Job 41

1 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6 Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor[a] ?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has[b] rows of shields tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal— a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”

Job 41 Commentary

Chapter 41

Concerning Leviathan.

- The description of the Leviathan, is yet further to convince Job of his own weakness, and of God's almighty power. Whether this Leviathan be a whale or a crocodile, is disputed. The Lord, having showed Job how unable he was to deal with the Leviathan, sets forth his own power in that mighty creature. If such language describes the terrible force of Leviathan, what words can express the power of God's wrath? Under a humbling sense of our own vileness, let us revere the Divine Majesty; take and fill our allotted place, cease from our own wisdom, and give all glory to our gracious God and Saviour. Remembering from whom every good gift cometh, and for what end it was given, let us walk humbly with the Lord.

Cross References 39

  • 1. S Job 3:8; Psalms 104:26; Isaiah 27:1
  • 2. Amos 4:2
  • 3. S Job 40:24
  • 4. Ezekiel 19:4; Isaiah 37:29
  • 5. 1 Kings 20:31
  • 6. S Exodus 21:6
  • 7. S Job 40:24
  • 8. S Job 3:8
  • 9. Job 40:16
  • 10. S Job 3:8
  • 11. S 2 Chronicles 20:6; S Isaiah 46:5; Jeremiah 50:44; Revelation 6:17
  • 12. S Job 34:33; Romans 11:35
  • 13. Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalms 24:1; Psalms 50:12; S Joshua 3:11; S Job 10:4; Acts 4:24; 1 Corinthians 10:26
  • 14. Job 40:18
  • 15. S Job 39:11
  • 16. S Job 30:11; S Job 39:10
  • 17. Psalms 22:13
  • 18. Job 40:17
  • 19. S Job 3:9
  • 20. Daniel 10:6
  • 21. Psalms 18:8
  • 22. S Job 4:9; Isaiah 11:4; Isaiah 40:7
  • 23. Psalms 18:8; Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 30:27; Isaiah 33:14; Isaiah 66:14-16; Jeremiah 4:4
  • 24. S Job 39:11
  • 25. Matthew 18:6
  • 26. Job 39:20
  • 27. S Job 3:8
  • 28. S Joshua 8:18
  • 29. S Job 40:24
  • 30. ver 29
  • 31. Psalms 91:5
  • 32. ver 27
  • 33. S Job 5:22
  • 34. Isaiah 28:27; Isaiah 41:15; Amos 1:3
  • 35. 1 Samuel 2:14
  • 36. Ezekiel 32:2
  • 37. S Job 40:19
  • 38. Psalms 18:27; Psalms 101:5; Psalms 131:1; Proverbs 6:17; Proverbs 21:4; Proverbs 30:13
  • 39. Job 28:8

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Septuagint; Hebrew "double bridle"
  • [b]. Or "Its pride is its"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 41

A large description is here given of the leviathan, from the difficulty and danger of taking it, from whence it is inferred that none can stand before God, Job 41:1-10; from the several parts of him, his face, teeth, scales, eyes, mouth and neck, flesh and heart, Job 41:11-24; and from various wonderful terrible things said of him, and ascribed to him, Job 41:25-34.

Job 41 Commentaries

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