Job 41:19

19 Flames blaze from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.

Job 41:19 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:19

Out of his mouth go burning lamps, [and] sparks of fire leap
out.
] Which, though hyperbolical expressions, have some foundation for them in the latter; in the vast quantities of water thrown out by the whale, through its mouth or hole in its frontispiece, which in the sun may look like lamps and sparks of fire, as before observed; and especially in the "orcae", or whales with teeth, which eject in the same way an oily mucus, or the fat liquor of the brain, commonly called spermaceti, which may appear more bright and glittering. Ovid F20 says much the same of the boar as is here said of the leviathan.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 "Fulmen ab ore venit; frondesque adflatibus ardent". Metamorph. c. 8. Fab. 4.

Job 41:19 In-Context

17 They are joined strongly to one another; they hold on to each other and cannot be separated.
18 When it snorts, flashes of light are thrown out, and its eyes look like the light at dawn.
19 Flames blaze from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours out of its nose, as if coming from a large pot over a hot fire.
21 Its breath sets coals on fire, and flames come out of its mouth.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.