Job 41:2

2 Can you put a rope in its nose? Or can you pierce its jawbone with a hook?

Job 41:2 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:2

Canst thou put an hook into his nose?
&c.] Or a rush, that is, a rope made of rushes; for of such ropes were made, as Pliny ^F7 affirms;

or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
as men do herrings, or such like small fish, for the convenience of carrying them, or hanging them up to dry; the whale is not to be used in such a manner: but the Tentyritae, a people in Egypt, great enemies to crocodiles, had methods of taking thorn in nets, and of binding and bridling them, and carrying them as they pleased ^F8.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Nat. Hist. l. 19. c. 2.
F8 Strabo. Geograph. l. 17. p. 560. Aelian. de Animal. l. 10. c. 21. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 25.

Job 41:2 In-Context

1 "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Or {can you tie down its mouth with a cord}?

2 Can you put a rope in its nose? Or can you pierce its jawbone with a hook?

3 Will it make numerous pleas for mercy to you? Or will it speak gentle words to you?

4 Will it make a covenant with you? Will you take it as a slave forever?

5 Will you play with it as [with] birds and put it on a leash for your girls?

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "And"