Job 41:30

30 The scales on his belly are like jagged pieces of pottery; they tear up the muddy ground like a threshing sledge.

Job 41:30 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:30

Sharp stones [are] under him
And yet give him no pain nor uneasiness;

he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire;
and makes his bed of them and lies upon them; as sharp stones, as before, shells of fishes, broken pieces of darts, arrows, and javelins thrown at him, which fall around him: this does not so well agree with the crocodile, the skin of whose belly is soft and thin; wherefore dolphins plunge under it and cut it with a thorn, as Pliny ^F8 relates, or with spiny fins ^F9; but with the whale, which lies among hard rocks and sharp stones, and large cutting pieces of ice, as in the northern seas.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 25.
F9 Sandys's Travels, l. 2. p. 78.

Job 41:30 In-Context

28 There is no arrow that can make him run; rocks thrown at him are like bits of straw.

29 To him a club is a piece of straw, and he laughs when men throw spears.

30 The scales on his belly are like jagged pieces of pottery; they tear up the muddy ground like a threshing sledge.

31 He churns up the sea like boiling water and makes it bubble like a pot of oil.

32 He leaves a shining path behind him and turns the sea to white foam.

Footnotes

• [a] threshing sledges: [These had sharp pieces of iron or stone fastened beneath them.]