1Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, or snare his tongue with a cord which you let down? 2Can you put a reed rope through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak gentle words to you? 4Will he make a covenant with you? Will you capture him as a slave forever? 5Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you bind him on a leash for your maidens? 6Will your associates bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? 7Can you fill his skin with barbs, or his head with fishing spears? 8Lay your hand upon him; remember the battle; you will not do it again! 9Behold, any hope regarding him is false; shall one not be thrown down at the mere sight of him? 10No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand before Me? 11Who has anticipated Me, that I should repay? Everything under the heavens is Mine. 12I will not keep silent with lies about his mighty utterances, or his graceful proportions. 13Who has laid bare the face of his apparel? Who can come upon him with a double bridle? 14Who has opened the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around? 15His rows of shields are his pride, closed up as a tight seal; 16one is so near another that no air can come between them; 17they are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be separated. 18His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. 19Out of his mouth go burning torches; sparks of fire shoot out. 20Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. 21His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth. 22Strength abides in his neck, and sorrow dances before him. 23The folds of his flesh are joined together; they are firm on him and cannot be moved. 24His heart is cast hard as stone, even cast hard as the lower millstone. 25When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; because of his crashings they are beside themselves. 26Though the sword overtakes him, it does not stick; nor does spear, dart, or javelin. 27He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. 28The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones are turned into stubble by him. 29Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the rattling of javelins. 30His undersides are like sharp potsherds; he spreads sharp marks in the mire. 31He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep was gray-headed. 33On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear. 34He beholds every high thing; he is king over all the children of pride.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 (Job 41:1-34)
leviathan--literally, "the twisted animal," gathering itself in folds: a synonym to the Thannin (
Job 3:8, Margin; see
Ps 74:14; type of the Egyptian tyrant;
Ps 104:26;
Isa 27:1; the Babylon tyrant). A poetical generalization for all cetacean, serpentine, and saurian monsters (see on
Job 40:15, hence all the description applies to no one animal); especially the crocodile; which is naturally described after the river horse, as both are found in the Nile.
tongue . . . lettest down?--The crocodile has no tongue, or a very small one cleaving to the lower jaw. But as in fishing the tongue of the fish draws the baited hook to it, God asks, Canst thou in like manner take leviathan?
2 hook--rather, "a rope of rushes."
thorn--rather, a "ring" or "hook." So wild beasts were led about when caught (
Isa 37:29;
Ezek 29:4); fishes also were secured thus and thrown into the water to keep them alive.
3 soft words--that thou mayest spare his life. No: he is untamable.
4 Can he be tamed for domestic use (so
Job 39:10-
Job 39:12)?
5 a bird?--that is, tamed.
6 Rather, "partners" (namely, in fishing).
make a banquet--The parallelism rather supports UMBREIT, "Do partners (in trade) desire to purchase him?" So the Hebrew (
Deut 2:6).
merchants--literally, "Canaanites," who were great merchants (
Hos 12:7, Margin).
7 His hide is not penetrable, as that of fishes.
8 If thou lay . . . thou wilt have reason ever to remember . . . and thou wilt never try it again.
9 the hope--of taking him.
cast down--with fear "at the (mere) sight of him."
10 fierce--courageous. If a man dare attack one of My creatures (
Gen 49:9;
Num 24:9), who will dare (as Job has wished) oppose himself (
Ps 2:2) to Me, the Creator? This is the main drift of the description of leviathan.
11 prevented--done Me a favor first: anticipated Me with service (
Ps 21:3). None can call Me to account ("stand before Me,"
Job 41:10) as unjust, because I have withdrawn favors from him (as in Job's case): for none has laid Me under a prior obligation by conferring on Me something which was not already My own. What can man give to Him who possesses all, including man himself? Man cannot constrain the creature to be his "servant" (
Job 41:4), much less the Creator.
12 I will not conceal--a resumption of the description broken off by the digression, which formed an agreeable change.
his power--literally, "the way," that is, true proportion or expression of his strength (so Hebrew,
Deut 19:4).
comely proportion--literally, "the comeliness of his structure" (his apparatus: so "suit of apparel"
Judg 17:10) [MAURER]. UMBREIT translates, "his armor." But that follows after.
13 discover--rather, "uncover the surface" of his garment (skin,
Job 10:11): strip off the hard outer coat with which the inner skin is covered.
with--rather, "within his double jaws"; literally, "bridle"; hence that into which the bridle is put, the double row of teeth; but "bridle" is used to imply that none dare put his hand in to insert a bridle where in other animals it is placed (
Job 41:4;
Job 39:10).
14 doors of . . . face--his mouth. His teeth are sixty in number, larger in proportion than his body, some standing out, some serrated, fitting into each other like a comb [BOCHART].
15 Rather, his "furrows of shields" (as "tubes," "channels," see on
Job 40:18), are, &c., that is, the rows of scales, like shields covering him: he has seventeen such rows.
shut up--firmly closed together. A musket ball cannot penetrate him, save in the eye, throat, and belly.
18 Translate: "his sneezing, causeth a light to shine." Amphibious animals, emerging after having long held their breath under water, respire by violently expelling the breath like one sneezing: in the effort the eyes which are usually directed towards the sun, seem to flash fire; or it is the expelled breath that, in the sun, seems to emit light.
eyelids of morning--The Egyptian hieroglyphics paint the eyes of the crocodile as the symbol for morning, because the eyes appear the first thing, before the whole body emerges from the deep [Horć Hierogliphicć 1.65. BOCHART].
19 burning lamps--"torches"; namely, in respiring (
Job 41:18), seem to go out.
20 seething--boiling: literally, "blown under," under which a fire is blown.
21 kindleth coals--poetical imagery (
Ps 18:8).
22 remaineth--abideth permanently. His chief strength is in the neck.
sorrow--anxiety or dismay personified.
is turned into joy--rather, "danceth," "exulteth"; wherever he goes, he spreads terror "before him."
23 flakes--rather, "dewlaps"; that which falls down (Margin). They are "joined" fast and firm, together, not hanging loose, as in the ox.
are firm--UMBREIT and MAURER, "are spread."
in themselves--rather, "upon him."
24 heart--"In large beasts which are less acute in feeling, there is great firmness of the heart, and slower motion" [BOCHART]. The nether millstone, on which the upper turns, is especially hard.
25 he--the crocodile; a type of the awe which the Creator inspires when He rises in wrath.
breakings--namely, of the mind, that is, terror.
purify themselves--rather, "they wander from the way," that is, flee away bewildered [MAURER and UMBREIT].
26 cannot hold--on his hard skin.
habergeon--coat of mail; avail must be taken by zeugma out of "hold," as the verb in the second clause: "hold" cannot apply to the "coat of mail."
27 iron . . . brass--namely, weapons.
28 arrow--literally, "son of the bow"; Oriental imagery (
Lam 3:13; Margin).
stubble--Arrows produce no more effect than it would to throw stubble at him.
29 Darts--rather, "clubs"; darts have been already mentioned (
Job 41:26).
30 stones--rather, "potsherds," that is, the sharp and pointed scales on the belly, like broken pieces of pottery.
sharp-pointed things--rather, "a threshing instrument," but not on the fruits of the earth, but "on the mire"; irony. When he lies on the mire, he leaves the marks of his scales so imprinted on it, that one might fancy a threshing instrument with its sharp teeth had been drawn over it (
Isa 28:27).
31 Whenever he moves.
sea--the Nile (
Isa 19:5;
Nah 3:8).
pot of ointment--the vessel in which it is mixed. Appropriate to the crocodile, which emits a musky smell.
32 path--the foam on his track.
hoary--as hair of the aged.
33 who--being one who, &c.
34 beholdeth--as their superior.
children of pride--the proud and fierce beasts. So
Job 28:8; Hebrew, "sons of pride." To humble the pride of man and to teach implicit submission, is the aim of Jehovah's speech and of the book; therefore with this as to leviathan, the type of God in His lordship over creation, He closes.