Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 41:26
The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
26. that layeth at him ] That is, that striketh at him; lit. he that layeth at him with the sword, it doth not hold. The sword does not hold, or bite, but glances off his adamantine armour.
the habergeon ] That is, the mail. “And be ye apparelled or clothed, saith Paul, with the habergeon, or coat armour of justice,” Latimer, Serm. p. 29 (Wright, Bible Word-Book).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
26 29. He can be subdued by no weapon.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The sword of him that layeth at him – The word sword here ( chereb) means undoubtedly harpoon, or a sharp instrument by which an attempt is made to pierce the skin of the monster.
Cannot hold – That is, in the hard skin. It does not penetrate it.
The spear, the dart – These were doubtless often used in the attempt to take the animal. The meaning is, that they would not hold or stick to the animal. They flew off when hurled at him.
Nor the habergeon – Margin, breastplate. Noyes, javelin. Prof. Lee, lance. Vulgate, thorax, breastplate. So the Septuagint, thoraka. The word used here ( shiryah), the same as shiryon 1Sa 17:5, 1Sa 17:38; Neh 4:16; 2Ch 26:14, means properly a coat of mail, and is so called from its shining – from sharah, to shine. It is not used in the sense of spear or javelin elsewhere, though perhaps it may have that meaning here – denoting a bright or shining weapon. This agrees best with the connection.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. Habergeon.] The hauberk, the Norman armour for the head, neck, and breast, formed of rings. See on Ne 4:16.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That layeth at him; that approacheth to him, and dare strike at him.
Cannot hold, Heb. cannot stand, i.e. either,
1. Cannot endure the stroke, but will be broken by it. Or rather,
2. Cannot abide or take hold of him, or be fixed in him; but is instantly beaten back by the excessive hardness of the skin, which cannot be pierced by it, as may be gathered from this and other passages before and after it. This also seems better to agree to the crocodile, whose skin no sword, nor dart, nor musket bullet (as others add) can pierce, than to the whale, whose skin is easily pierced, as experience showeth in our whales; except the whale here spoken of were of another kind, which is not impossible.
Nor the habergeon; or, breastplate. As offensive weapons cannot hurt him, so defensive weapons cannot secure a man from him. But men that go upon the design of taking either whales or crocodiles do not use to fortify themselves in that manner. Some therefore take this to be another offensive weapon, a kind of dart, as this word signifies in the Arabic language; which is but a dialect of the Hebrew, and from which the true signification of many Hebrew words must be gathered.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. cannot holdon his hardskin.
habergeoncoat of mail;avail must be taken by zeugma out of “hold,” as theverb in the second clause: “hold” cannot apply to the “coatof mail.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold,…. It is either broken by striking at him, or however cannot pierce him and stick in him; but since a sword is not used in fishery, rather the harpagon or harpoon may be meant, which cannot enter into the crocodile, being so fenced with scales; but the whale being struck with it, it enters deep into his flesh, and is wounded by it; wherefore this and what follows in the next verses seems best to agree with the crocodile, or some other fish;
the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon; that is, neither of these can fasten upon him or enter into him: and yet it is certain that the whale, after he has been struck and wounded by the harping-iron, men approach nearer to him and thrust a long steeled lance or spear under his gills into his breast, and through the intestines, which dispatches him: darts are not made use of in the whale fishery; and as for crocodiles, as Peter Martyr says c, they are not to be pierced with darts: the habergeon, or coat of mail, being a defensive piece of armour, seems not to be designed, as being never used in taking such creatures; rather therefore a javelin or hand dart may be intended; since, as Bochart observes, in the Arabic language such an one is expressed by this word.
c Apud Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 17. col. 785.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
26 If one reacheth him with the sword-it doth not hold;
Neither spear, nor dart, nor harpoon.
27 He esteemeth iron as straw,
Brass as rotten wood.
28 The son of the bow doth not cause him to flee,
Sling stones are turned to stubble with him.
29 Clubs are counted as stubble,
And he laugheth at the shaking of the spear.
, which stands first as nom. abs., “one reaching him,” is equivalent to, if one or whoever reaches him, Ew. 357, c, to which , it does not hold fast ( with v. fin., as Hos 8:7; Hos 9:16, Chethb), is the conclusion. is instrumental, as Psa 17:13. , from , Arab. nz , to move on, hasten on, signifies a missile, as Arab. minza , an arrow, manza , a sling. The Targ. supports this latter signification here ( funda quae projicit lapidem ); but since , the handling, is mentioned separately, the word appears to men missiles in general, or the catapult. In this combination of weapons of attack it is very questionable whether is a cognate form of ( ), a coat of mail; probably it is equivalent to Arab. sirwe ( surwe ), an arrow with a long broad edge (comp. serje , a short, round, as it seems, pear-shaped arrow-head), therefore either a harpoon or a peculiarly formed dart.
(Note: On the various kinds of Egyptian arrows, vid., Klemm. Culturgeschichte, v. 371f.)
“The son of the bow” (and of the , pharetra ) is the arrow. That the . . signifies a club (war-club), is supported by the Arab. watacha , to beat. , in distinction from (a long lance), is a short spear, or rather, since implies a whistling motion, a javelin. Iron the crocodile esteems as , tibn , chopped straw; sling stones are turned with him into . Such is the name here at least, not for stumps of cut stubble that remain standing, but the straw itself, threshed and easily driven before the wind (Job 13:25), which is cut up for provender (Exo 5:12), generally dried (and for that reason light) stalks (e.g., of grass), or even any remains of plants (e.g., splinters of wood).
(Note: The Egyptio-Arabic usage has here more faithfully preserved the ancient signification of the word (vid., Fleischer, Glossae, p. 37) than the Syro-Arabic; for in Syria cut but still unthreshed corn, whether lying in swaths out in the field and weighted with stones to protect it against the whirlwinds that are frequent about noon, or corn already brought to the threshing-floors but not yet threshed, is called qashsh . – Wetzst.)
The plur. , Job 41:29, does not seem to be occasioned by being conceived collectively, but by the fact that, instead of saying , the poet has formed into a separate clause. Parchon’s (and Kimchi’s) reading is founded upon an error.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(26) The sword of him that layeth at him.Literally, As to one approaching him (to slay him), his sword cannot stand; it will snap in his hand.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
26. The sword of him that layeth at him, etc. If one (literally, he who) reaches him with the sword.
Cannot hold Literally, stand, stand fast, keep hold.
The spear Hhanith, Delitzsch erroneously supposes to be the long lance, in contradistinction to the kidhon. See on Job 41:29. The dart Massa’h, from nasa’h. “to move on,” “to hasten,” probably signified some missile. The Septuagint and Targum regard this and the preceding word as one, and render it “spear.”
The habergeon French, haubergeon. The rendering of our Authorized Version answers to the hauberk, the old Norman armour for the neck, head, and breast, formed of rings. (Dr. Clarke.) The shiryah, of which the Hebrew speaks, was a coat of mail. (Furst.) Others suppose some kind of missile to be meant. “The poet means to say, the defensive weapons, also, are useless, and that the breastplate of the warrior affords no protection against the monster.” Umbreit.
Job 41:26. The habergeon The pike. Heath and Houb. It certainly means some missile weapon.
Job 41:26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
Ver. 26. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold ] So close are his scales, so thick his skin, that there is no wounding of him. There was not of old, it seemeth. But now there is a way found of shooting and piercing him, so that he dieth with a horrible noise and outcry.
Nor the habergeon dart = missile. Not same word as in Job 41:29. (Hebrew. massa’).
habergeon = coat of mail.
Job 41:26-34
Job 41:26-34
WEAPONS NOT EFFECTIVE AGAINST THE CROCODILE
“If one lay at him with the sword, it cannot avail;
Nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
He counteth iron as straw,
And brass as rotten wood.
The arrow cannot make him flee:
Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble.
Clubs are counted as stubble:
He laugheth at the rushing of the javelin.
His underparts are like sharp potsherds:
He spreadeth, as it were, a threshing-wain upon the mire.
He maketh the deep to boil like a pot:
He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
He maketh a path to shine after him;
One would think the deep to be hoary.
Upon earth there is not his like,
That is made without fear.
He beholdeth everything that is high:
He is king over all the sons of pride.”
“Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble” (Job 41:28). The sling, of course, was a deadly weapon both for war and for hunting. David, it will be remembered, used this weapon in his triumph over Goliath of Gath. It is surprising that it is mentioned here; because, “There is no evidence that it was ever used in an effort to destroy a crocodile. What is meant is that no ordinary weapon of any kind was effective against the crocodile.”
“His underparts are sharp like potsherds” (Job 41:30). See quotation from Driver under Job 41:23, above.
“He maketh the deep to boil like a pot … a path to shine after him (in the deep); one would think the deep to be hoary” (Job 41:31-32). Barnes and other scholars remind us that “the deep” in these verses is not a reference to the ocean but to the Nile river, which in ancient times was often referred to as `the sea.’ The path that the crocodile made to shine after him appears to be a reference to the wake following the crocodile’s movement through the water, reflecting the sunlight. We also have here a reference to, “Leviathan’s motion in the water, which he churns up to a foam.” “It is generally allowed that by `the sea’ here is meant `the Nile,’ as in Isa 19:2; Isa 18:5, and Nah 3:8.”
“He is king over all the sons of pride” (Job 41:34). “The sons of pride here are the proud beasts of prey.” If one wonders why both the behemoth and the leviathan are called “kings,” it is because behemoth was king of the beasts, and leviathan was king of the reptiles.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 41:26. The things named are articles of attack and defense used by man. The meaning is that all of them will be of no avail in an encounter with this monster.
Job 41:27-29. By comparison only this beast is said to be able to masticate iron as easily as straw. Other parts of the paragraph take comments at Job 41:26.
Job 41:30. His hair is so coarse that it is compared to stony points; he buries them in the mire on the floor of the sea.
Job 41:31-32. This paragraph evidently has special reference to the whale. (See my remarks at Job 41:1-9.) The statements are almost literally true. Standing on the rear deck of a large boat one can trace with his eye the path the boat has Just traveled by the foamy light streak on the surface of the water.
Job 41:33-34. This sums up the might of the monster that has been described. The helplessness of man in contact with the creature is the point of the writer.
habergeon
Or, breastplate.
The sword: Job 39:21-24
habergeon: or, breastplate
Reciprocal: Exo 28:32 – as it were Job 39:23 – General Job 41:7 – fish
Job 41:26. The sword of him that layeth at him That approacheth to him, and dares to strike at him; cannot hold Hebrew, , beli takum, cannot stand. Either, 1st, Cannot endure the stroke, but will be broken by it; or, 2d, Cannot take hold of him, or abide fixed in him; but is instantly beaten back by the excessive hardness of his skin, which cannot be pierced by it. This also seems much better to agree to the crocodile, whose skin no sword, nor dart, nor (as some add) musket-ball can pierce, than to the whale, whose skin is easily pierced, as experience shows, except the whales here spoken of were of another kind than those we are acquainted with. Nor the habergeon Hebrew, , shirjah, which the margin of our Bible renders, breast-plate, and Ab. Ezra, a coat of mail, as the word means 1Sa 17:38. But Heath and Houbigant translate it here, the pike; and it evidently means some missile weapon.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments