Job 41:5-15

5 Can you play with him like a bird or put him on a leash^[a] for your girls?

6 Will traders bargain for him or divide him among the merchants?

7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

8 Lay a^[b] hand on him. You will remember the battle and never repeat it!

9 ^[c] Any hope of [capturing] him proves false. Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?

10 No one is ferocious [enough] to rouse Leviathan; who then can stand against Me?^[d]

11 Who confronted Me, that I should repay him?^[e] Everything under heaven belongs to Me.

12 I cannot be silent about his limbs, his power, and his graceful proportions.

13 Who can strip off his outer covering? Who can penetrate his double layer of armor?^[f][g]

14 Who can open his jaws,^[h] surrounded by those terrifying teeth?

15 [His] pride is in [his] rows of scales, closely sealed together.^[i]

Job 41:5-15 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit or bind him
• [b]. Lit your
• [c]. Jb 41:1 in Hb
• [d]. Ps 2:2-5
• [e]. Jb 34:11,33
• [f]. LXX; MT reads double bridle
• [g]. Ps 32:9
• [h]. Lit open the doors of his face
• [i]. Jb 40:18