Job 41:16

16 One scale is so close to another[a] that no air can pass between them.

Job 41:16 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:16

One is so near to another, that no air can come between
them.
] This shows that it cannot be understood of the skin of the whale, and the hardness and strength of that, which is alike and of a piece; whereas those scales, or be they what they may, though closely joined, yet are distinct: those who interpret this of whales that have teeth, and these of the teeth, observe, that as they have teeth to the number of forty or fifty in the lower jaw, in the upper one fire holes or sockets into which they go; and they are so very close that no wind or air can come between them F7.


FOOTNOTES:

F7 Vid. Scheuchzer. ut supra. (Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 848.)

Job 41:16 In-Context

14 Who can open his jaws, surrounded by those terrifying teeth?
15 [His] pride is in [his] rows of scales, closely sealed together.
16 One scale is so close to another that no air can pass between them.
17 They are joined to one another, so closely connected they cannot be separated.
18 His snorting flashes with light, while his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Lit One by one they approach
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