Job 41: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

God keeps speaking to Job, this time about Leviathan, a huge sea creature. He asks whether Job could catch him with a hook, tame him, or sell him, and points out that no one dares to rouse him. God then says that if no one can stand against Leviathan, no one can stand against God, and that everything under heaven is his. The rest of the chapter describes the creature: his scales, his jaws, his fiery breath, weapons that bounce off him, and the churned water he leaves behind.

Claim by Claim

1. 41:1
   • The speaker asks Job whether he can draw out Leviathan with a fishhook.
   • The speaker asks Job whether he can press down Leviathan's tongue with a cord.
2. 41:2
   • The speaker asks Job whether he can put a rope or reed through Leviathan's nose.
   • The speaker asks Job whether he can pierce Leviathan's jaw with a hook.
3. 41:3
   • The speaker asks whether Leviathan will make many pleas to Job.
   • The speaker asks whether Leviathan will speak gentle words to Job.
4. 41:4
   • The speaker asks whether Leviathan will make a covenant with Job.
   • The speaker asks whether Job will take Leviathan as a slave forever.
5. 41:5
   • The speaker asks whether Job will play with Leviathan as with a bird.
   • The speaker asks whether Job will tie Leviathan up for his young women.
6. 41:6
   • The speaker asks whether trading partners will bargain over Leviathan.
   • The speaker asks whether they will divide Leviathan among the merchants.
7. 41:7
   • The speaker asks whether Job can fill Leviathan's hide with harpoons.
   • The speaker asks whether Job can fill Leviathan's head with fishing spears.
8. 41:8
   • The speaker tells Job to lay his hand on Leviathan.
   • The speaker tells Job to remember the battle.
   • The speaker tells Job not to do it again.
9. 41:9
   • Hope of overcoming Leviathan is false.
   • At the mere sight of Leviathan a person is cast down.
10. 41:10
    • No one is fierce enough to rouse Leviathan.
    • The speaker asks who then is able to stand before him.
11. 41:11
    • The speaker asks who has confronted him, or given to him first, such that he must repay; the wording carries both senses.
    • Everything under the whole heaven belongs to the speaker.
12. 41:12
    • The speaker will not keep silent about Leviathan's limbs.
    • The speaker will not keep silent about Leviathan's power.
    • The speaker will not keep silent about Leviathan's graceful frame.
13. 41:13
    • The speaker asks who can strip off Leviathan's outer covering.
    • The speaker asks who can come at him within his double row of teeth, or with a bridle; the wording carries both senses.
14. 41:14
    • The speaker asks who can open the doors of Leviathan's face.
    • Terror surrounds Leviathan's teeth.
15. 41:15
    • Leviathan's rows of scales are his pride.
    • The scales are shut tight as with a close seal.
16. 41:16
    • Each scale is so close to the next that no air passes between them.
17. 41:17
    • The scales are joined to one another.
    • The scales cling together.
    • The scales cannot be separated.
18. 41:18
    • Leviathan's snorting flashes out light.
    • Leviathan's eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19. 41:19
    • Burning torches go out of Leviathan's mouth.
    • Sparks of fire escape from him.
20. 41:20
    • Smoke goes out of Leviathan's nostrils.
    • The smoke is like that from a boiling pot or cauldron.
21. 41:21
    • Leviathan's breath sets coals ablaze.
    • A flame goes out of Leviathan's mouth.
22. 41:22
    • Strength lodges in Leviathan's neck.
    • Dismay leaps before him.
23. 41:23
    • The folds of Leviathan's flesh are joined together.
    • They are firm upon him.
    • They cannot be moved.
24. 41:24
    • Leviathan's heart is firm as a stone.
    • It is as hard as a lower millstone.
25. 41:25
    • When Leviathan raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.
    • Because of the crashing they are beside themselves, or they purify themselves; the wording carries both senses.
26. 41:26
    • The sword that reaches Leviathan does not avail.
    • Neither does the spear.
    • Neither does the dart.
    • Neither does the javelin or coat of mail.
27. 41:27
    • Leviathan regards iron as straw.
    • Leviathan regards bronze as rotten wood.
28. 41:28
    • The arrow cannot make Leviathan flee.
    • Slingstones become stubble to him.
29. 41:29
    • A club is counted as stubble by Leviathan.
    • Leviathan laughs at the rattling of a javelin.
30. 41:30
    • Sharp potsherds are underneath Leviathan.
    • He spreads a threshing sledge upon the mire.
31. 41:31
    • Leviathan makes the deep boil like a pot.
    • Leviathan makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32. 41:32
    • Leviathan makes a shining path behind him.
    • One would think the deep had white hair.
33. 41:33
    • On earth there is nothing like Leviathan.
    • Leviathan was made without fear.
34. 41:34
    • Leviathan looks upon everything that is high.
    • Leviathan is king over all the sons of pride.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

41:1

Leviathan is a name, not a species. Elsewhere in the Old Testament it belongs to a monstrous many-headed creature of the sea (Psalm 74:14; Isaiah 27:1), a figure known across the ancient Near East. Much of the description in this chapter also fits a crocodile point for point, armored hide, terrible jaws, thrashing in the shallows, dragging its belly through mud. Readers have argued for centuries over which is meant, and the Hebrew does not settle it. Note also that Hebrew Bibles divide the text differently here: verses 1-8 of this chapter are numbered 40:25-32 there, so chapter 41 begins at what English Bibles call verse 9.

41:2

Putting a cord or ring through the nose or jaw was how large animals (and, on Assyrian carvings, human prisoners) were led about once captured. The question is whether Job could reduce this creature to livestock.

41:4

A covenant was a formal, binding agreement, often made between a stronger party and a weaker one who accepted its terms in exchange for being allowed to live. The second half of the verse continues that picture: a defeated enemy taken as a permanent slave rather than killed.

41:5

Keeping a small bird tethered on a string was a common household amusement. The "maidens" are the young women servants of a household; the image is of a creature so tame it becomes a plaything for the girls.

41:6

The word behind "companions" and "trading partners" means those joined in a business venture, here, fishermen or traders who would share out a catch. The picture is a carcass butchered and sold off in the market.

41:7

"Barbed irons" are harpoons, thrown with a line attached so the barbs hold fast in the hide. A fish spear had several prongs. Both were the standard heavy gear for large water animals, and both are useless here.

41:10

The speaker throughout these chapters is God, answering Job out of the storm since chapter 38. The question turns mid-thought from the creature to the one who made it: if no one dares provoke Leviathan, no one can face God.

41:11

The Hebrew of the first line is difficult. As read here, it is about debt: no one has given God anything first, so God owes no one repayment. Some ancient versions read it instead as "who has confronted me and come away safe?" Both senses have been defended.

41:12

"His parts" means his limbs, and "comely proportion" means a graceful, well made build. The speaker is about to describe the creature admiringly, as a piece of engineering.

41:13

The first line is literally "the face of his garment", his hide treated as clothing that cannot be stripped off. The second line is uncertain in Hebrew: "his double bridle" may mean a bridle for reining him in, or his doubled jaws, or the double row of his teeth.

41:14

"The doors of his face" is a word for word rendering of the Hebrew for his jaws, which swing open like the two leaves of a gate.

41:15

The Hebrew calls the scales "rows of shields," comparing them to the overlapping shields of soldiers in formation. A "seal" was a lump of clay or wax pressed with a stamp to close a jar or document so tightly that it could not be opened without visibly breaking it.

41:18

"Neesings" is an old spelling of sneezings, here the burst of spray a large water animal blows when it surfaces, catching the light. "The eyelids of the morning" is a Hebrew image for the first rays of dawn, which open like a pair of eyes.

41:19

From here through verse 21 the description gives the creature fire and smoke. Fire-breathing belonged to the sea dragon of ancient Near Eastern storytelling; some readers also see behind it the observable spray a crocodile blows when it surfaces, catching the light. The Hebrew simply describes what it describes.

41:20

The Hebrew names reeds or rushes burning under the pot. Dried reeds from the marshes were ordinary cheap fuel, giving a fast, smoky fire.

41:22

The King James "sorrow is turned into joy before him" reads a rare Hebrew verb as "dance for joy." The verb means to leap or dash, and the noun means dismay or despair: terror leaps ahead of him.

41:23

"Flakes" in the King James means layers or folds of flesh, not small flat pieces.

41:24

"Heart" here is the Hebrew word for the inner mass of the body, the chest, a statement about hardness, not about feelings. Grain was ground between two stones; the lower one carried the whole weight of the upper and was cut from the hardest rock available, so it was the standard comparison for something unbreakable.

41:25

The King James "by reason of breakings they purify themselves" is a literal rendering of a line no one has fully settled. The "breakings" are the crashing of his thrashing; the verb can mean either to purify oneself or to be beside oneself: that is, to lose one's nerve and back away.

41:26

A "habergeon" in King James English is a coat of chain mail, but the Hebrew word here names a weapon rather than armor, probably a lance or throwing javelin. All four items listed are things thrown or thrust at him.

41:27

"Brass" in the King James means bronze, the alloy of copper and tin that was the hardest metal in common use before iron. Naming iron and bronze together covers every weapon a person could bring.

41:28

A sling was a leather strap whirled overhead to hurl a stone with great force, a standard battlefield weapon, not a toy. Chaff is the light husk blown off grain at threshing; it is the stock image for something weightless.

41:29

The King James "darts" translates a Hebrew word for a wooden club or mace. "Stubble" is the dry stalk left standing in a field after harvest, brittle and worthless.

41:30

Potsherds are broken pieces of fired clay pot, the commonest sharp litter of the ancient world. A threshing sled was a heavy wooden board studded on its underside with stones or iron teeth, dragged over cut grain to break the husks open; it left deep parallel scores in whatever it crossed.

41:31

Ointment was perfumed oil, made by working spices into oil over heat, which raised a froth on the surface. The image is churned, foaming water.

41:32

White hair was the standard mark of old age. The line puns on it: the foam of his wake makes the dark sea look gray-headed.

41:34

The Hebrew is literally "sons of pride," an idiom for those characterized by pride. It can mean proud people, or proud beasts, the great predators, and the ambiguity is in the original.