Job 41:1-34

TEXT 41:1-34

41 Canst thou draw out leviathan with a fishhook?
Or press down his tongue with a cord?

2 Canst thou put a rope Into his nose?

Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?

3 Will he make many supplications unto thee?

Or will he speak soft words unto thee?

4 Will he make a covenant with thee,

That thou shouldest take him for a servant for ever?

5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?

Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

6 Will the bands of fishermen make traffic of him?

Will they part him among the merchants?

7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons,

Or his head with fish-spears?

8 Lay thy hand upon him;

Remember the battle, and do so no more.

9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain:

Will not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

10 None is so fierce that he dare stir him up;

Who then is he that can stand before me?

11 Who hath first given unto me, that I should repay him?

Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12 I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,

Nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.

13 Who can strip off his outer garment?

Who shall come within his jaws?

14 Who can open the doors of his face?

Round about his teeth is terror.

15 His strong scales are his pride,

Shut up together as with a close seal.

16 One is so near to another,

That no air can come between them.

17 They are joined one to another;

They stick together, so that they cannot be sundered.

18 His sneezings flash forth light,

And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19 Out of his mouth go burning torches,

And sparks of fire leap forth.

20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goeth,

As of a boiling pot and burning rushes.

21 His breath kindleth coals,

And a flame goeth forth from his mouth.

22 In his neck abideth strength,

And terror danceth before him.

23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together:

They are firm upon him; they cannot be moved.

24 His heart is as firm as a stone;

Yea, firm as the nether millstone.

25 When he raiseth himself up, the mighty are afraid:

By reason of consternation they are beside themselves.

26 If one lay at him with the sword, it cannot avail;

Nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.

27 He counteth iron as straw,

And brass as rotten wood.

28 The arrow cannot make him flee;

Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble.

29 Clubs are counted as stubble:

He laugheth at the rushing of the javelin.

30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds:

He spreadeth as it were a threshing-wain upon the mire.

31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot:

He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

32 He maketh a path to shine after him;

One would think the deep to be hoary.

33 Upon earth there is not his like,

That is made without fear.

34 He beholdeth everything that is high:

He is king over all the sons of pride.

COMMENT 41:1-34

Job 41:1The belligerence of the Leviathan, or crocodile, is described. His thick hide cannot be penetrated by a fishhook. Can anyone take him captive? Would anyone entertain the vain hope of subduing the Leviathan? All of mankind is impotent before this monster. But Yahweh can control this beast with all but serene detachment. Each interrogation leads to the great question, Who then is he that can stand before me?Job 41:10. Whether Leviathan is or is not a mythological creature (Job 3:8) as Pope, et al, insist is not of ultimate significance. The claim that we have here mythological details was not first discovered with the Ras Shamra texts. Egypt is called Rahab in Isaiah 30:7; thus a real nation is called by a mythological name. Discourse analysis, transformational grammar, contemporary cultural and linguistic studies all support the valid use of mythological data for real or historically accurate descriptions. The theological conclusion is not vitiated even if we have mythological elements present in the literary structure. The author believes that the crocodile cannot be captured by a fish hook; the word is found only here and in Isaiah 19:8; Habakkuk 1:15. The crocodile has an immobile tongue attached to the lower jaw, and the imagery suggests efforts at capturing the beast with a rope.

Job 41:2Can you place a rope (-agmonrush, reedIsaiah 9:13; Isaiah 19:15; Isaiah 58:5or as Qumran Targum, zemannose ring) made of reeds through his nose? Both animals and men were held captive or led about with hooks drawn through the nose or jaws2 Kings 19:28; Isaiah 37:29; Ezekiel 29:4; Ezekiel 38:4. The stela of Esarheddon depicts him holding the biblical tirhakah of Egypt and Balu of Tyre by ropes attached to clips in their lips.[395] Ea of the Mesopotamian Creation Epic says that He laid hold on Mummu, holding him by the nose-rope.[396] We also have inscriptions from the Near East (Asurbanipal's inscriptions) which describe ropes through human jawsIsaiah 37:29.

[395] Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton), pp. 296, 447.

[396] Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Princeton), p. 61, line 72.

Job 41:3Leviathan appears here as a human prisoner. Will he plead for mercy as would a human prisoner?

Job 41:4Will he cut a covenant[397] with you? Could you induce him, as a vassal, to enter service forever?Exodus 21:5; Deuteronomy 15:17; and 1 Samuel 27:12.[398] The Qumran Targum renders the second line will you take him as eternal slave?

[397] The covenant envisioned is that of a vassal with the suzerain, i.e., vanquished with the victorsee G. E. Mendenhall, Law and Covenant in Israel and in the Ancient Near East, Biblical Colloquim, Pittsburgh, 1955.

[398] See Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 138b, 145, for same expression in Ugaritic Texts.

Job 41:5In the East, doves and sparrows are still a favorite live playmate of children. In view of this fact, Yahweh asks Job if he wants to make Leviathan a playmate.[399]

[399] See suggestions of D. W. Thomas, Yetus Testamentum, 1964, pp. 115-116, though The Qumran Targum contains your daughters, i.e., young girls, against Thomas-' emendation to sparrows.

Job 41:6Fishermen work together, then divide the catch after it is landed, and this procedure entails bargaining with one another. This social institution is the basis for this imagery.[400] Do you want to catch Leviathan and then bargain with one another over how he is to be divided?

[400] The word rendered merchant in the A. V. is literally Canaanites or hucksters Isaiah 23:8; Zechariah 14:21; Proverbs 31:24. See W. F. Albright, Role of the Canaanites, The Bible in the Ancient Near East, ed. by G. E. Wright, 1961, pp. 328-362.

Job 41:7The words (sukkot and silsal) rendered as barbed irons in A. V. mean harpoons and fish-spears respectively and are unique. But the context makes plain that they are instruments for catching fish, neither of which could ensnare the hard skin of Leviathan.

Job 41:8Effective advice is given to Job by use of powerful imperatives. Before you attempt to take Leviathan, realize what you are trying to do. No one lives to tell of his efforts, because there is no vulnerable spot on Leviathan.

Job 41:9In the Hebrew text, chapter 41 begins with this verse. His hope is in vain if he aspires to effectively assail this monster. As there is no antecedent for the pronoun his, it not only refers to Job, it refers to anyone who attempts it. The A. V. renders the interrogative particle by will not. Most translators omit the particle. The second line provides an enormous amount of possibility for applying the creative imagination of motif research specialists, such as Pope and his pan-Ugaritic hermeneutic. This is another form of contemporary hermeneutical psychoanalysis, which stems from the works of Dilthey, Schleiermacher, Heidegger, Gadamer, et al Here is a warningnot to attempt to capture Leviathan, because the pursuer will collapse by even looking at him.

Job 41:10Who is cruel or fierce enough to awaken Leviathan from sleep? i.e., stir him up. Arousing Leviathan is sheer folly. It is madness to arouse the monster; it is pure foolishness to criticize Yahweh. Some emend the before me to before him which keeps the thought on Leviathan. Dahood is followed by Blommerde. See his bibliographical notes.

Job 41:11The text literally says who has confronted me? By retaining Job 41:10, this text would mean that it is more dangerous to criticize Yahweh than to arouse Leviathan. Paul quotes the Hebrew text (not LXX as meaning is slightly different) version of this line in Romans 11:35. Since God owns everything, no claims can be made against Him. The emphasis is not on the legal aspects but the inequality of power. No one could face Leviathan and survive. Why do you think that you can face me and survive, Job? You cannot even stand before one of my creatures. Why do you suppose that you can encounter your creator and come out of the conflict victoriously?

Job 41:12We now begin to encounter a detailed description of Leviathan. The first line means that Yahweh has broken His silence concerning His strength or physical structure.

Job 41:13Perhaps the imagery here refers to the scales of the crocodile. Dhorme understands the face of his garment to be the tough outer layer of protection as opposed to the back. The second line says literally his double bridle, which is understood to mean come within his jaws as in the A. V.

Job 41:14The crocodile's teeth inspire terror. This formidable enemy has thirty-six sharp teeth in his upper jaw and thirty in his lower jaw. In our context, Yahweh is saying that Job cannot even encounter this creature let alone the one who inspires awesome terror, God. If Leviathan is invincible, what of Yahweh?

Job 41:15Literally his pride (ga-'awah) refers to the hard scales which cover the crocodile. Close seal renders the Hebrew -sar[401] but emendation yields -sor, stone or flint, which gives the thought of hardness of the seals with which the scales are compared.

[401] For emendation, see M. Dahood, Biblica, 1964, p. 399.

Job 41:16The scales are so tightly packed that not even air (Heb. ruahwind) can get between them. That the scales are firm and close is confirmed by the presence of the verb -el, enter, which means nothing can enter between.

Job 41:17This verse reinforces the imagery from Job 41:16.

Job 41:18The spray from the sneezing of the crocodile flashes in the sunlight. Pope imagines that he sees a mythological dragon in this verse. Actually it is only in his highly imaginative but brilliant mind. The dawn is symbolized by the crocodile in Egyptian hieroglyphs. The reddish eyes of the crocodile sparkle like the eyelids of the dawn.

Job 41:19This verse is not describing a fire-breathing dragon as Pope suggests. The actual state of affairs makes the imagery perfectly understandable. When the crocodile arises up out of the water, after a sustained period beneath the surface, it propels water in a hot stream from its mouth. The sparkling steam looks like fire in the sunlight. No mythology is required to properly understand the verse.

Job 41:20Yahweh's theophany is described in Psalms 18:9 and 2 Samuel 22:9. Smoke or steam hurtle heavenward, as a boiling pot (Heb. kedud, Job 41:19kidod, flame, as comparative particle, like, or as a boiling pot) and burning (not in Hebrew text but implied) rushes. Each image is of steam or vapor moving upwards. The word rendered rushes is found in verse two and is translated rage.

Job 41:21This imagery is understandable as hyperbolical language, not necessarily mythological as Gunkel, Pope, et at. The Qumran Targum renders the second line Sparks issue from his mouth.

Job 41:22The strength (Heb. d-'bh is rendered -lymw in The Qumran Targum and contains connotations of sexual vigor) of the crocodile's neck is very apparent. The neck is often thought of as the place of strengthJob 15:26 and Psalms 75:5. Dismay[402] goes before him. The dancing surely refers to the movement of the panic-striken victims attempting to evade his charge.

[402] For this reading, see F. M. Cross, Vetus Testamentum, 1952, p. 163, for dismay rather than terror, but Hebrew also yields an acceptable meaning.

Job 41:23The A. V. rendering makes little sense, particularly in the first line. Literally the word rendered as flakes in A. V. is falling parts, i.e., the flabby parts of his skin. The various possibilities all yield the same basic results, i.e., the hardness of the crocodile is indicated.

Job 41:24The attitude of Leviathan is described by the image of a millstone. In Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26, this same word is used to describe a heart of stone in contrast to a heart of flesh. The bottom or stationary stone received the harder wear.

Job 41:25Leviathan produces only the sensations and manifestations of fear, but he knows no fear.

Job 41:26No human weapons avail (Heb. lit. does not stand) against his mighty armour. He is impervious to human power. Think, Job, if he can generate fear, what about me?

Job 41:27-30No weapon, not even strong metal, avails against his defenses, which in Job 41:30 are compared with his scales. When he lies on the ground, he leaves marks resembling the marks of the threshing sledge.

Job 41:31Leviathan's motion in the water is described as churning up foam. He churns the water into a boilJob 30:27. The word for pot describes an ordinary household utensilJeremiah 1:13. The references to ointment is problematic. Perhaps it refers to the boiling foam like unguent rising to the surface during the rigorous underwater activity of Leviathan.

Job 41:32The white foam which Leviathan leaves behind as he lights a path[403] is the basis of the imagery in the first line. The deep (tehom) is his habitat.

[403] M. Dahood, Ephermerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 1968, p. 36.

Job 41:33Leviathan is peerless and fearlessJob 4:19; Job 7:21; Job 10:9; Job 14:8; Job 17:16; Job 19:25; Job 20:11; and Job 34:15. Blommerde renders the first line on earth is not his equal.[404]

[404] He follows M. Dahood, Biblica, 1964, p. 410. Pope, following Gunkel, insists that the passage is not about the crocodile but a mythological monster, which stems from his assumption that Ugaritic employment of the mythological motif necessitates the presence of the motif in Job, though Ugaritic evidence does support the antiquity of the Book of Job.

Job 41:34Leviathan is king of the sons of prideJob 28:8. Surely this suggests a creature from the natural world perhaps like a crocodile.