon him. ²⁴ No one can catch him off guard or put a ring in his nose and lead him away.