“
EXPOSITION
Job 41:1-34
The climactic description of a natural wonder, the “”leviathan”” or crocodile, is now given, and with an elaboration for which is unparalleled in the rest of Scripture. However, it forms a fitting climax to gradually more and more elaborate descriptions of Job 38:39-41; Job 39:1-30; Y Job 40:15-24.
Job 41:1
Can you take out the leviathan with a hook? The word leviathan, or more properly livyathan, that has previously occurred in Job 3:8and is also found in Ps 74:14; Ps 104:26 ; Y Isaiah 27:1seems to derive from לוי , “”to twist”” and תן , “”a monster”,” whence the תּנּין or תּנּים of the Pentateuch and also of Job (Job 7:12), Jeremiah (Jer 9:11) and Ezekiel (Eze 29:3). Therefore, it is a descriptive epithet rather than a name, and has naturally been used to designate more than one type of animal. The best modern critics consider that it is applied sometimes to a python or a great serpent, sometimes to a cetacean, a whale or an orc, and sometimes, as a hero, to the crocodile. This latter application is now almost universally accepted. The Egyptians caught the crocodile with a hook, and in Herodotus’s day it was frequently caught and killed (Herod; 2:70); but probably in Job’s day no one had been so bold as to attack him. Or his tongue with a rope that you tie? rather, or do you squeeze his tongue with a rope? (see Revised Version); namely “Tie a rope around his lower jaw, and so press down on his tongue.” Many wild animals are depicted on Assyrian sculpture as being led by a rope tied to their mouths.
Job 41:2
Can you put a hook in his nose? rather, a cane, either a rope of reeds. The exact meaning is doubtful. Or put a thorn through his jaw? It means a hookeither ringinstead of a “”spine””—like a “”hook”” or “ring” as was commonly used to hold fish captive in the water, or to bring prisoners of rank into the presence of the monarchs who commanded them. they had captured.
Job 41:3
Will he make many pleas to you? speak sweet words to you? Ironic. Will he behave as human captives do, when they wish to curry favor with their captors?
Job 41:4
Will he make a pact with you? As do captive monarchs. Will you take him for a servant forever? (comp. Exodus 21:6; Deut 15:17).
Job 41:5
Will you play with him like a bird? The Egyptians were especially fond of domestic animals, and it can be assumed that Job’s compatriots are the same. Besides dogs, we find the Egyptians keeping domesticated antelopes, leopards, and monkeys. A tame crocodile would certainly seem to make an extraordinary pet, but Herodotus says that the Egyptians tamed them (2:39), and Sir Gardner Wilkinson informed me that he had known some tame ones in Cairo. The Mesopotamian Arabs domesticated falcons to help them hunt the great bustard and the gazelle. And this usage, though not represented on Assyrian monuments, is likely to have been ancient. Or will you bind it for your maidens? ie Will you secure it in such a way that it can be given to your servants, to be their pet and playmate?
Job 41:6
Will the companions make a feast of him? rather. Will the companions make a traffic of him? By “”the companions”” we can understand both the guilds or companies of fishermen, who could be considered to be dedicated to making the catch, as well as the itinerant bands of merchants, who could be supposed to be willing to buy and transport it. He away. Since none of the latter could imagine themselves rich enough to make the purchase alone, another question is asked: Should they divide it among the merchants? namely, allow a number to club together, each taking a part.
Job 41:7
Can you fill his skin with barbed irons? The hippopotamus was captured in this way by the Egyptians at an early date, and therefore the idea of trying the same mode of capture with the crocodile naturally arose; but in Job’s day it would seem that no one had dared to attempt it. The skin of the crocodile is penetrable in very few places, and its capture by one man with a harpoon, though now sometimes practised, is still a dangerous and difficult work. Or his head with harpoons? Harpoons would have little effect on a crocodile’s head, which is bony and covered in tough skin. There is a vulnerable spot, however, at the point where the head meets the spine, where the ancient Egyptians, when venturing to attack the crocodile, used to attack.
Job 41:8
Extend your hand over him, remember the battle, do no more. This is again ironic, as Job 41:3-6. “Just stretch out your hand against him, remember the war, do it once and no more.” The idea is that once is enough. No one will live to do it a second time.
Job 41:9
Behold, hope in him is vain; namely, hoping to capture or kill him. Won’t one be knocked down to see it? The very sight of the wild and invulnerable animal is enough to make a man fall to the ground in fear.
Job 41:10
None is so fierce that they dare to shake it. The crocodile is often seen asleep, or nearly asleep, on the sandbanks bathed by the Nile. It would be a bold man who should sneak up on it and wake it up.. Who, then, could be in front of me? Here we come to the point where the whole argument has been developed. If man cannot face the creatures, which are the work of God’s hands, how much less can he presume to face the One who is the Maker of him!
Job 41:11
Who prevented me from paying him? ie “‘Who hath put me under any obligation, so that I am bound to agree with his views, and take the course he may prescribe?'” The allusion is to Job’s persistent demand for an audience: a controversy ( Job 9:34, Job 9:35; Job 10:3; Job 13:3, Job 13:22; Job 23:3-7, etc.)–a judgment in which he will plead with God, and God with him, on equal terms, as it were, and thus the truth concerning him, his sins, his integrity, his sufferings, and their cause or causes , it will become manifest. God resists each and every one of the affirmations that are made to him to justify himself and his works before a creature. He is not in debt to anyone. If he explains himself to any extent, if he deigns to account for any of his actions, it is by sheer grace and favor. It has been observed that we might have expected this to be the conclusion of the entire discourse begun in Job 38:1-41 ; and that it would doubtless have been, according to the ordinary laws of human composition, its most suitable place. But Hebrew poetry is erratic and pays little attention to the logical turf. If something important has been omitted from its most proper place, it is inserted in another that is, humanly speaking, less proper. Details relating to the crocodile, which are calculated to deepen the general impression, having been overlooked where we might have expected them, are attached here, as if to complete the description of Job 38:1-10.
Job 41:12
I will not hide its parts, nor its power, nor its beautiful proportion. Additional description is introduced by this formal announcement, which is perhaps best expressed, I will not be silent about its members‘ nor on the matter of his strength‘ or the beauty of its proportion (see the Revised Version ); ie I will go into these points serious, and I will expose them separately.
Job 41:13
Who can discover the face of his mantle? Some critics understand this in a general sense, “Who can expose it to assault?” Others suggest a more defined meaning, “Who can strip it of its outer covering?” and expose the comparatively tender skin underneath? If this were done, he would be at the mercy of the hunter; but who will do it? Who, again, can come to him with the double brake on him? Come, ie; with a double bridle in hand, and place it in the jaws of the monster. (Thus Schultens and Professor Lee.) Others translate: “Who will fit into her double bridle? and understand by “”its double bridle”” its two rows of teeth: the ἑρκος ὀδόντων (Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, Professor Stanley Leathes, etc.).
Job 41:14
Who can open the doors of his face? Who can make him open his face? jaws huge and open, if he decides to keep them closed? Who would dare to do it? His teeth are terrible around. The crocodile has “two rows of pointed teeth, thirty or more on each side.” They are “so formed and willing as to tear their prey apart rather than chew it.” The voracity of the adult crocodile is great; and he will not scruple to attack and devour men, if they stand in his way. The natives of Upper Egypt have a healthy terror of him.
Job 41:15
Your scales are your pride; either, his pride is in channeling his scales (literally, of their shields). The crocodile’s scales are arranged in five rows along its entire back, with a depression between the rows that is like a “channel”. Each individual scale resembles a shield. They are locked together as if with a closed seal; each, ie‘ closely attached to its partner, so that there is no space between them. “‘A rifle bullet’,” according to Canon Tristram, “”deflects off them like a rock.””
Job 41:16
The one is so close to the other, that the air cannot come between them (see comment above verse).
Job 41:17
They are attached to each other, glued to each other, so that they cannot be separated; literally, they are welded together(comp. Isaiah 41:7).
Job 41:18
For your needs a light shines. “”Neesings”” in Old English means “”sneezes”.” According to Aristotle, the crocodile is in the habit of sneezing, but I do not find that modern writers notice this fact. Boehart states this very positively, but does not profess to speak from his own knowledge. And her eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. This probably means nothing more than his eyes flashing with light from time to time, which is certainly true, though the eyes, being small, have generally not drawn much attention.
Job 41:19
Lighted lamps come out of his mouth, and sparks of fire fly. The description now becomes very poetic, and it would be a mistake to try to substantiate it. The intention is to represent the impression the animal would make on an impressionable but unscientific observer seeing it in its native places for the first time. Splashing, puffing, and foaming everywhere, it would seem to be exhaling steam and smoke, from which the idea of fire is inseparable (see next verse).
Job 41:20
From his nostrils comes smoke, as from a boiling pot or cauldron; rather, like from a boiling pot and reeds; namely as from a pot heated by burning reeds.
Job 41:21
His breath ignites embers, and flame comes out of his mouth. All…