Job 41:10

10 If you can't hold your own against his glowering visage, how, then, do you expect to stand up to me?

Job 41:10 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:10

None [is so] fierce that dare stir him up
This seems best to agree with the crocodile, who frequently lies down and sleeps on the ground F17, and in the water by night F18; see ( Ezekiel 29:3 ) ; when it is very dangerous to arouse him; and few, if any so daring, have courage enough to do it: though whales have been seen lying near shore asleep, and looked like rocks, even forty of them together F19;

who then is able to stand before me?
This is the inference the Lord draws from hence, or the use he makes of it; that if this creature is so formidable and terrible, that it is dangerous to arouse and provoke him, and there is no standing before him or against him; then how should anyone be able to stand before the Lord, who made this creature, whenever he is angry? see ( Psalms 76:7 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F17 Plin. l. 8. c. 25. Solin. c. 45.
F18 Ammian. Marcellin. l. 22.
F19 See the North-West Fox, p. 205.

Job 41:10 In-Context

8 If you so much as lay a hand on him, you won't live to tell the story.
9 What hope would you have with such a creature? Why, one look at him would do you in!
10 If you can't hold your own against his glowering visage, how, then, do you expect to stand up to me?
11 Who could confront me and get by with it? I'm in charge of all this - I run this universe!
12 "But I've more to say about Leviathan, the sea beast, his enormous bulk, his beautiful shape.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.