Job 41:5-15

5 Will you play with it as with a bird, or will you put it on leash for your girls?
6 Will traders bargain over it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its skin with harpoons, or its head with fishing spears?
8 Lay hands on it; think of the battle; you will not do it again!
9 Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed; were not even the gods overwhelmed at the sight of it?
10 No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up. Who can stand before it?
11 Who can confront it and be safe? —under the whole heaven, who?
12 "I will not keep silence concerning its limbs, or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame.
13 Who can strip off its outer garment? Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?
14 Who can open the doors of its face? There is terror all around its teeth.
15 Its back is made of shields in rows, shut up closely as with a seal.

Job 41:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Footnotes 9

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.