Of God’s great power in the leviathan.
Job 41:1 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope?
A transliteration of the Heb. liwyathan. Liwyathan is also translated “their mourning” (see on ch. 3:8; see also Ps. 74:14; Ps. 104:26; Isa. 27:1). The creature is represented as wild, fierce, and ungovernable, having a mouth of large size and armed with a formidable array of teeth. The body is covered with scales set near together, like a coat of mail. Whether Job is here describing the crocodile, as many commentators think, or some monster now extinct, cannot be established. With a rope.
Wild animals were often led along by a rope attached to their mouths, as Assyrian sculptures reveal. God asks whether the great leviathan can be caught with a fishhook or led along by tying a rope around its jaw. This question, like others that have preceded, accentuates the weakness of man compared with the creative power of God.
Job 41:2 Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?
Job 41:3 Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words?
Could anyone imagine the mighty leviathan begging Job for mercy!
Job 41:4 Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life?
Ironically, God asks whether Job can make leviathan his slave (see Ex. 21:6; Deut. 15:17).
Job 41:5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
Ancient inscriptions reveal that the Egyptians, and other ancient peoples, were fond of pet animals. Dogs, antelopes, leopards, monkeys, and birds of various kinds were all domesticated.
A tame crocodile would be a most extraordinary pet! The “maidens” would surely object to such an idea! Sarcasm is used to emphasize the ways in which leviathan was superior to man.
Job 41:6 Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?
The word may refer to a group of people joined together for any purpose, either friendship or business. Make a banquet. Heb. karah. This word has three basic meanings: “to dig,” “to trade,” “to give a feast.”
Here, “to trade” seems to be the most appropriate definition, especially if “traders” indicate a partnership of fishermen. The crocodile was never used as an article of trade.
Job 41:7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?
This verse alludes to the thick, nearly impenetrable skin of the animal. Harpoons and spears could be used to capture the hippopotamus, but the crocodile was well protected against such methods of attack.
Job 41:8 If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
The mere thought of the battle deters one from taking further steps.
Job 41:9 Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering.
Apparently the hope of capturing or killing the monster. The very sight of leviathan would intimidate man. The strength of leviathan was so overwhelmingly superior to that of man that the beast was left to sleep undisturbed on the sandbanks along the rivers.
Job 41:10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me?
This verse contains the point of the entire argument. A creature that God has made is so formidable that man dares not “stir him up.” How, then, dares any man to contend with the Creator? This is doubtless intended as a rebuke to Job for his rashness in desiring to argue with God.
According to the Targums and several Hebrew manuscripts the last line of this text reads, “Who then is able to stand before him?” However, the LXX and the other ancient versions all support the reading “me.”
Job 41:11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.
The thought of the text seems to be, “Who has placed Me under obligation to him that I should repay him?” The argument is, if man cannot control such creatures as leviathan, how can he expect to force the hand of the Creator for special favors?
The allusion seems to be to Job’s repeated demands for a hearing (chs. 9:34, 35; 13:3, 22; 23:3–7). God resists every challenge that He justify Himself. He is not in debt to any of His creatures. God reminds Job of His ownership of the universe.
Job 41:12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form.
God returns to a fuller and more detailed description of leviathan.
Job 41:13 Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor?
The LXX says, “Who can enter within the fold of his breast-plate?”
Job 41:14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?
If leviathan chooses to keep his mouth closed, who would have the courage or the strength to open it?
Job 41:15 Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;
Job 41:16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
Job 41:17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
Job 41:18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
When the crocodile, turned toward the sun with open jaws, is excited to sneezing, the water gushing from his mouth glistens brilliantly in the sunlight.
The small eyes of the crocodile possess a catlike sparkle that has been widely observed.
Job 41:19 Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
The language of this verse is highly figurative. It seems to describe the impression of the monster on the minds of the observers. The snorting, spouting, and splashing of the beast in the sparkling sunlight suggests the idea of lamps and sparks.
Job 41:20 Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
This verse and v. 21 continue the figurative picture of v. 19.
Job 41:21 Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth.
Job 41:22 Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it.
As the strength of “behemoth” is in his loins (ch. 40:16), so the strength of leviathan is in his neck.
The idea is that everything trembles before him. Wherever he goes he causes terror. People take flight in panic.
Job 41:23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
Job 41:24 Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.
Job 41:25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing.
Job 41:26 The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
No weapon known to Job was effective against this creature.
Job 41:27 Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
Iron and bronze were the most effective metals for implements of warfare known to Job, but they were like straw or rotten wood in dealing with leviathan.
Job 41:28 Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it.
Leviathan is not afraid of the puny inventions of men.
Job 41:29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
Job 41:30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
Job 41:31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
This describes the appearance of the water when lashed by leviathan.
Job 41:32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair.
The white foam in the creature’s wake makes the water look as if it had grown old and put on white hairs.
Job 41:33 Nothing on earth is its equal— a creature without fear.
Job 41:34 It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”
However proud other beasts may be, they must submit to him.