Job 41:1-8

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!

[41:1]  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.