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Job 41

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Leviathan

1 Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord? 2 Can you put a rope of rushes in his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3 Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak soft words to you? 4 Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him as a servant forever? 5 Will you play with him as with a bird, or tie him on a leash for your young girls? 6 Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? 7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears? 8 Lay your hand on him; remember the battle, and you will not do it again.

Who can stand before Me?

9 See, any hope of him is false; is not one laid low even at the sight of him? 10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before Me? 11 Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.

12 I will not keep silent concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his fine form. 13 Who can strip off his outer garment? Who can come near him with a double bridle? 14 Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. 15 His pride is his rows of shields, shut up tight as with a seal. 16 One is so near to another that no air can come between them. 17 They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

18 His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. 19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap out. 20 Out of his nostrils comes smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. 21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth. 22 In his neck strength abides, and terror dances before him. 23 The folds of his flesh cling together; they are firm on him and cannot be moved. 24 His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone.

25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. 26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the lance. 27 He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. 28 The arrow cannot make him flee; sling stones are turned to stubble for him. 29 Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of the javelin. 30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

31 He makes the depths boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep had white hair. 33 On earth there is nothing like him, a creature made without fear. 34 He looks on everything that is high; he is king over all the proud beasts.

Notes

  • 41:1 Leviathan (livyatan) is a great creature of the sea, in Scripture a picture of the chaotic powers of the deep that only Elohim masters (Psalm 74:14; Isaiah 27:1; see the note at 3:8). Here it is described with the features of a real animal, and many have thought of the crocodile, yet with traits beyond any known creature, such as fire and smoke from its mouth (verses 18-21); Psalm 104:26 speaks of it as a creature Elohim formed to play in the sea. What no man can catch or tame, Yahweh made and rules. In Hebrew Bibles verses 1-8 are numbered 40:25-32, and verses 9-34 are 41:1-26.
  • 41:10 The Hebrew text has "before Me": if no one dares to rouse Leviathan, a mere creature, who can take his stand against the One who made it? Some Hebrew manuscripts read "before him," keeping the whole line about Leviathan; the TRB follows the Masoretic text. Job had wished to set his case before Elohim (13:18; 23:4); the question puts that wish in its true light.
  • 41:11 Near the end of his praise of the wisdom of Elohim, Paul quotes the question of this verse in his own words: no one has first given to Him so as to be repaid (Romans 11:35); his wording is close to the Hebrew and not to the ancient Greek translation of Job, which reads differently here. No creature can put Elohim in its debt, for everything already belongs to Him (Exodus 19:5; Psalm 24:1).
  • 41:34 "The proud beasts" is literally "the sons of pride" (bene shachats), the phrase used in 28:8. Yahweh had told Job to look on everyone who is proud and bring him low (40:11-12), if he could; Leviathan looks down on all that is high, yet it too is only a creature, and its Maker rules over it. With this the speeches from the storm end, and Job answers (42:1-6).

Job 40 · Job 42

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