---
title: "Job 40 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/job/40/
description: "Of the power of God in the behemoth and the leviathan. Job 40 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Job 40

Job 40 is chapter 40 of 42 in the Book of Job. Here are all 28 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Of the power of God in the behemoth and the leviathan.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Job 40 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. But the Lord, answering Job out of the whirlwind, said:
2. Gird your waist like a man. I will question you, and you must answer me.
3. Will you make my judgment null and void; and will you condemn me so that you may be justified?
4. And do you have an arm like God, or a voice like thunder?
5. Envelop yourself with splendor, and raise yourself up on high, and be glorious, and put on splendid garments.
6. Scatter the arrogant with your wrath, and, when you see all the arrogant, humble them.
7. Look down upon each of the arrogant and confound them, and crush the impious in their place.
8. Hide them in the dust together and plunge their faces into the pit.
9. Then I will confess that your right hand is able to save you.
10. Behold, the behemoth, whom I created along with you, eats hay like an ox.
11. His strength is in his lower back, and his power is in the center of his abdomen.
12. He draws up his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs have been drawn together.
13. His bones are like pipes of brass; his cartilage is like plates of iron.
14. He is the beginning of the ways of God, who made him; he will use him as his sword.
15. The mountains bring forth grass for him; all the beasts of the field will play there.
16. He sleeps in the shadows, under the cover of branches, and in moist places.
17. The shadows cover his shadow; the willows of the brook will encircle him.
18. Behold, he will drink a river and not be amazed, and he has confidence that the Jordan could flow into his mouth.
19. He will seize him through his eyes, as if with a hook, and he will bore through his nostrils, as if with stakes.
20. Can you draw out the leviathan with a hook, and can you bind his tongue with a cord?
21. Can you place a ring in his nose, or bore through his jaw with an arm band?
22. Will he offer many prayers to you, or speak to you quietly?
23. Will he form a covenant with you, and will you accept him as a servant forever?
24. Will you play with him as with a bird, or tether him for your handmaids?
25. Will your friends cut him into pieces, will dealers distribute him?
26. Will you fill up bags with his hide, and let his head be used as a home for fishes?
27. Place your hand upon him; remember the battle and speak no more.
28. Behold, his hope will fail him, and in the sight of all, he will be thrown down.

## Job 40 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Respondens autem Dominus Job de turbine, dixit:
2. Accinge sicut vir lumbos tuos: interrogabo te, et indica mihi.
3. Numquid irritum facies judicium meum, et condemnabis me, ut tu justificeris?
4. Et si habes brachium sicut Deus? et si voce simili tonas?
5. Circumda tibi decorem, et in sublime erigere, et esto gloriosus, et speciosis induere vestibus.
6. Disperge superbos in furore tuo, et respiciens omnem arrogantem humilia.
7. Respice cunctos superbos, et confunde eos, et contere impios in loco suo.
8. Absconde eos in pulvere simul, et facies eorum demerge in foveam.
9. Et ego confitebor quod salvare te possit dextera tua.
10. Ecce behemoth quem feci tecum, fœnum quasi bos comedet.
11. Fortitudo ejus in lumbis ejus, et virtus illius in umbilico ventris ejus.
12. Stringit caudam suam quasi cedrum; nervi testiculorum ejus perplexi sunt.
13. Ossa ejus velut fistulæ æris; cartilago illius quasi laminæ ferreæ.
14. Ipse est principium viarum Dei: qui fecit eum applicabit gladium ejus.
15. Huic montes herbas ferunt: omnes bestiæ agri ludent ibi.
16. Sub umbra dormit in secreto calami, et in locis humentibus.
17. Protegunt umbræ umbram ejus: circumdabunt eum salices torrentis.
18. Ecce absorbebit fluvium, et non mirabitur, et habet fiduciam quod influat Jordanis in os ejus.
19. In oculis ejus quasi hamo capiet eum, et in sudibus perforabit nares ejus.
20. An extrahere poteris Leviathan hamo, et fune ligabis linguam ejus?
21. Numquid pones circulum in naribus ejus, aut armilla perforabis maxillam ejus?
22. Numquid multiplicabit ad te preces, aut loquetur tibi mollia?
23. Numquid feriet tecum pactum, et accipies eum servum sempiternum?
24. Numquid illudes ei quasi avi, aut ligabis eum ancillis tuis?
25. Concident eum amici? divident illum negotiatores?
26. Numquid implebis sagenas pelle ejus, et gurgustium piscium capite illius?
27. Pone super eum manum tuam: memento belli, nec ultra addas loqui.
28. Ecce spes ejus frustrabitur eum, et videntibus cunctis præcipitabitur.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 10: “Behemoth” … In Hebrew, behema, which signifies in general an animal; but many authors explain, that here it is put for the elephant.
- Verse 14: This text is variously explained: some explain the sword, the horn given to the animal for his defence: others, the power that God hath given to the animal for his defence: others, the power that God hath given to man to slay him, notwithstanding his great size and strength.
- Verse 20: “Leviathan” … The whale or some sea monster.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Fri, Oct 6, 2028 (computed): Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).