Job 41:5

5 Will you tie him like a pet bird, like something to amuse your servant women?

Job 41:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:5

Wilt thou play with him as [with] a bird?
&c.] In the hand or cage: leviathan plays in the sea, but there is no playing with him by land, ( Psalms 104:26 ) ;

or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
or young girls, as Mr. Broughton renders it; tie him in a string, as birds are for children to play with? Now, though crocodiles are very pernicious to children, and often make a prey of them when they approach too near the banks of the Nile, or whenever they have an opportunity of seizing them F11; yet there is an instance of the child of an Egyptian woman that was brought up with one, and used to play with it F12, though, when grown up, was killed by it; but no such instance can be given of the whale of any sort.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 Aelian. l. 10. c. 21.
F12 Maxim. Tyr. Sermon. 38.

Job 41:5 In-Context

3 Will he beg you to let him go? Will he plead with you for mercy?
4 Will he make an agreement with you and promise to serve you forever?
5 Will you tie him like a pet bird, like something to amuse your servant women?
6 Will fishermen bargain over him? Will merchants cut him up to sell?
7 Can you fill his hide with fishing spears or pierce his head with a harpoon?
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.