Job 31:4

31:4 Does he not see my ways

and count all my steps?

Job 34:21

34:21 For his eyes are on the ways of an individual,

he observes all a person’s steps.

Job 40:19

40:19 It ranks first among the works of God,

the One who made it

has furnished it with a sword.


tn Heb “his”; the referent (a person) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

tn Heb “the ways of God.”

tc The literal reading of the MT is “let the one who made him draw near [with] his sword.” The sword is apparently a reference to the teeth or tusks of the animal, which cut vegetation like a sword. But the idea of a weapon is easier to see, and so the people who favor the mythological background see here a reference to God’s slaying the Beast. There are again many suggestions on how to read the line. The RV probably has the safest: “He that made him has furnished him with his sword” (the sword being a reference to the sharp tusks with which he can attack).