Job 41:16-34

16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal— a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”

Job 41:16-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 41

A large description is here given of the leviathan, from the difficulty and danger of taking it, from whence it is inferred that none can stand before God, Job 41:1-10; from the several parts of him, his face, teeth, scales, eyes, mouth and neck, flesh and heart, Job 41:11-24; and from various wonderful terrible things said of him, and ascribed to him, Job 41:25-34.

Cross References 21

  • 1. S Job 3:9
  • 2. Daniel 10:6
  • 3. Psalms 18:8
  • 4. S Job 4:9; Isaiah 11:4; Isaiah 40:7
  • 5. Psalms 18:8; Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 30:27; Isaiah 33:14; Isaiah 66:14-16; Jeremiah 4:4
  • 6. S Job 39:11
  • 7. Matthew 18:6
  • 8. Job 39:20
  • 9. S Job 3:8
  • 10. S Joshua 8:18
  • 11. S Job 40:24
  • 12. ver 29
  • 13. Psalms 91:5
  • 14. ver 27
  • 15. S Job 5:22
  • 16. Isaiah 28:27; Isaiah 41:15; Amos 1:3
  • 17. 1 Samuel 2:14
  • 18. Ezekiel 32:2
  • 19. S Job 40:19
  • 20. Psalms 18:27; Psalms 101:5; Psalms 131:1; Proverbs 6:17; Proverbs 21:4; Proverbs 30:13
  • 21. Job 28:8
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