Job 41:19

19 The bow of brass shall not would him, he deems a slinger as grass.

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 "Fulmen ab ore venit; frondesque adflatibus ardent". Metamorph. c. 8. Fab. 4.

Job 41:19 In-Context

17 If spears should come against him, will effect nothing, the spear or the breast-plate.

18 For he considers iron as chaff, and brass as rotten wood.

19 The bow of brass shall not would him, he deems a slinger as grass.

20 Mauls are counted as stubble; and he laughs to scorn the waving of the firebrand.

21 His lair is sharp points; and all the gold of the sea under him is an immense clay.