Job 41:5

5 Can you play with him like a bird, put a leash on him for your girls?

Job 41:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:5

Wilt thou play with him as [with] a bird?
&c.] In the hand or cage: leviathan plays in the sea, but there is no playing with him by land, ( Psalms 104:26 ) ;

or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
or young girls, as Mr. Broughton renders it; tie him in a string, as birds are for children to play with? Now, though crocodiles are very pernicious to children, and often make a prey of them when they approach too near the banks of the Nile, or whenever they have an opportunity of seizing them ^F11; yet there is an instance of the child of an Egyptian woman that was brought up with one, and used to play with it ^F12, though, when grown up, was killed by it; but no such instance can be given of the whale of any sort.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Aelian. l. 10. c. 21.
F12 Maxim. Tyr. Sermon. 38.

Job 41:5 In-Context

3 Will he beg you at length or speak gentle words to you?

4 Will he make a pact with you so that you will take him as a permanent slave?

5 Can you play with him like a bird, put a leash on him for your girls?

6 Will merchants sell him; will they divide him among traders?

7 Can you fill his hide with darts, his head with a fishing spear?