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Job 40:18 meaning

This verse points us to a God whose immeasurable strength invites our trust.

“His bones are tubes of bronze; His limbs are like bars of iron.” (v.18) In this passage, God continues describing the powerful creature called Behemoth. The verse emphasizes the creature’s formidable strength, likening its skeletal frame to bronze and its limbs to iron. Such comparisons illustrate how Behemoth stands as a masterpiece of creation that no human can tame. Earlier, the text mentions that the Bible often speaks of loins as the center of physical strength (Job 40:16), and here, that same theme continues with a poetic description of might that surpasses any mortal power.

God’s rhetorical intention for Job is to remind him that He alone rules over all the natural world. By portraying a creature that even the strongest of humans cannot subdue, the Lord underscores His own limitless dominion. Job, who has questioned God’s dealings with his suffering, is confronted with an unmistakable demonstration of divine sovereignty. If one of God’s creations—like Behemoth—is so formidable, how much greater must the Lord be over all events in heaven and on earth?

This verse also contains an invitation for believers today: to recognize that there is no wisdom, strength, or power that surpasses the God who handles the vastness of His works so effortlessly. In the New Testament, Jesus’s authority over creation and life echoes this same majestic sovereignty. No matter the depth of our struggles or questions about life’s trials, Job 40:18 reminds us that we serve a God whose might is beyond measure.

Job 40:18