Job 41:4

4 Whether he shall make a covenant with thee, and shalt thou take him (for) a servant everlasting? (Shall he make a covenant with thee, and then shalt thou make him thy everlasting servant?)

Job 41:4 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:4

Will he make a covenant with thee?
&c.] To live in friendship or servitude, as follows;

wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
oblige him to serve thee for life, or reduce him to perpetual bondage; signifying, that he is not to be tamed or brought into subjection; which is true of the whale, but not of the crocodile; for several authors ^F9 speak of them as making a sort of a truce with the priests of Egypt for a certain time, and of their being tamed so as to be handled, and fed, and brought up in the house.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 Herodot, ut supra, (Euterpe, sive, l. 2.) c. 69. Aelian. l. 8. c. 2. & l. 10. c. 21. Solin. c. 45. Plin. l. 8. c. 46.

Job 41:4 In-Context

2 Whether thou shalt put a ring in his nostrils, either shalt pierce his cheek[bone] with an hook? (Shalt thou put a ring in his nostrils, or pierce his cheekbone with a hook?)

3 Whether he shall multiply prayers to thee, either shall speak soft things to thee? (Shall he say many prayers to thee, pleading and begging, or speak soft things to thee?)

4 Whether he shall make a covenant with thee, and shalt thou take him (for) a servant everlasting? (Shall he make a covenant with thee, and then shalt thou make him thy everlasting servant?)

5 Whether thou shalt scorn him as a bird, either shalt thou bind him to thine handmaidens? (Shalt thou scorn him like a bird, or shalt thou bind him up for thy servantesses?)

6 Shall friends carve him (up), shall merchants part him (among themselves)?