Job 41

Can you pull Leviathan in with a fishhook, or tie his tongue down with a rope?

1Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

NoteLeviathan 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.

2Can you put a cord through his nose, or push a hook through his jaw?

2Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

NotePutting 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.

3Will he beg you over and over? Will he speak gently to you?

3Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?

4Will he make an agreement with you? Will you take him as your slave for life?

4Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

NoteA 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.

5Will you play with him like a pet bird, or tie him on a leash for your servant girls?

5Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

NoteKeeping 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.

6Will trading partners bargain over him? Will they cut him up and split him among the merchants?

6Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?

NoteThe 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.

7Can you fill his hide with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears?

7Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

8Put your hand on him once. You will remember the fight, and you will never try it again.

8Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.

9Look, any hope of beating him is false. Just the sight of him knocks a person down.

9Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

10No one is fierce enough to stir him up. So who is able to stand up against me?

10None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

NoteThe 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.

11Who has ever given me anything first, so that I owe him payment? Everything under the whole sky belongs to me.

11Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

NoteThe 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.

12I will not stay quiet about his limbs, his strength, or how well built he is.

12I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.

13Who can strip off his outer coat of hide? Who can get close enough to put a bridle on him?

13Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?

NoteThe 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.

14Who can pry open the doors of his mouth? His teeth are terrifying on every side.

14Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.

15His rows of scales are his pride, packed together and shut tight, like a sealed lid.

15His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

NoteThe 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.

16One scale sits so close to the next that no air can pass between them.

16One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.

17They are locked to one another. They cling together and cannot be pulled apart.

17They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

18When he snorts, light flashes out. His eyes are like the rays of dawn.

18By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19Flaming torches shoot from his mouth. Sparks of fire leap out of it.

19Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

NoteFrom 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.

20Smoke pours from his nostrils, like steam from a pot boiling over a fire.

20Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

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

21His breath sets coals on fire, and a flame comes out of his mouth.

21His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

22Strength lives in his neck, and terror runs ahead of him wherever he goes.

22In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.

NoteThe 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.

23The folds of his flesh are joined tightly. They are hard and will not shift.

23The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

24His heart is as firm as a rock, as hard as the lower stone of a grain mill.

24His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

Note"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.

25When he lifts himself up, even strong men are afraid. His thrashing drives them back.

25When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

NoteThe 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.

26The sword that strikes him does not hold. Neither does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

26The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

NoteA "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.

27He treats iron as if it were straw, and bronze as if it were rotten wood.

27He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.

28No arrow can make him run away. Stones from a sling are like bits of chaff to him.

28The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.

NoteA 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.

29A club counts as nothing more than dry stubble. He laughs at the rattle of a spear.

29Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

NoteThe 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.

30His underside is jagged, like broken pieces of pottery. He drags through the mud and leaves a track like a threshing sled.

30Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

NotePotsherds 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.

31He makes the deep water churn like a boiling pot. He stirs the sea like a jar of ointment.

31He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

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

32He leaves a shining trail behind him. You would think the deep water had turned white-haired.

32He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.

NoteWhite 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.

33Nothing on earth is his equal. He is a creature made without fear.

33Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.

34He looks down on everything that is high. He is king over all the proud.

34He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

NoteThe 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.