Job 41:1-34

The Description of Leviathan

41:1 (40:25) ¹  “Can you pull in ²  Leviathan with a hook,

and tie down ³  its tongue with a rope?

41:2 Can you put a cord through its nose,

or pierce its jaw with a hook?

41:3 Will it make numerous supplications to you, ⁴ 

will it speak to you with tender words? ⁵ 

41:4 Will it make a pact ⁶  with you,

so you could take it ⁷  as your slave for life?

41:5 Can you play ⁸  with it, like a bird,

or tie it on a leash ⁹  for your girls?

41:6 Will partners ¹⁰  bargain ¹¹  for it?

Will they divide it up ¹²  among the merchants?

41:7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons

or its head with fishing spears?

41:8 If you lay your hand on it,

you will remember ¹³  the fight,

and you will never do it again!

41:9 (41:1) ¹⁴  See, his expectation is wrong, ¹⁵ 

he is laid low even at the sight of it. ¹⁶ 

41:10 Is it not fierce ¹⁷  when it is awakened?

Who is he, then, who can stand before it? ¹⁸ 

41:11 (Who has confronted ¹⁹  me that I should repay? ²⁰ 

Everything under heaven belongs to me!) ²¹ 

41:12 I will not keep silent about its limbs,

and the extent of its might,

and the grace of its arrangement. ²² 

41:13 Who can uncover its outer covering? ²³ 

Who can penetrate to the inside of its armor? ²⁴ 

41:14 Who can open the doors of its mouth? ²⁵ 

Its teeth all around are fearsome.

41:15 Its back ²⁶  has rows of shields,

shut up closely ²⁷  together as with a seal;

41:16 each one is so close to the next ²⁸ 

that no air can come between them.

41:17 They lock tightly together, one to the next; ²⁹ 

they cling together and cannot be separated.

41:18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;

its eyes are like the red glow ³⁰  of dawn.

41:19 Out of its mouth go flames, ³¹ 

sparks of fire shoot forth!

41:20 Smoke streams from its nostrils

as from a boiling pot over burning ³²  rushes.

41:21 Its breath sets coals ablaze

and a flame shoots from its mouth.

41:22 Strength lodges in its neck,

and despair ³³  runs before it.

41:23 The folds ³⁴  of its flesh are tightly joined;

they are firm on it, immovable. ³⁵ 

41:24 Its heart ³⁶  is hard as rock,

hard as a lower millstone.

41:25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified,

at its thrashing about they withdraw. ³⁷ 

41:26 Whoever strikes it with a sword ³⁸ 

will have no effect, ³⁹ 

nor with the spear, arrow, or dart.

41:27 It regards iron as straw

and bronze as rotten wood.

41:28 Arrows ⁴⁰  do not make it flee;

slingstones become like chaff to it.

41:29 A club is counted ⁴¹  as a piece of straw;

it laughs at the rattling of the lance.

41:30 Its underparts ⁴²  are the sharp points of potsherds,

it leaves its mark in the mud

like a threshing sledge. ⁴³ 

41:31 It makes the deep boil like a cauldron

and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment, ⁴⁴ 

41:32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;

one would think the deep had a head of white hair.

41:33 The likes of it is not on earth,

a creature ⁴⁵  without fear.

41:34 It looks on every haughty being;

it is king over all that are proud.” ⁴⁶ 

Genesis 6:4

6:4 The Nephilim ⁴⁷  were on the earth in those days (and also after this) ⁴⁸  when the sons of God were having sexual relations with ⁴⁹  the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. ⁵⁰  They were the mighty heroes ⁵¹  of old, the famous men. ⁵² 

Psalms 104:25-26

104:25 Over here is the deep, wide sea, ⁵³ 

which teems with innumerable swimming creatures, ⁵⁴ 

living things both small and large.

104:26 The ships travel there,

and over here swims the whale ⁵⁵  you made to play in it.

Ezekiel 29:3-5

29:3 Tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Look, I am against ⁵⁶  you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,

the great monster ⁵⁷  lying in the midst of its waterways,

who has said, “My Nile is my own, I made it for myself.” ⁵⁸ 

29:4 I will put hooks in your jaws

and stick the fish of your waterways to your scales.

I will haul you up from the midst of your waterways,

and all the fish of your waterways will stick to your scales.

29:5 I will leave you in the wilderness,

you and all the fish of your waterways;

you will fall in the open field and will not be gathered up or collected. ⁵⁹ 

I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the skies.

[41:1]  ¹ sn Beginning with 41:1, the verse numbers through 41:9 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 41:1 ET = 40:25 HT, 41:2 ET = 40:26 HT, etc., through 41:34 ET = 41:26 HT. The Hebrew verse numbers in the remainder of the chapter differ from the verse numbers in the English Bible. Beginning with 42:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[41:1]  ² tn The verb מָשַׁךְ (mashakh) means “to extract from the water; to fish.” The question here includes the use of a hook to fish the creature out of the water so that its jaws can be tied safely.

[41:1]  ³ tn The verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’) means “to cause to sink,” if it is connected with the word in Amos 8:8 and 9:5. But it may have the sense of “to tie; to bind.” If the rope were put around the tongue and jaw, binding tightly would be the sense.

[41:3]  ⁴ tn The line asks if the animal, when caught and tied and under control, would keep on begging for mercy. Absolutely not. It is not in the nature of the beast. The construction uses יַרְבֶּה (yarbeh, “[will] he multiply” [= “make numerous”]), with the object, “supplications” i.e., prayers for mercy.

[41:3]  ⁵ tn The rhetorical question again affirms the opposite. The poem is portraying the creature as powerful and insensitive.

[41:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “will he cut a covenant.”

[41:4]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verb serves to express what the covenant pact would cover, namely, “that you take.”

[41:5]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb is שָׂחַק (sakhaq, “to sport; to trifle; to play,” Ps 104:26).

[41:5]  ⁹ tn The idea may include putting Leviathan on a leash. D. W. Thomas suggested on the basis of an Arabic cognate that it could be rendered “tie him with a string like a young sparrow” (VT 14 [1964]: 114ff.).

[41:6]  ¹⁰ tn The word חָבַּר (khabbar) is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is “to associate” since it is etymologically related to the verb “to join together.” The idea is that fishermen usually work in companies or groups, and then divide up the catch when they come ashore – which involves bargaining.

[41:6]  ¹¹ tn The word כָּרַה (karah) means “to sell.” With the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”) it has the sense “to bargain over something.”

[41:6]  ¹² tn The verb means “to cut up; to divide up” in the sense of selling the dead body (see Exod 21:35). This will be between them and the merchants (כְּנַעֲנִים, kÿna’anim).

[41:8]  ¹³ tn The verse uses two imperatives which can be interpreted in sequence: do this, and then this will happen.

[41:9]  ¹⁴ sn Job 41:9 in the English Bible is 41:1 in the Hebrew text (BHS). From here to the end of the chapter the Hebrew verse numbers differ from those in the English Bible, with 41:10 ET = 41:2 HT, 41:11 ET = 41:3 HT, etc. See also the note on 41:1.

[41:9]  ¹⁵ tn The line is difficult. “His hope [= expectation]” must refer to any assailant who hopes or expects to capture the creature. Because there is no antecedent, Dhorme and others transpose it with the next verse. The point is that the man who thought he was sufficient to confront Leviathan soon finds his hope – his expectation – false (a derivative from the verb כָּזַב [kazab, “lie”] is used for a mirage).

[41:9]  ¹⁶ tn There is an interrogative particle in this line, which most commentators ignore. But others freely emend the MT. Gunkel, following the mythological approach, has “his appearance casts down even a god.” Cheyne likewise has: “even divine beings the fear of him brings low” (JQR 9 [1896/97]: 579). Pope has, “Were not the gods cast down at the sight of him?” There is no need to bring in this mythological element.

[41:10]  ¹⁷ sn The description is of the animal, not the hunter (or fisherman). Leviathan is so fierce that no one can take him on alone.

[41:10]  ¹⁸ tc MT has “before me” and can best be rendered as “Who then is he that can stand before me?” (ESV, NASB, NIV, NLT, NJPS). The following verse (11) favors the MT since both express the lesson to be learned from Leviathan: If a man cannot stand up to Leviathan, how can he stand up to its creator? The translation above has chosen to read the text as “before him” (cf. NRSV, NJB).

[41:11]  ¹⁹ tn The verb קָדַם (qadam) means “to come to meet; to come before; to confront” to the face.

[41:11]  ²⁰ sn The verse seems an intrusion (and so E. Dhorme, H. H. Rowley, and many others change the pronouns to make it refer to the animal). But what the text is saying is that it is more dangerous to confront God than to confront this animal.

[41:11]  ²¹ tn This line also focuses on the sovereign God rather than Leviathan. H. H. Rowley, however, wants to change לִי־חוּא (li-hu’, “it [belongs] to me”) into לֹא הוּא (lo’ hu’, “there is no one”). So it would say that there is no one under the whole heaven who could challenge Leviathan and live, rather than saying it is more dangerous to challenge God to make him repay.

[41:12]  ²² tn Dhorme changes the noun into a verb, “I will tell,” and the last two words into אֵין עֶרֶךְ (’en ’erekh, “there is no comparison”). The result is “I will tell of his incomparable might.”

[41:13]  ²³ tn Heb “the face of his garment,” referring to the outer garment or covering. Some take it to be the front as opposed to the back.

[41:13]  ²⁴ tc The word רֶסֶן (resen) has often been rendered “bridle” (cf. ESV), but that leaves a number of unanswered questions. The LXX reads סִרְיוֹן (siryon), with the transposition of letters, but that means “coat of armor.” If the metathesis stands, there is also support from the cognate Akkadian.

[41:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “his face.”

[41:15]  ²⁶ tc The MT has גַּאֲוָה (ga’avah, “his pride”), but the LXX, Aquila, and the Vulgate all read גַּוּוֹ (gavvo, “his back”). Almost all the modern English versions follow the variant reading, speaking about “his [or its] back.”

[41:15]  ²⁷ tn Instead of צָר (tsar, “closely”) the LXX has צֹר (tsor, “stone”) to say that the seal was rock hard.

[41:16]  ²⁸ tn The expression “each one…to the next” is literally “one with one.”

[41:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “a man with his brother.”

[41:18]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the eyelids,” but it represents the early beams of the dawn as the cover of night lifts.

[41:19]  ³¹ 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.

[41:20]  ³² 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.

[41:22]  ³³ tn This word, דְּאָבָה (dÿ’avah) is a hapax legomenon. But the verbal root means “to languish; to pine.” A related noun talks of dejection and despair in Deut 28:65. So here “despair” as a translation is preferable to “terror.”

[41:23]  ³⁴ tn Heb “fallings.”

[41:23]  ³⁵ tn The last clause says “it cannot be moved.” But this part will function adverbially in the sentence.

[41:24]  ³⁶ tn The description of his heart being “hard” means that he is cruel and fearless. The word for “hard” is the word encountered before for molten or cast metal.

[41:25]  ³⁷ tc This verse has created all kinds of problems for the commentators. The first part is workable: “when he raises himself up, the mighty [the gods] are terrified.” The mythological approach would render אֵלִים (’elim) as “gods.” But the last two words, which could be rendered “at the breaking [crashing, or breakers] they fail,” receive much attention. E. Dhorme (Job, 639) suggests “majesty” for “raising up” and “billows” (גַּלִּים, gallim) for אֵלִים (’elim), and gets a better parallelism: “the billows are afraid of his majesty, and the waves draw back.” But H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 263) does not think this is relevant to the context, which is talking about the creature’s defense against attack. The RSV works well for the first part, but the second part need some change; so Rowley adopts “in their dire consternation they are beside themselves.”

[41:26]  ³⁸ tn This is the clearest reading, following A. B. Davidson, Job, 285. The versions took different readings of the construction.

[41:26]  ³⁹ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “stand”) with בְּלִי (bÿli, “not”) has the sense of “does not hold firm,” or “gives way.”

[41:28]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the son of the bow.”

[41:29]  ⁴¹ tn The verb is plural, but since there is no expressed subject it is translated as a passive here.

[41:30]  ⁴² tn Heb “under him.”

[41:30]  ⁴³ tn Here only the word “sharp” is present, but in passages like Isa 41:15 it is joined with “threshing sledge.” Here and in Amos 1:3 and Isa 28:27 the word stands alone, but represents the “sledge.”

[41:31]  ⁴⁴ sn The idea is either that the sea is stirred up like the foam from beating the ingredients together, or it is the musk-smell that is the point of comparison.

[41:33]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “one who was made.”

[41:34]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the sons of pride.” Dhorme repoints the last word to get “all the wild beasts,” but this misses the point of the verse. This animal looks over every proud creature – but he is king of them all in that department.

[6:4]  ⁴⁷ tn The Hebrew word נְפִילִים (nÿfilim) is simply transliterated here, because the meaning of the term is uncertain. According to the text, the Nephilim became mighty warriors and gained great fame in the antediluvian world. The text may imply they were the offspring of the sexual union of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of humankind” (v. 2), but it stops short of saying this in a direct manner. The Nephilim are mentioned in the OT only here and in Num 13:33, where it is stated that they were giants (thus KJV, TEV, NLT “giants” here). The narrator observes that the Anakites of Canaan were descendants of the Nephilim. Certainly these later Anakite Nephilim could not be descendants of the antediluvian Nephilim (see also the following note on the word “this”).

[6:4]  ⁴⁸ tn This observation is parenthetical, explaining that there were Nephilim even after the flood. If all humankind, with the exception of Noah and his family, died in the flood, it is difficult to understand how the postdiluvian Nephilim could be related to the antediluvian Nephilim or how the Anakites of Canaan could be their descendants (see Num 13:33). It is likely that the term Nephilim refers generally to “giants” (see HALOT 709 s.v. נְפִילִים) without implying any ethnic connection between the antediluvian and postdiluvian varieties.

[6:4]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “were entering to,” referring euphemistically to sexual intercourse here. The Hebrew imperfect verbal form draws attention to the ongoing nature of such sexual unions during the time before the flood.

[6:4]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and they gave birth to them.” The masculine plural suffix “them” refers to the “sons of God,” to whom the “daughters of humankind” bore children. After the Qal form of the verb יָלָד (yalad, “to give birth”) the preposition לְ (lÿ, “to”) introduces the father of the child(ren). See Gen 16:1, 15; 17:19, 21; 21:2-3, 9; 22:23; 24:24, 47; 25:2, etc.

[6:4]  ⁵¹ tn The parenthetical/explanatory clause uses the word הַגִּבֹּרִים (haggibborim) to describe these Nephilim. The word means “warriors; mighty men; heroes.” The appositional statement further explains that they were “men of renown.” The text refers to superhuman beings who held the world in their power and who lived on in ancient lore outside the Bible. See E. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB), 45-46; C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:379-80; and Anne D. Kilmer, “The Mesopotamian Counterparts of the Biblical Nephilim,” Perspectives on Language and Text, 39-43.

[6:4]  ⁵² tn Heb “men of name” (i.e., famous men).

[104:25]  ⁵³ tn Heb “this [is] the sea, great and broad of hands [i.e., “sides” or “shores”].”

[104:25]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “where [there are] swimming things, and without number.”

[104:26]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “[and] this Leviathan, [which] you formed to play in it.” Elsewhere Leviathan is a multiheaded sea monster that symbolizes forces hostile to God (see Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1), but here it appears to be an actual marine creature created by God, probably some type of whale.

[29:3]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

[29:3]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “jackals,” but many medieval Hebrew mss read correctly “the serpent.” The Hebrew term appears to refer to a serpent in Exod 7:9-10, 12; Deut 32:33; and Ps 91:13. It also refers to large creatures that inhabit the sea (Gen 1:21; Ps 148:7). In several passages it is associated with the sea or with the multiheaded sea monster Leviathan (Job 7:12; Ps 74:13; Isa 27:1; 51:9). Because of the Egyptian setting of this prophecy and the reference to the creature’s scales (v. 4), many understand a crocodile to be the referent here (e.g., NCV “a great crocodile”; TEV “you monster crocodile”; CEV “a giant crocodile”).

[29:3]  ⁵⁸ sn In Egyptian theology Pharaoh owned and controlled the Nile. See J. D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament, 240-44.

[29:5]  ⁵⁹ tc Some Hebrew mss, the Targum, and the LXX read “buried.”