31:4 Does he not see my ways
and count all my steps?
34:21 For his eyes are on the ways of an individual,
he observes all a person’s 1 steps.
40:19 It ranks first among the works of God, 2
the One who made it
has furnished it with a sword. 3
1 tn Heb “his”; the referent (a person) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
1 tn Heb “the ways of God.”
2 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).