Job 41:14

14 ¿Quién abrirá las puertas de su rostro? Los órdenes de sus dientes espantan

Job 41:14 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:14

Who can open the doors of his face?
&c.] Of his mouth, the jaws thereof, which are like a pair of folding doors: the jaws of a crocodile have a prodigious opening. Peter Martyr ^F21 speaks of one, whose jaws opened seven feet broad; and Leo Africanus ^F23 affirms he saw some, whose jaws, when opened, would hold a whole cow. To the wideness of the jaws of this creature Martial ^F24 alludes; and that the doors or jaws of the mouth of the whale are of a vast extent will be easily believed by those who suppose that was the fish which swallowed Jonah;

his teeth are terrible round about;
this may seem to make against the whale, the common whale having none; though the "ceti dentati" are a sort of whales that have many teeth in the lower jaw, white, large, solid, and terrible ^F25. Olaus Magnus ^F26 speaks of some that have jaws twelve or fourteen feet long; and teeth of six, eight, and twelve feet; and there is a sort called "trumpo", having teeth resembling those of a mill ^F1. In the spermaceti whale are rows of fine ivory teeth in each jaw, about five or six inches long ^F2. But of the crocodile there is no doubt; which has two rows of teeth, very sharp and terrible, and to the number of sixty ^F3.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 Decad. 5. c. 9.
F23 Descript. Africae, l. 9. p. 763. So Sandys's Travels, l. 2. p. 78. Edit. 5.
F24 Epigram. l. 3. cp. 64.
F25 Vid. Plin. l. 9. c. 5, 6. and Philosoph. Transact. vol. 3. p. 544. Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 4. p. 848.
F26 De Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 21. c. 8.
F1 Philosoph. Transact. abridged, vol. 2. p. 847, 848.
F2 Philosoph. Transact. abridged, vol. 7. part 3. p. 425.
F3 Aelian. l. 10. c. 21.

Job 41:14 In-Context

12 Yo no ocultaré sus mentiras, ni lo de su fuerza ni la belleza de su orden

13 ¿Quién descubrirá la delantera de su vestidura? ¿Quién se llegará a él con freno doble

14 ¿Quién abrirá las puertas de su rostro? Los órdenes de sus dientes espantan

15 Sus escamas {Heb. escudos} son su orgullo, cerrados entre sí como con sello

16 El uno se junta tan cerca del otro, que viento no entra entre ellos