41:19 Out of its mouth go flames, 1
sparks of fire shoot forth!
41:20 Smoke streams from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning 2 rushes.
41:21 Its breath sets coals ablaze
and a flame shoots from its mouth.
1 sn For the animal, the image is that of pent-up breath with water in a hot steam jet coming from its mouth, like a stream of fire in the rays of the sun. The language is hyperbolic, probably to reflect the pagan ideas of the dragon of the deep in a polemical way – they feared it as a fire breathing monster, but in reality it might have been a steamy crocodile.
2 tn The word “burning” is supplied. The Syriac and Vulgate have “a seething and boiling pot” (reading אֹגֵם [’ogem] for אַגְמֹן [’agmon]). This view is widely accepted.