Job 41:16

16 One is joined to another; and soothly breathing goeth not through those (and truly a breath cannot go between them).

Job 41:16 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:16

One is so near to another, that no air can come between
them.
] This shows that it cannot be understood of the skin of the whale, and the hardness and strength of that, which is alike and of a piece; whereas those scales, or be they what they may, though closely joined, yet are distinct: those who interpret this of whales that have teeth, and these of the teeth, observe, that as they have teeth to the number of forty or fifty in the lower jaw, in the upper one fire holes or sockets into which they go; and they are so very close that no wind or air can come between them ^F7.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Vid. Scheuchzer. ut supra. (Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 848.)

Job 41:16 In-Context

14 Who shall open the gates of his cheer? fearedfulness is by the compass of his teeth. (Who shall open the gates of his face, or his lips? for terror cometh from his teeth.)

15 His body is as molten shields of brass, and joined together with scales overlaying themselves. (His body is like bronze shields, yea, scales joined together and overlaying each other.)

16 One is joined to another; and soothly breathing goeth not through those (and truly a breath cannot go between them).

17 One shall cleave to another, and those pieces holding together themselves shall not be parted. (One shall cleave to the other, and those pieces holding themselves together cannot be parted.)

18 His neesing is as (the) shining of fire, and his eyes be as (the) eyelids of the morrowtide. (His sneezing/His snorting sendeth out shots of lightning, and his eyes shine like the breaking of the day.)