Job 40:14 (ESV)

14 Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.

If Job could do all the things listed in Job 40:10–13, then it would prove that he indeed has an arm like God (Job 40:9). In that case, God would admit that Job had been right to criticize his governance of the world.

Of course, the idea that Job is able to do these things, thereby taking God’s place, is absurd. In order to convince Job of its absurdity, God devotes the remainder of his speech to two members of the animal kingdom. These two animals were not mentioned in the first speech, yet they surpass all the other animals in size and power.