Job 41:1

God's great power in the Leviathan.

Before Christ 1645.

Job 41:1. Canst thou draw out Leviathan— לויתן leviathan, is derived from לוה lavah, coupled, and תן ten, a dragon, i.e. a large serpent, or fish: as the word תנין tanin, is used both for a land serpent, and a kind of fish; so that, after comparing what Bochart and others have written on the subject, it appears to me, says Parkhurst, that the compound לויתן leviathan, the coupled dragon, denotes some animal partaking of the nature both of land serpents and fishes, and in this place signifies the crocodile, which lives as well under water as on shore. See Boch. tom. ii. p. 769, who seems to have proved, by arguments strictly conclusive, that the crocodile must be meant in this chapter. I would just observe, of the word occurring in the Margin to chap. Job 3:8 of this book, that Parkhurst thinks it contains an allusion to the punishment of some kind of criminals, who were cast to the crocodiles to be devoured by them. Johnson, in his Natural History of Quadrupeds, p. 143, says, that among some of the Indians these animals were formerly kept for this purpose. And I would just remark, that as these animals are found in many of the eastern rivers, as well as in the Nile, it does not follow at all from this description, either that Moses was the writer of this Book, or any other person who drew his ideas immediately from Egypt and the Nile. This first verse relates to the manner of taking the crocodile; and therefore the best commentary on it will be to give an authentic account how it is done. The difficulty of this enterprise will appear from Diodorus Siculus, who says, that they cannot be secured but in iron nets. When Augustus conquered Egypt, he struck a medal, the impress, of which was a crocodile chained to a palm-tree, with this inscription: "None ever bound him before."—"In order to take these animals," says Thevenot, "they make a number of holes or ditches on the banks of the river, which they cover with sticks, and things of the like kind: afterwards, when the crocodiles pass over these cavities, especially, when the waters rise in the river, which is the season of catching them, on account of their going further off from the river at that time, they fall into the holes, and cannot get out again: in this confinement they are suffered to continue without food for several days; after which they let down certain nooses with running knots, wherewith they fasten their jaws, and then draw them out." These nooses are the חבל chebel, the cord here mentioned, and this shews that the word לשׁון lashon, is not to be understood of the tongue only, but of the whole fauces. The clause should be rendered, Canst thou bind his jaws with a cord? Maillet, speaking of these animals, says, that the manner of taking them is very difficult, and sometimes very remarkable: the most common method is, to dig great trenches or ditches along the Nile, which are covered with straw, and into which the creatures fall unawares. They are sometimes taken with hooks, baited with the quarter of a pig, or bacon, which they are very fond of. See Heath and Dr. Young. Hasselquist, speaking of the difficulty of taking this animal, says, "He frequently breaks the nets of fishermen, if they come in his way, and they are exposed to great danger. I found a fishing-hook in the palate of the crocodile which I dissected." See his voyages, p. 216.