Job 41:19

19 Flaming torches shoot[a] from his mouth; fiery sparks fly 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 to one another, so closely connected they cannot be separated.
18 His snorting flashes with light, while his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flaming torches shoot from his mouth; fiery sparks fly out!
20 Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot or [burning] reeds.
21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour out of his mouth.

Footnotes 1

Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.