Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 41:10
None [is so] fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
10, 11. In these verses the speaker turns aside from describing the invincibility of Leviathan to impress the moral which he intends to teach by introducing the monster. If none dare stir up this creature, which God has made, who will stand before God who created him, or venture to contend with Him?
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
None is so fierce that dare stir him up – No one has courage to rouse and provoke him.
Who then is able to stand before me? – The meaning of this is plain. It is, If one of my creatures is so formidable that man dare not attack it, how can he contend with the great Creator? This may perhaps be designed as a reproof of Job. He had expressed a desire to carry his cause before God, and to urge argument before him in vindication of himself. God here shows him how hopeless must be a contest with the Almighty. Man trembles and is disarmed of his courage by even the sight of one of the creatures of God. Overpowered with fear, he retires from the contemplated contest, and flees away. How then could he presume to contend with God? What hope could he have in a contest with him?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 10. None is so fierce that dare stir him up] The most courageous of men dare not provoke the crocodile to fight, or even attempt to rouse him, when, sated with fish, he takes his repose among the reeds. The strongest of men cannot match him.
Who then is able] If thou canst not stand against the crocodile, one of the creatures of my hand, how canst thou resist me, who am his Maker? This is the use which God makes of the formidable description which he has thus far given of this terrible animal.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That dare stir him up, when he sleepeth or is quiet. None dare provoke him to the battle.
To stand before me; to contend with me his Creator, as thou, Job, dost, when one of my creatures is too hard for him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. fiercecourageous. If aman dare attack one of My creatures (Gen 49:9;Num 24:9), who will dare (as Jobhas wished) oppose himself (Ps 2:2)to Me, the Creator? This is the main drift of the description ofleviathan.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
None [is so] fierce that dare stir him up,…. This seems best to agree with the crocodile, who frequently lies down and sleeps on the ground q, and in the water by night r; see Eze 29:3; when it is very dangerous to arouse him; and few, if any so daring, have courage enough to do it: though whales have been seen lying near shore asleep, and looked like rocks, even forty of them together s;
who then is able to stand before me? This is the inference the Lord draws from hence, or the use he makes of it; that if this creature is so formidable and terrible, that it is dangerous to arouse and provoke him, and there is no standing before him or against him; then how should anyone be able to stand before the Lord, who made this creature, whenever he is angry? see Ps 76:7.
q Plin. l. 8. c. 25. Solin. c. 45. r Ammian. Marcellin. l. 22. s See the North-West Fox, p. 205.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10 None is so foolhardy that he dare excite him!
And who is it who could stand before Me?
11 Who hath given Me anything first of all, that I must requite it?
Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine.
One sees from these concluding inferences, thus applied, what is the design, in the connection of this second speech of Jehovah, of the reference to behmoth and leviathan, which somewhat abruptly began in Job 40:15. If even the strength of one of God’s creatures admits no thought of being able to attack it, how much more should the greatness of the Creator deter man from all resistance! For no one has any claim on God, so that he should have the right of appearing before Him with a rude challenge. Every creature under heaven is God’s; man, therefore, possesses nothing that was not God’s property and gift, and he must humbly yield, whether God gives or takes away. , Job 41:10, is not directly equivalent to , but the clause is exclamatory. Chethb, Ker, is the Palestine reading, the reverse the Babylonian; the authorized text (chiefly without a Ker) is from in a transitive signification ( ), as , Job 39:12, comp. Job 42:10. The meaning of is determined according to : to anticipate, viz., by gifts presented as a person is approaching the giver (Arab. aqdama ). , Job 41:11, is neutral, as Job 13:16; Job 15:9; Job 31:11, Job 31:28. is virtually a subj.: that which is under … . After these apparently epiphonematic verses (2 and 3), one might now look for Job’s answer. But the description of the leviathan is again taken up, and in fact hitherto it was only the invincibility of the animal that was spoken of; and yet it is not so described that this picture might form the exact pendent of the preceding.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(10) None is so fierce that dare stir him up.If, therefore, the creatures of My hand strike so much terror, how far more terrible must I be? If thou canst not save thyself from them, how much less canst thou be saved without Me? (See Job. 40:14.) The first clause may be understood thus: He is not so cruel (the common meaning of the word rendered fierce)i.e., to himselfthat he should venture to rouse him up.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Fierce Zockler renders “foolhardy,” which is not to be preferred to the text, since the same word akzar, fierce, is in Job 30:21 applied by Job to God.
Dare stir him up The same Hebrew word , “stir up,” is used in Job 3:8, of “raising up” leviathan, where it is implied that the only conceivable mode of dealing with him was by incantations possibly spells of Satan, certainly by power supposed to be derived from the invisible world. See note on Job 3:8. The coincidence between the two passages should be noted, and is among many similar ones scattered through the Jehovistic section, which point to its integral oneness with the rest of the book. See Excursus VIII, page 281. In an inscription on a tablet at Karnak, Amun Ra thus addresses Thothmes III.: “I have made them behold thy majesty like unto a crocodile: he is the terrible master of the waters: no one ventures to approach him.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 41:10 None [is so] fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
Ver. 10. None is so fierce that dare stir him up ] Unless he be ambitious of his own destruction; cruel (so the word here signifieth) to his own life, which hereby he desperately casteth away. Aristotle telleth us that fishes do sleep: and perhaps these greater fishes take more sleep. Now who dare awake them sleeping, or encounter them waking, and rolling in the waters? None surely but a mad man.
Who then is able to stand before me?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
dare: Gen 49:9, Num 24:9, Psa 2:11, Psa 2:12, Eze 8:17, Eze 8:18
who: Job 9:4, Job 40:9, Jer 12:5, 1Co 10:22
Reciprocal: Job 3:8 – their mourning Jer 49:19 – that shepherd Jer 50:44 – who is a
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
41:10 None [is so] fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to {a} stand before me?
(a) If no one dare stand against a whale, which is but a creature, who is able to compare with God the creator?