Job 40:14
He is the beginning of the ways of God, who made him, he will apply his sword.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ipse est principium viarum Dei : qui fecit eum applicabit gladium ejus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τοῦτ᾽ ἔστιν ἀρχὴ πλάσματος Κυρίου, πεποιημένον ἐνκαταπαίζεσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Job 40:19
- ה֭וּא רֵאשִׁ֣ית דַּרְכֵי אֵ֑ל הָ֝עֹשׂוֹ יַגֵּ֥שׁ חַרְבּֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Beginning, or prince. (Haydock)
The elephant may be considered as the king of beasts for strength, agility, gratitude, longevity, &c. None approaches so near to man. (Pliny viii. 1.; Calmet; Lipsius, 1 ep. 50.; Amama)
Sword; which is the rhinoceros, killing the elephant under the belly with its horn; (Pliny viii. 20.; Grotius) or God seems to have entrusted his sword to the elephant, for the destruction of his enemies. Nothing can withstand its fury, as it overturns houses and trees with its trunk. (Junius) (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Origen Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John, Chapter XVII
Again, there is a beginning in a matter of origin, as might appear in the saying: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.” This meaning, however, appears more plainly in the Book of Job in the passage: “This is the beginning of God’s creation, made for His angels to mock at.” One would suppose that the heavens and the earth were made first, of all that was made at the creation of the world. But the second passage suggests a better view, namely, that as many beings were framed with a body, the first made of these was the creature called dragon, but called in another passage the great whale (leviathan) which the Lord tamed. …