Job 41:5

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?)

Job 41:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 41:5

Wilt thou play with him as [with] a bird?
&c.] In the hand or cage: leviathan plays in the sea, but there is no playing with him by land, ( Psalms 104:26 ) ;

or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
or young girls, as Mr. Broughton renders it; tie him in a string, as birds are for children to play with? Now, though crocodiles are very pernicious to children, and often make a prey of them when they approach too near the banks of the Nile, or whenever they have an opportunity of seizing them ^F11; yet there is an instance of the child of an Egyptian woman that was brought up with one, and used to play with it ^F12, though, when grown up, was killed by it; but no such instance can be given of the whale of any sort.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Aelian. l. 10. c. 21.
F12 Maxim. Tyr. Sermon. 38.

Job 41:5 In-Context

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)?

7 Whether thou shalt fill nets with his skin, and a fish basket with his head? (Shalt thou fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fish-hooks?)