Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 41:1
Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? or his tongue with a cord [which] thou lettest down?
1. The second clause appears to mean,
Wilt thou press down his tongue with a cord?
The “cord” may be that of the hook; when the hook is swallowed and the cord drawn tightly, it presses down the tongue.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 9. The impossibility of capturing the animal.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Chap. Job 40:6 to Job 42:6. The Lord’s Second Answer to Job out of the Storm
Shall Man charge God with unrighteousness in His Rule of the World?
All that the first speech of the Lord touched upon was the presumption of a mortal man desiring to contend with the Almighty. The display from Creation of that which God is had the desired effect on Job’s mind: he is abased, and will no more contend with the Almighty.
But Job had not only presumed to contend with God, he had charged Him with unrighteousness in His rule of the world and in His treatment of himself. This is the point to which the second speech from the storm is directed.
The passage has properly two parts.
First, Job 40:6-14, as Job had challenged the rectitude of God’s rule of the world, he is ironically invited to clothe himself with the Divine attributes and assume the rule of the world himself.
Then follows, ch. Job 40:15 to Job 41:34, a lengthy description of two monsters, Behemoth and Leviathan.
Second, ch. Job 42:1-6, Job’s reply to the Divine challenge. He confesses that he spoke things which he understood not. He had heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but now his eye saw Him, and he abhorred his former words and demeanour, and repented in dust and ashes.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Canst thou draw out – As a fish is drawn out of the water. The usual method by which fish were taken was with a hook; and the meaning here is, that it was not possible to take the leviathan in this manner. The whole description here is of an animal that lived in the water.
Leviathan – Much has been written respecting this animal, and the opinions which have been entertained have been very various. Schultens enumerates the following classes of opinions in regard to the animal intended here.
1. The opinion that the word leviathan is to be retained, without attempting to explain it – implying that there was uncertainty as to the meaning. Under this head he refers to the Chaldee and the Vulgate, to Aquila and Symmacbus, where the word is retained, and to the Septuagint, where the word Drakonta, dragon, is used, and also the Syriac and Arabic, where the same word is used.
2. The fable of the Jews, who mention a serpent so large that it encompassed the whole earth. A belief of the existence of such a marine serpent or monster still prevails among the Nestorians.
3. The opinion that the whale is intended.
4. The opinion that a large fish called Mular, or Musar, which is found in the Mediterranean, is denoted. This is the opinion of Grotius.
5. The opinion that the crocodile of the Nile is denoted.
6. The opinion of Hasaeus, that not the whale is intended, but the Orca, a sea-monster armed with teeth, and the enemy of the whale.
7. Others have understood the whole description as allegorical, as representing monsters of iniquity; and among these, some have regarded it as descriptive of the devil! See Schultens. To these may be added the description of Milton:
– That sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugst that swim the ocean-stream,
Him, haply, slumbring on the Norway foam,
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff
Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind
Moors by his side under the lee, while night
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays.
Paradise Lost, B. i.
For a full investigation of the subject, Bochart may be consulted, Hieroz. P. ii. Lib. v. c. xvi – xviii. The conclusion to which he comes is, that the crocodile of the Nile is denoted; and in this opinion critics have generally, since his time, acquiesced. The opinions which are entitled to most attention are those which regard the animal here described as either the whale or the crocodile. The objections to the supposition that the whale is intended are such as the following:
(1) That the whale tribes do not inhabit the Mediterranean, much less the rivers which empty into it – with which alone it is supposed Job could have been acquainted.
(2) That the animal here described differs from the whale in many essential particulars. This family of marine monsters have neither proper snout nor nostrils, nor proper teeth. Instead of a snout, they have a mere spiracle, or blowing-hole, with a double opening on the top of the head; and for teeth, a hard expanse of horny laminae, which we call whalebone, in the upper jaw. The eyes of the common whale, moreover, instead of answering the description here given, are most disproportionately small, and do not exceed in size those of the ox. Nor can this monster be regarded as of fierce habits or unconquerable courage; for instead of attacking the larger sea-animals for plunder it feeds chiefly on crabs and medusas, and is often itself attacked by the ork or grampus, though less than half its size. Dr. Good. These considerations seem to be decisive in regard to the supposition that the animal here referred to is the whale. In fact, there is almost nothing in the description that corresponds with the whale, except the size.
The whole account, on the contrary, agrees well with the crocodile; and there are several considerations which may be suggested, before we proceed with the exposition, which correspond I with the supposition that this is the animal intended. They are such as these:
(1) The crocodile is a natural inhabitant of the Nile and of other Asiatic and African rivers, and it is reasonable to suppose that an animal is referred to that was well known to one who lived in the country of Job. Though the Almighty is the speaker, and could describe an animal wholly unknown to Job, yet it is not reasonable to suppose that such an unknown animal would be selected. The appeal was to what he knew of the works of God.
(2) The general description agrees with this animal. The leviathan is represented as wild, fierce, and ungovernable; as of vast extent, and as terrible in his aspect; as having a mouth of vast size, and armed with a formidable array of teeth; as covered with scales set near together like a coat of mail, as distinguished by the fierceness of his eyes, and by the frightful aspect of his mouth; as endowed with great strength, and incapable of being taken in any of the ordinary methods of securing wild beasts. This general description agrees well with the crocodile. These animals are found in the rivers of Africa, and also in the southern rivers of America, and are usually called the alligator. In the Amazon, the Niger, and the Nile, they occur in great numbers, and are usually from eighteen to twenty-seven feet long; and sometimes lying as close to each other as a raft of timber. Goldsmith.
The crocodile grows to a great length, being sometimes found thirty feet long from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail; though its most usual length is about eighteen or twenty feet. The armor, with which the upper part of the body is covered, may be numbered among the most elaborate pieces of Natures mechanism. In the full-grown animal it is so strong and thick as easily to repel a musket-ball. The whole animal appears as if covered with the most regular and curious carved work. The mouth is of vast width, the gape having a somewhat flexuous outline, and both jaws being furnished with very numerous, sharp-pointed teeth. The number of teeth in each jaw is thirty or more, and they are so disposed as to alternate with each other when the mouth is closed. The legs are short, but strong and muscular. In the glowing regions of Africa, where it arrives at its full strength and power, it is justly regarded as the most formidable inhabitant of the rivers. Shaws Zoology, vol. iii. p. 184. The crocodile seldom, except pressed with hunger, or for the purpose of depositing its eggs, leaves the water. Its usual method is to float along the surface, and seize whatever animals come within its reach; but when this method fails, it then goes nearer the bank. There it waits, among the sedges, for any animal that may come down to drink, and seizes upon it, and drags it into the water. The tiger is thus often seized by the crocodile, and dragged into the river and drowned.
(3) A third reason for supposing that the crocodile is here intended, arises from the former conclusion concerning the behemoth, Job 40:15, following. The description of the leviathan immediately follows that, and the presumption is that they were animals that were usually found inhabiting the same district of country. If, therefore, the behemoth be the hippopotamus, there is a presumption that the leviathan is the crocodile – an inhabitant of the same river, equally amphibious, and even more terrible. And this consideration, says the Editor of the Pictorial Bible, is strengthened, when we consider that the two animals were so associated by the ancients. Some of the paintings at Herculaneum represent Egyptian landscapes, in which we see the crocodile lying among the reeds, and the hippopotamus browsing upon the plants on an island. So also in the famous Mosaic pavement at Praeneste, representing the plants and animals of Egypt and Ethiopia, the river-horse and the crocodile are associated in the same group, in the river Nile. The crocodile was formerly found in abundance in Lower Egypt and the Delta, but it now limits the extent of its visits northward to the districts about Manfaloot, and the hippopotamus is no longer seen in Lower Ethiopia. Neither the hippopotamus nor the crocodile appear to have been eaten by the ancient Egyptians. Pliny mentions the medicinal properties of both of them (xxviii. 8). and Plutarch affirms that the people of Apollinopolis used to eat the crocodile (de Isid. s. 50); but this does not appear to have been a usual custom.
Herodotus says that some of the Egyptians consider the crocodile sacred, while others make war upon it; and those who live about Thebes and the lake Moeris (in the Arsinoite nome), hold it in great veneration, ii. 69. In some cases the crocodile was treated with the greatest respect, and kept up at considerable expense; it was fed and attended with the most scrupulous care; geese, fish, and various meats were dressed purposely for it; they ornamented its head with earrings and its feet with bracelets and necklaces of gold and artificial stones; it was rendered tame by kind treatment, and after death the body was embalmed in a sumptuous manner. This was particularly the case in the Theban, Ombite, and Arsinoite nomes, and at a place now called Maabdeh, opposite the modern town of Manfaloot, are extensive grottoes cut far into the limestone mountain, where numerous crocodile mummies have been found, perfectly preserved and evidently embalmed with great care.
In other parts of Egypt, however, the animal was held in the greatest abhorrence, and so they lost no opportunity of destroying it. See Wilkinsons Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. pp. 75ff. The engraving opposite represents Egyptian crocodiles (Crocodilus vulgaris) disporting themselves on the banks of the Nile, or basking in the sun – one of their favorite practices. The figures were drawn from living animals. The word here rendered leviathan ( livyathan) occurs only in this place and in Job 3:8; Psa 74:14; Psa 104:26; Isa 27:1. In all these places it is rendered leviathan, except in Job 3:8, where it is rendered in the text, their mourning, in the margin, leviathan; see the notes at that verse, and compare the notes at Isa 27:1. The connection of the word with the root is not certainly known. Gesenius regards it as derived from lavah, to join oneself to anyone, and then to wreathe, to fold, to curve; and in Arabic to weave, to twist, as a wreath or garland; and that the word is appiled to an animal that is wreathed, or that gathers itself in folds – a twisted animal.
In Job 3:8, the word is used to denote some huge, untamable, and fierce monster, and will agree there with the supposition that the crocodile is intended; see the notes at that place. In Psa 74:14. the allusion is to Pharaoh, compared with the leviathan, and the passage would agree best with the supposition that the allusion was to the crocodile. The crocodile was an inhabitant of the Nile, and it was natural to allude to that in describing a fierce tyrant of Egypt. In Psa 104:26, the allusion is to some huge animal of the deep, particularly of the Mediterranean, and the language would apply to any sea-monster. In Isa 27:1. the allusion is to the king and tyrant that ruled in Babylon, as compared with a dragon or fierce animal; compare the notes on that passage, and Rev. 12. Any of these passages will accord well with the supposition that the crocodile is denoted by the word, or that some fierce, strong, and violent animal that could involve itself, or that had the appearance of an extended serpent, is referred to. The resemblance between the animal here described and the crocodile, will be further indicated by the notes at the particular descriptions in the chapter.
With an hook – Implying that the animal here referred to was aquatic, and that it could not be taken in the way in which fish were usually caught. It is known now that the crocodile is occasionally taken with a hook, but this is not the usual method, and there is no evidence that it was practiced in the time of Job. Herodotus says that it was one of the methods which were used in his time. Among the various methods, says he, that are used to take the crocodile, I shall relate only one which deserves most attention; they fix a hook ( agkistron) on a piece of swines flesh, and suffer it to float into the middle of the stream. On the banks they have a live hog, which they beat until it cries out. The crocodile, hearing the noise, makes toward it, and in the way encounters and devours the bait. They thus draw it on shore, and the first thing they do is to fill its eyes with clay; it is thus easily manageable, which it otherwise would not be.
B. ii. 70. The manner of taking it in Siam is by throwing three or four strong nets across a river at proper distances from each other, so that if the animal breaks through the first, it may be caught by one of the rest. When it is first taken it employs the tail, which is the grand instrument of its strength, with great force; but after many unsuccessful struggles, the animals strength is at length exhausted. Then the natives approach their prisoner in boats, and pierce him with their weapons in the most tender parts, until he is weakened with the loss of blood. Goldsmith. From ancient sculptures in Egypt, it appears that the common method of attacking the crocodile was with a spear, transfixing it as it passed beneath the boat in shallow water, See Wilkinsons Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. pp. 75ff The most common method of taking the crocodile now is by shooting it. Pococke. it is quite clear, therefore, that, agreeably to what is said in the passage before us, the common method of taking it was not by a hook, and it is probable that in the time of Job this method was not practiced.
Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down – Or rather, Canst thou sink his tongue with a cord? – that is, Canst thou tame him by a thong or bit thrust into his mouth? Gesenius. The idea is that of pressing down the tongue with a cord, so that he would be tractable.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 41:1-34
Canst thou draw out Leviathan?
Behemoth and leviathan
The description of the behemoth in the preceding chapter and the leviathan here suggests a few moral reflections.
I. The prodigality of created might. With what amazing force are these creatures endowed! How huge their proportions! How exuberant their vital energy!
II. The restraining power of the Divine government. What keeps those creatures in cheek? They are under the spell of the Almighty. To all creatures the Creator has set a boundary beyond which they cannot pass.
III. The absurdity of man priding himself in his strength. Let not the mighty man glory in his might, etc.
IV. The probability of mental giants in the universe. May there not be in the spiritual domain as great a difference in the power of its tenants as there is in the physical?
V. The Divine mode of solving mans moral difficulties. Great were the difficulties of Job in relation to Gods government. God does not reason with Job, but shows Himself to him, and this settles all dispute, and will ever do so.
VI. Gods work in nature should be studied, in order to impress us with his majesty. We must remember the profoundly religions and serious character of the Eastern patriarch. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XLI
God’s great power in the leviathan, of which creature he gives
a very circumstantial description, 1-34.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLI
Verse 1. Canst thou draw out leviathan] We come now to a subject not less perplexing than that over which we have passed, and a subject on which learned men are less agreed than on the preceding. What is leviathan? The Hebrew word livyathan is retained by the Vulgate and the Chaldee. The Septuagint have, ; “Canst thou draw out the DRAGON?” The Syriac and Arabic have the same. A species of whale has been supposed to be the creature in question; but the description suits no animal but the crocodile or alligator; and it is not necessary to seek elsewhere. The crocodile is a natural inhabitant of the Nile, and other Asiatic and African rivers. It is a creature of enormous voracity and strength, as well as fleetness in swimming. He will attack the largest animals, and even men, with the most daring impetuosity. In proportion to his size he has the largest mouth of all monsters. The upper jaw is armed with forty sharp strong teeth, and the under jaw with thirty-eight. He is clothed with such a coat of mail as cannot be pierced, and can in every direction resist a musket-ball. The Hebrew levi ten signifies the coupled dragon; but what this is we know not, unless the crocodile be meant.
With a hook] That crocodiles were caught with a baited hook, at least one species of crocodile, we have the testimony of Herodotus, lib. ii., c. 70: , , . . . “They take the back or chine of a swine, and bait a hook with it, and throw it into the midst of the river; and the fisherman stands at some distance on the shore holding a young pig, which he irritates, in order to make it squeak. When the crocodile hears this he immediately makes towards the sound; and, finding the baited hook in his way, swallows it, and is then drawn to land, when they dash mud into his eyes, and blind him; after which he is soon despatched.” In this way it seems leviathan was drawn out by a hook: but it was undoubtedly both a difficult and dangerous work, and but barely practicable In the way in which Herodotus relates the matter.
Or his tongue with a cord] It is probable that, when the animal was taken, they had some method of casting a noose round his tongue, when opening his mouth; or piercing it with some barbed instrument. Thevenot says that in order to take the crocodile they dig holes on the banks of the river, and cover them with sticks. The crocodiles fall into these, and cannot get out. They leave them there for several days without food, and then let down nooses which they pitch on their jaws, and thus draw them out. This is probably what is meant here.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Canst thou take him with a hook and a line, as anglers take ordinary fishes? Surely no.
Quest. What is this
leviathan?
Answ. This is granted on all hands, that it is a great and terrible monster, living in the sea or rivers, as behemoth is a land monster. It is the general and received opinion that it is the whale, which is unquestionably called the leviathan, Psa 104:25,26; which having been discovered in the seas next bordering upon Arabia, probably was not unknown to Job, who was a very inquisitive person, and well studied in the works of God, as this book manifests. But some later and very learned interpreters conceive that it is the crocodile; which was very well known in Egypt, and all the parts adjacent to it. And this is evident, that the Hebrew thannin (which is parallel to this word leviathan, these two words being synonymous, and the one promiscuously used for the other, as appears from Psa 74:13,14; Isa 27:1; Eze 32:2) is used of the crocodile, Eze 29:3,4; 32:2,3. But I shall not positively determine this controversy, but only show how far the text may be understood of both of them, and then submit it to the readers judgment; this being a matter of no great moment, wherein Christians may vary without any hazard. Only this I will say, that whatever becomes of the behemoth of the former chapter, whether that be the elephant, or the hippopotamus, that doth not at all determine the sense of this leviathan; but leaves it indifferent to the whale or the crocodile, as the context shall determine, which I confess seems to me to favour the latter more than the former. To which may be added, that it seems more probable that God would speak of such creatures as were very well known to Job and his friends, as the crocodile was, than of such as it is very uncertain whether they were known in those parts, and in Jobs time. This verse, noting either the impossibility, or rather the great and terrible difficulty, of taking this monster with his hook or line, or such-like instruments, may agree to either of them. For the whale there is no doubt; nor much doubt as to the crocodile; the taking whereof was generally esteemed by the ancients to be very difficult and perilous, whatsoever peculiar virtue or power from nature or art the Tentyritae had against them, as the Psylli were said to have against serpents. Some indeed object, that the last clause cannot agree to the crocodile, because that hath no tongue, as is affirmed by Aristotle, Pliny, and other ancient authors. But that is a mistake, and the ground of it is plain, because their tongues are but small in proportion to their vast bodies, and withal fastened to their under jaws, as the selfsame authors note. And that the crocodile hath a tongue is positively affirmed by the said ancient authors, and by the Hebrew writers, and by the Arabians, to whom this creature was best known, and by later authors.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. leviathanliterally, “thetwisted animal,” gathering itself in folds: a synonym to theThannin (Job 3:8, Margin;see Ps 74:14; type of theEgyptian tyrant; Psa 104:26;Isa 27:1; the Babylon tyrant). Apoetical generalization for all cetacean, serpentine, and saurianmonsters (see on Job 40:15,hence all the description applies to no one animal);especially the crocodile; which is naturally described after theriver horse, as both are found in the Nile.
tongue . . . lettestdown?The crocodile has no tongue, or a very small one cleavingto the lower jaw. But as in fishing the tongue of the fish draws thebaited hook to it, God asks, Canst thou in like manner takeleviathan?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?…. That is, draw it out of the sea or river as anglers draw out smaller fishes with a line or hook? the question suggests it cannot be done; whether by the “leviathan” is meant the whale, which was the most generally received notion; or the crocodile, as Bochart, who has been followed by many; or the “orca”, a large fish of the whale kind with many teeth, as Hasaeus, it is not easy to say “Leviathan” is a compound word of than the first syllable of “thanni”, rendered either a whale, or a dragon, or a serpent, and of “levi”, which signifies conjunction, from the close joining of its scales, Job 41:15; the patriarch Levi had his name from the same word; see Ge 29:34; and the name bids fairest for the crocodile, and which is called “thannin”, Eze 29:3. Could the crocodile be established as the “leviathan”, and the behemoth as the river horse, the transition from the one to the other would appear very easy; since, as Pliny says a, there is a sort of a kindred between them, being of the same river, the river Nile, and so may be thought to be better known to Job than the whale; though it is not to be concealed what Pliny says b, that whales have been seen in the Arabian seas; he speaks of one that came into the river of Arabia, six hundred feet long, and three hundred and sixty broad. There are some things in the description of this creature that seem to agree best with the crocodile, and others that suit better with the whale, and some with neither;
or his tongue with a cord [which] thou lettest down? into the river or sea, as anglers do, with lead to it to make it sink below the surface of the water, and a quill or cork that it may not sink too deep; but this creature is not to be taken in this manner; and which may be objected to the crocodile being meant, since that has no tongue c, or at least so small that it is not seen, and cleaves close to its lower jaw, which never moves; and is taken with hooks and cords, as Herodotus d, Diodorus Siculus e, and Leo Africanus f, testify; but not so the whale.
(See definition for 03882. Editor.)
a Nat. Hist. l. 28. c. 8. b Ib. l. 32. c. 1. c Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 31. Herodot. Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 68. Solin. c. 45. Plutarch. de Is. & Osir. Vid. Aristot. de Animal. l. 2. c. 17. & l. 4. c. 11. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 37. Thevenot, ut supra. (Travels, part 1. c. 72.) Sandys’s Travels, l. 2. p. 78. d Ut supra, (Herodot. Euterpe, sive, l. 2.) c. 70. e Ut supra. (Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 31.) f Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 762. See Sandy’s Travels, ut supra, (l. 2.) p. 79.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 Dost thou draw the crocodile by a hoop-net,
And dost thou sink his tongue into the line?!
2 Canst thou put a rush-ring into his nose,
And pierce his cheeks with a hook?
3 Will he make many supplications to thee,
Or speak flatteries to thee?
4 Will he make a covenant with thee,
To take him as a perpetual slave?
5 Wilt thou play with him as a little bird,
And bind him for thy maidens?
In Job 3:8, signified the celestial dragon, that causes the eclipses of the sun (according to the Indian mythology, rahu the black serpent, and ketu the red serpent); in Psa 104:26 it does not denote some great sea-saurian after the kind of the hydrarchus of the primeval world,
(Note: Vid., Grsse, Beitrge, S. 94ff.)
but directly the whale, as in the Talmud (Lewysohn, Zoologie des Talm. 178f.). Elsewhere, however, the crocodile is thus named, and in fact as also, another appellation of this natural wonder of Egypt, as an emblem of the mightiness of Pharaoh (vid., on Psa 74:13.), as once again the crocodile itself is called in Arab. el – firannu . The Old Testament language possesses no proper name for the crocodile; even the Talmudic makes use of = (Lewysohn, 271). is the generic name of twisted, and long-extended monsters. Since the Egyptian name of the crocodile has not been Hebraized, the poet contents himself in with making a play upon its Egyptian, and in Arab. tmsah , timsah ,
(Note: Herodotus was acquainted with this name ( = ); thus is the crocodile called also in Palestine, where (as Tobler and Joh. Roth have shown) it occurs, especially in the river Damr near Tantra.)
Arabized name (Ew. 324, a). To wit, it is called in Coptic temsah , Hierogl. (without the art.) msuh ( emsuh ), as an animal that creeps “out of the egg ( suh ).”
(Note: Les naturalistes – says Chabas in his Papyr. magique, p. 190 – comptent cinq espces de crocodiles vivant dans le Nil, mais les hieroglyphes rapportent un plus grand nombre de noms dtermins par le signe du crocodile . Such is really the case, apart from the so-called land crocodile or (Arab. isqanqur ), the Coptic name of which, hankelf (according to Lauth ha . n . kelf , ruler of the bank), is not as yet indicated on the monuments. Among the many old Egyptian names for the crocodile, Kircher’s charuki is, however, not found, which reminds one of the Coptic karus , as of , for is the proper name of the Lacerta viridis (Herod. ii. 69). Lauth is inclined to regard charuki as a fiction of Kircher, as also the name of the phoenix, (vid., p. 562). The number of names of the crocodile which remain even without charuki , leads one to infer a great variety of species, and crocodiles, which differ from all living species, have also actually been found in Egyptian tombs; vid., Schmarda, Verbreitung der Thiere, i. 89.)
In Job 41:1, Ges. and others falsely translate: Canst thou press its tongue down with a cord; does not signify demergere = deprimere , but immergere : canst thou sink its tongue into the line, i.e., make it bite into the hook on the line, and canst thou thus draw it up? Job 41:1 then refers to what must happen in order that the of the msuh may take place. Herodotus (and after him Aristotle) says, indeed, ii. 68, the crocodile has no tongue; but it has one, only it cannot stretch it out, because the protruding part has grown to the bottom of the mouth, while otherwise the saurians have a long tongue, that can be stretched out to some length. In Job 41:2 the order of thought is the same: for first the Nile fishermen put a ring through the gills or nose of valuable fish; then they draw a cord made of rushes ( ) through it, in order to put them thus bound into the river. “As a perpetual slave,” Job 41:4 is intended to say: like one of the domestic animals. By , Job 41:5, can hardly be meant , the little bird of the vineyard, i.e., according to a Talmud. usage of the language, the golden beetle ( Jesurun, p. 222), or a pretty eatable grasshopper (Lewysohn, 374), but, according to the words of Catullus, Passer deliciae meae puellae , the sparrow, Arab. asfur – an example of a harmless living plaything ( , to play with anything, different from Psa 104:26, where it is not, with Ew., to be translated: to play with it, but: therein).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Description of Leviathan. | B. C. 1520. |
1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? 2 Canst thou put a hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? 3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? 4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? 5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? 6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants? 7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? 8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. 9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? 10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
Whether this leviathan be a whale or a crocodile is a great dispute among the learned, which I will not undertake to determine; some of the particulars agree more easily to the one, others to the other; both are very strong and fierce, and the power of the Creator appears in them. The ingenious Sir Richard Blackmore, though he admits the more received opinion concerning the behemoth, that it must be meant of the elephant, yet agrees with the learned Bochart’s notion of the leviathan, that it is the crocodile, which was so well known in the river of Egypt. I confess that that which inclines me rather to understand it of the whale is not only because it is much larger and a nobler animal, but because, in the history of the Creation, there is such an express notice taken of it as is not of any other species of animals whatsoever (Gen. i. 21, God created great whales), by which it appears, not only that whales were well known in those parts in the time of Moses, who lived a little after Job, but that the creation of whales was generally looked upon as a most illustrious proof of the eternal power and godhead of the Creator; and we may conjecture that this was the reason (for otherwise it seems unaccountable) why Moses there so particularly mentions the creation of the whales, because God had so lately insisted upon the bulk and strength of that creature than of any other, as the proof of his power; and the leviathan is here spoken of as an inhabitant of the sea (v. 31), which the crocodile is not; and Psa 104:25; Psa 104:26, there in the great and wide sea, is that leviathan. Here in these verses,
I. He shows how unable Job was to master the leviathan. 1. That he could not catch him, as a little fish, with angling, Job 41:1; Job 41:2. He had no bait wherewith to deceive him, no hook wherewith to catch him, no fish-line wherewith to draw him out of the water, nor a thorn to run through his gills, on which to carry him home. 2. That he could not make him his prisoner, nor force him to cry for quarter, or surrender himself at discretion, Job 41:3; Job 41:4. “He knows his own strength too well to make many supplications to thee, and to make a covenant with thee to be thy servant on condition thou wilt save his life.” 3. That he could not entice him into a cage, and keep him there as a bird for the children to play with, v. 5. There are creatures so little, so weak, as to be easily restrained thus, and triumphed over; but the leviathan is not one of these: he is made to be the terror, not the sport and diversion, of mankind. 4. That he could not have him served up to his table; he and his companions could not make a banquet of him; his flesh is too strong to be fit for food, and, if it were not, he is not easily caught. 5. That they could not enrich themselves with the spoil of him: Shall they part him among the merchants, the bones to one, the oil to another? If they can catch him, they will; but it is probable that the art of fishing for whales was not brought to perfection then, as it has been since. 6. That they could not destroy him, could not fill his head with fish-spears, v. 7. He kept out of the reach of their instruments of slaughter, or, if they touched him, they could not touch him to the quick. 7. That it was to no purpose to attempt it: The hope of taking him is in vain, v. 9. If men go about to seize him, so formidable is he that the very sight of him will appal them, and make a stout man ready to faint away: Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? and will not that deter the pursuers from their attempt? Job is told, at his peril, to lay his hand upon him, v. 8. “Touch him if thou dare; remember the battle, how unable thou art to encounter such a force, and what is therefore likely to be the issue of the battle, and do no more, but desist from the attempt.” It is good to remember the battle before we engage in a war, and put off the harness in time if we foresee it will be to no purpose to gird it on. Job is hereby admonished not to proceed in his controversy with God, but to make his peace with him, remembering what the battle will certainly end in if he come to an engagement. See Isa 27:4; Isa 27:5.
II. Thence he infers how unable he was to contend with the Almighty. None is so fierce, none so fool-hardy, that he dares to stir up the leviathan (v. 10), it being known that he will certainly be too hard for them; and who then is able to stand before God, either to impeach and arraign his proceedings or to out-face the power of his wrath? If the inferior creatures that are put under the feet of man, and over whom he has dominion, keep us in awe thus, how terrible must the majesty of our great Lord be, who has a sovereign dominion over us and against whom man has been so long in rebellion! Who can stand before him when once he is angry?
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB – CHAPTER 41
GOD’S POWER IN THE LEVIATHAN
Verses 1-34:
Verse 1, 2 rhetorically inquire of Job, as Jehovah asks, “you can not even draw out (entrap or catch) leviathan, meaning a whale or crocodile, with an hook, can you? Or “his tongue you cannot entrap with a cord which you let down to catch other water creatures, can you?” Verse 2 adds, “neither can you put an hook in his nose (through his nose) to hook and control him, or bore his hole through with a thorn, or sharp instrument, to hook and capture him as you do other wild creatures, can you?” The inferred answer is that he could not do either of the four things mentioned, to capture leviathan, the ruler of the Nile and the sea. The term is used to refer to the Egyptian tyrant ruler, Psa 104:26; Isa 27:1; It also refers to the “Leviathan, that crooked serpent,” when speaking of the Babylonian tyrant.
The term Leviathan is a generalized term referring to any huge crooked serpentine creature of the river or sea and specifically to the crocodile of the Nile in Egypt, Psa 74:14; Job 40:15; See also Isa 37:29; Eze 39:4. After fish were caught by hooks they were hooked by a sharp instrument, as a thorn or metal hook, through the nose or jaw, and thrown back into the water to keep them alive. But leviathan, which God too had made and preserved, could not be so subdued by the limited power of man.
Verses 3, 4 inquire whether or not leviathan will make any soft words of pleading that Job may spare his life. No, for he is an untamable creature.
Verse 4 asks if he will make a covenant with Job, to be tamed and fed by him for domestic purposes? The answer inferred is that such is not possible, because of his nature, Job 39:10-12.
Verses 5, 6 Inquire further whether Job may play with him, as with a bird he had fed and tamed, or tie him with a string to give to his maidens, as a toy? The necessary inference is that he can not, and would not try. Would Job’s companions (in fishing) make a banquet of him, to kill and eat leviathan? as they ate fish and eel? Hos 12:7. For the Cananites were great fish merchants, Deu 2:6.
Verses 7, 8 continue Jehovah’s inquiry of Job’s knowledge of leviathan. He is asked if he can fill his skin or penetrate it with barbed, sharpened irons, or penetrate his head with fish spears? He cannot for his head can not be penetrated by a spear, because it is so hard and thick. If Job should lay his hand on him, to capture him, he will always remember the battle with him that he could not win and never attempt it again, lest he should lose his own life.
Verse 9 states that the hope of anyone to capture him is vain, v.8. After one has attempted to capture leviathan, and his determination has been exposed as a vain, unreasonable thing, he will be cast down with fear at the very sight of him thereafter.
Verse 10 declares that none is foolhardy enough to dare stir him up or attack him, if he has ever once tried it, Gen 49:9; Num 24:9. The Lord inquires of Job, “who then is able to stand before him?” And the Creator is greater than any and all of His creatures, to be feared, Exo 9:14-17; 1Co 10:22. Who then will dare stand up and contest the God of the universe? Psa 2:2; Job 9:4; Jer 12:5.
Verse 11 Inquires of Job just who has prevented (done Jehovah a favor heretofore) obligated Him to return the favor of his service? Psa 21:3. None can call God to account to stand before him, as unjust, v.10, as Job had done, or attempted to do. Who can give anything or require anything of Him who owns everything, Rom 11:35. Man can not even make all creatures to be his servants, much less the Creator who owns all, including man himself, Eze 18:4; Job 35:7; Mat 20:15; 1Co 2:6; Rom 11:35; See also Gen 14:19; Exo 9:29; Exo 19:5; Deu 10:14; Psa 24:1; Psa 94:4; Psa 94:6; Jer 7:5-6; 1Co 10:26; 1Co 10:28; 1Ti 6:17.
Verse 12 continues, declares, that the Lord will not conceal or shield his parts (ways of his strength) nor the comeliness or proportion of his shield-like covering, so graciously given to the leviathan, Deu 19:4; Jdg 17:10.
Verses 13, 14 ask just who can 1) discover or uncover, strip off the surface of his skin-garment, 2) or who can dare come to leviathan to put a double bridle in his mouth, insert it as it is placed in the mouth of other animals? v. 4; Job 39:10; Job 3) Who can open the doors of his face (open his jaws)? or 4) for his teeth, 60 in number, are terrible, some serrated, and some sticking out to cut like knives, at the side swing of his head.
Verses 15-17 continue an extended description of leviathan, the untamable monstrous creature of the Nile river and the sea, v.1. Verse 15 declares that his scales or pieces of hard shield are his pride. These rows of shield-like scales are his covering pride, Job 40:18. They shut up together like a close seal. Seventeen rows of furrowed shield-like scales cover the crocodile, one of the leviathan monsters. A musket ball or bullet can not penetrate its shield, except about the eyes, mouth and under the belly. Verse 16 describes these shields as being so close together that no air can come between them, as they overlap each other, like a hinge. Verse 17 adds that they are joined one to another. They “stick together, that they cannot be sundered or separated.”
Verse 18 asserts that by his neesings or sneezings, after he has long stayed under the water, as amphibious animals come up after a long time beneath the water, violently expell the breath like some sneezing, their breath seems to expel light like fire in the sunshine. His eyes are said to be like the “eyelids of the morning,” because his eyes are the first thing one can see as the leviathan rises from beneath the water, for his nostrils to exhale or expel stale air and take in fresh air.
Verses 19-21 extend a description of his appearance as out of his mouth goes burning lamps and sparks of fire leap out of his mouth like flames, as he blows water in the reflecting morning sunshine. It is added that out of his nostrils that rise through the water goes smoke, like a seething or boiling caldron. Verse 21 declares that his breath kindles coals, a poetic image, as expressed Psa 18:8. A flame was said to go forth from his mouth, an apt description of the rising of a huge crocodile from the Nile river of Egypt, or the whale from beneath the sea, after a long submersion.
Verse 22, 23 declare that in his neck permanently abides or exists his chief strength. And sorrow, anxiety, or dismay personified, is turned into joy before him. Wherever he goes he spreads terror “before him.” The flakes of his flesh are joined fast and firm together, not loose like the flesh of an ox. The flakes are hard and firm so that they are like metal poured out firmly over all his body.
Verse 24 declares that the heart of the leviathan is firm as a’ stone, even as hard as a piece of nether, hardest, flintlike part of a millstone. In large beasts that are less acute in feelings, there is a greater firmness of the heart.
Verse 25 relates that when leviathan rises up, the mighty are afraid of his very appearance. The terror he stirs in men is a symbol of the fear that the Creater inspires when He arises in wrath. By reason of breaking (terror) they (men) purify themselves, or draw away to a more holy place.
Verses 26, 27 discloses that the sword of one who attacks the leviathan cannot hold or cut through the shield-like skin armor, but simply glances off, or is stopped with a thud, as if struck against a flintstone. The leviathan esteems or disregards iron, as straw and brass, as if it were rotten wood, as they strike against his armored skin.
Verses 28, 29 relate that the arrow can not make him flee and slingstones are of no more fear to him than stubble. The arrow, called “son of the bow,” does not strike this monstrous creature with the least fear, La 3:11. While darts or clubs are as stubble used against him, and he laughs or takes pleasure at the shaking of a spear.
Verses 30-34 conclude an entire chapter of Jehovah’s description of the mighty leviathan. Verse 30 relates that so sharp are the scaly shields on his belly that imprints left where he has laid in the mire look like they were made by sharp stones, Isa 28:27.
Verse 31 explains that when he moves he makes deep waters to boil like a pot; so that he makes the sea (the Nile) Isa 19:5; Nah 3:8, like a pot of ointment; the crocodile emits a musky smell where he moves about. Verse 32 explains that he maketh a path to shine after him, where he moves in the water, so that one thinks the deep to be hoary, as the hair of the aged.
Verse 33 declares that upon all the earth there is no animal or beast of his order, that is made without fear, like the leviathan; Verse 34 concludes that leviathan beholds all things, as their superior; He is or exists as a king over all the “children of pride,” the proud and fierce beasts. So if leviathan is king over all; and Job cannot successfully deny it, He is to respect the Lord as King over all of the “Sons of pride” on earth, as they are to bow to His Lordship, Job 28:8; Job 38:2; Exo 5:2; Psa 74:13-14; Isa 27:1; Eze 29:3.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Notes
Job. 41:1. Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook. The term Leviathan () rendered here by the SEPTUAGINT, SYRIAC, and ARABIC, the dragon. The VULGATE and TARGUM leave it untranslated. Almost all the earlier interpreters understood the Whale to be the animal intended. BEZA and DIODATPS among the first to incline for the Crocodile. GROTIUS remarks: From terrestrial he passes to marine animals. SANCTIUS is uncertain which animal of the whale kind is meant; and observes that the Balna would not be unknown to Job, as being found, according to Pliny, in the Arabian Gulf. CODURCUS remarks that the whale is found in the Mediterranean Sea. According to DRUSIUS, some large unknown fish akin to the dragon is meant. SCHULTENS, with the Hebrew interpreters, thinks the animal to be a terrestrial dragon. LEE: A sea monster in general; though the description rather suits the whale, and more particularly one of the Dolphin tribe, the Delphinus Orcus Communis, or common Grampus. KITTO: A sea monster: here the crocodile. FAUSSET: Literally, the twisted animal, gathering itself into folds: a poetic generalization for all cetacea, serpentine, and saurian monsters, especially the crocodile; described after the river horse, both being found in the Nile. Bishop PATRICK observes that the whale is not armed with scales, nor impenetrable, nor creeping on the earth; and that therefore the crocodile is the animal intended. S. WESLEY remarks that the crocodile was probably once in Palestine; a town named Crocodilo-polis, or the city of the Crocodile, having stood in the neighbourhood of Mount Carmel. A. CLARKE thinks some extinct animal of the waters is probably intended. DODEHLEIN thinks the word a general name of a very large and cruel beast, the real name being gathered from its attributes.
JEHOVAHS SECOND ADDRESS CONTINUED
Nearly the whole of the chapter occupied with the description of Leviathan. The section remarkable for its grandeur and sublimity. The idea of terribleness and power conveyed in a variety of striking particulars. The image of a formidable monster vividly placed before our eyes. The details naturally often obscure. The most extended description in the Almightys address and in the whole book. The object to exhibit the might and majesty of the Creator. Such a power of description as to constitute in my mind an evidence of its inspiration.Dr. Chalmers.
I. The description itself. May be divided under various heads.
1. The creatures fierceness and indomitableness. Job. 41:1-10.Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down (or, press down his tongue with a rein, or perhaps a fishing-line)? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn (i.e., an iron hook resembling oneso as to lead him about as thou wilt, like other wild beasts, as Eze. 29:4; Isa. 37:29). Will he make many supplications unto thee [to spare him]? Will he speak soft words [of persuasion] unto thee? Will he make a covenant with thee? Wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens (as a plaything for thy little girls)? Shall the companions (the partners employed in taking him) make a banquet of (or on account of) him (after taking and killing him, or, will they make a bargain over him, or dig pits for him, in order to take him)? Shall they part him among the merchants (to be sold like other animals)? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? Lay thine hand upon him; remember the battle [which thou hast rashly entered on], do no more (do not, or thou wilt not, repeat it). Behold, the hope of him (of taking him, or overcoming him) is in vain (will be disappointed). Shall not one be cast down [with terror] even at the sight of him. None is so fierce that dare stir him up (or awake him when sleeping).
2. His powerful structure and terrible aspect. Job. 41:12-24.I will not conceal his parts (or members), nor his power, nor his comely proportions (or, the grace of his array). Who can discover the face of his garment (strip off his skin or the scales that cover it)? or who can come to him with his double bridle (or, enter into the doubling of his jaws, or his double row of teeth)? Who can open the doors of his face? His teeth are terrible round about (or, the circuits of his teeth are a terror). His scales (Marg., the strong pieces of his shields, i.e., his strong shields or scales) are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal (or, as a close seala seal sticking closely to the material on which it is impressed). One is so near to another that no air can come between them; they are joined one to another; they stick together that they cannot be sundered. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning (as he lifts his head above the water.) Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out (expressive of his hot fiery breath). Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals (live burning coals), and a flame goeth out of his mouth. In his neck remaineth (lodgeth) strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him (Marg., rejoiceth; or terror danceth before hima bold personification, indicating the terror and dismay occasioned by his appearance). The flakes (or pendulous parts) of his flesh are joined together; they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone (or as the lower millstone).
3. His invincibleness and invulnerableness. Job. 41:25-29.When he raiseth up himself (out of the water) the mighty are afraid; by reason of breakings (which he makes while plunging in the water, or from the destruction which his appearance threatens, or the terror which it causes) they purify themselves (or. lose their recollectionare bewildered). The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold (or stand): the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon (coat of mail, or perhaps the javelin). He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass (or the brazen weapon) as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Darts (or clubs) are counted as stubble; he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
4. His habits, motion, and supremacy among beasts. Job. 41:30-34.Sharp stones are under him (or, his lower parts are sharp potsherdsthe scales on his belly resembling such); he spreadeth sharp pointed things (or, a threshing cart,his sharp spikes resembling the teeth of one) upon the mire (i.e., when he moves upon his belly, whether on the soft shore or on the bed of the river. He maketh the deep (the water in which he mostly liveswhether sea, lake, or river) to boil like a pot (from the agitation which he causes); he maketh the sea (or river, to which the term is also applied) like a pot of ointment (seething on the fire, and emitting a smell which that of the crocodile is said to resemble). He maketh a path to shine after him (like the phosphorescent light sometimes produced by the rapid motion of a ship); one would think the deep to be hoary (from the white froth and foam which the creature occasions by his motions). Upon earth there is not his like (or any dominion to which he is subject), who is made without fear [of any assailant]. He beholdeth all high things (looks down upon the loftiest creature with disdain; or terrifies every boaster); he is king (holds supremacy) over all the children of pride (or, ferocityall proud ferocious animals, such as the lion and other beasts of prey).
II. The creature described. Opinions various. According to the Greek translation used by the Apostles, a dragon. With some a sea-monster. By almost all the old commentators, understood to be the whale, as in Psa. 104:26. Now generally believed to be the crocodile. The name apparently denoting the twisting or folding one, and so applicable either to a serpent or a crocodile. The description more suitable to the crocodile than any other known living animal. The crocodile also, as an inhabitant of the Nile, likely to be known both to Job and the writer of the book. The more likely to be the crocodile as connected with Behemoth; if that creature be supposed to be the hippopotamus, also a native of that river. A familiarity with Egypt and its productions on the part of the writer, apparently indicated by the poem.
The animal intended, however, conjectured by some to be one of an extinct species of the order of Saurians, the description corresponding in all particulars neither to the whale nor the crocodile. By others, the description thought to be rather, like that of Behemoth, a poetical generalization; in this case, for all monsters of the whale, serpent, or lizard tribes, the idea of the crocodile being the predominant one.
The crocodile, an amphibious animal of the order of Saurians, has a single range of pointed teeth in each jaw. The tongue fleshy, flat, and adhering close to the edges of the jaws a circumstance which induced the ancients to believe that the animal was destitute of a tongue altogether. The back and tail covered with very stout, large, square scales or plates, so thick as easily to repel a musket ball, those on the belly being smooth and thin. The crocodile inhabits rivers and lakes, and is extremely ferocious and carnivorous. Found nearly twenty feet long and five feet in circumference.
Another family of the same order is the dragon (draco, Linnus), supposed by some to be the Leviathan, which is also mentioned in Isaiah 27 as the dragon that is in the sea. The dragon of the naturalists distinguished from all other animals of the order, by their first six false ribs; which, extending outwards in a straight line, and supporting a production of the skin, form a kind of wing, like that of a bat, but not connected with, the four feet; and having sufficient power to enable them to leap from one branch to another, but not to rise, like a bird, into the air. They are completely covered with scales. The tongue fleshy and somewhat extensive; while a long pointed dewlap hangs under their throats. To this tribe of Saurians probably belongs the long-extinct reptile only found in a fossil state, and known by the name of Pterodactylus. This animal of a bygone world had a short tail, an extremely long neck, and a very large head. The jaws armed with equal and pointed teeth. The second the of the fore foot so elongated as to make the foot double the length of the trunk, and probably serving to support some membrane which enabled the animal to fly. Enormous eyes enabled it to see in the dark twilight, while its jaws were furnished with sixty pointed teeth. Some specimens must have had a spread of wing exceeding sixteen feet. The Greek term draco, or dragon, generally used to designate a large serpent; while some ancient Greek writers speak of flying dragons. Some of them speak also of dragons with a crest or beard; which can only apply to the Iguanas, properly so called, and belonging to the same family as the dragons. In these the head is covered with plates, and the body and tail with scales; while along the entire length of the back is a range of spines, or rather recurved, compressed, and pointed scales; and under the throat is a pendant compressed dewlap, whose edge is supported by a cartilaginious process of the hyoid bone. Each jaw is surrounded with a row of teeth, while two small rows are on the posterior edge of the palate. An iguana, common in South America and the West Indies, measures about five feet in length. To the same family belongs the enormous fossil reptile known as the Iguanodon, a monstrous lizard, sixty or seventy feet long; its form resembling the iguana of the West Indies, with the addition of a horn, situated like that of the rhinoceros, and of about the same size.
Other monstrous animals, living at the same period, and found as fossils, were equally or even more terrific in appearance. The hylosaurus, or forest-lizard, had a row of scaly fringes on its back seventeen inches long, which it had the power of erecting when advancing to attack its enemy or to seize its prey. The megalosaurns exhibited the structure of the crocodile and monitor, from forty to fifty feet in length. The plesiosaurus united to the head of the lizard, the teeth of the crocodile, a neck of enormous length resembling the body of a serpent, with a body and tail of the proportions of an ordinary quadruped, and the paddles of a whale. The ichthyosaurus, or fish-lizard, was the ruling monster of the waters. In some of these the eye must have been twelve inches long and nine broad, protected by scales. The jaws, armed with one hundred and eighty conical teeth, were, in the larger species, six feet long, the whole length of the animal being thirty feet.
III. The Lessons from the Description
1. The resistless power and universal dominion of the Almighty. This, the lesson mainly intended to be taught the patriarch himself. Indicated expressly by the Almighty in Job. 41:10-11 : None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me (in rendering any service, so as to lay me under an obligation to him), that I should repay him? (words referred to by the Apostle in Rom. 11:35). Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. The inference obvious: If you are unable to stand before or resist any of these monsters of the land or sea, how can you stand before me, from whom they all live, and move, and have their being? How vain to think to lay Him under obligation to us, to whom all creatures, from the least to the greatest, belong as His own property, and on whom they depend every moment for existence! Hence
(1) Humility and submission to God, with confidence in the justice of His government and the wisdom of His providential dealings, mans duty in all circumstances. The Creator, Possessor, and Ruler of universal nature may well be believed to be infinite in His perfections, and trusted in as righteous, wise, and good in all His procedure.
(2) Terrible to have Him for a foe to whom the mightiest monsters of sea or land belong, as only an insignificant portion of His creatures. A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Unspeakably blessed to have Him for our friend. Our highest wisdom to secure, without delay, a personal interest in His favour and friendship, through the redemption and mediation of His Son Jesus Christ.
2. The mysterious sovereignty of God in the formation of His creatures. The same Divine hand the former of the harmless dove and the terrible dragon. The Creator of the lamb pleased also to produce the Leviathan. The useful ox and the destructive crocodile made to inhabit the same locality. Why God should have formed creatures of such terrible aspect and ferocious dispositions, clothed them with such impenetrable armour, and furnished them with such destructive weapons,among the secrets of His Divine wisdom. All things made for Himself; even the wicked for the day of evil. For His pleasure all things are, and were created. No creature but made to show forth, in some way or other, the glory of His Divine perfections, and to secure some purpose or other in His all-comprehensive government. Variety everywhere displayed in the works of the Creators hands. That variety directed by infinite wisdom, goodness, and justice.
3. Gods works of creation worthy of all admiration. His works such as to bear to be taken to pieces and viewed in detail. The better known, the more admired. Exhibited by God himself for our admiration. I will not conceal his parts. The crocodile, or the dragon, as truly worthy of admiration as the noble war-horse. Job pointed to the Leviathan as an object of beauty and gracefulness as well strength and power. If God sees beauty in the crocodile, what beauty then in many of His other works! Objects in creation doubtless viewed otherwise by God, angels, and unfallen men, than they are by creatures in a state of rebellion against their Creator, and, therefore, with their faculties impaired, and themselves at enmity with the rest of creation. Things viewed with terror by the consciously guilty and condemned, which might otherwise have only excited admiration. Gods standard of beauty the true one. What God views with admiration and complacency certain to be viewed by His children with the same feelings, but for the effects of sin in their nature. Those effects entirely removed in a better state, when the universal song will be, Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are all Thy ways, thou King of saints (Rev. 15:3). Interesting to mark in the above section the delighted contemplation by God on His own works. Stamps a warrant of sacredness on our tasteful admiration of them.Dr. Chalmers.
4. The fact and effects of the fall seen in mans relation to the creatures. Man originally made to have dominion over all the terrestrial works of the Creators hands. Man fitted for such dominion, as created in his Makers image. That dominion an obvious part of his natural right as a child of God. His intellectual nature, placing him so immensely above the brute creation, such as to warrant the expectation of it. That dominion enjoyed by Adam in a state of innocence, when he gave names to all the creatures. Naturally and justly forfeited, however, and lost by mans rebellion against his Creator. Rebellion justly followed by attainder. Rights naturally forfeited by rebellion against an earthly sovereign. Hence, but for sin, the crocodile and the tiger as harmless to man, and as much under his subjection, as the cow or the dog. The dominion forfeited by the first Adam, regained and restored by the second. Christ, the Second Man, without sin, made Ruler over all the creatures as mans representative. Was in the wilderness forty days with the wild beasts, as Adam was with them in Paradise (Mar. 1:13). The lions at the feet of Daniel in the den, a specimen of what may be in the regeneration. All things reconciled in Christ. The members made partakers with the Head in the restored rule of creation. In the kingdom of Messiah, a state of things indicated which will probably have its external and physical, as well as its internal and spiritual, aspect: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them; and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, &c. (Isa. 11:6-9).
5. An emblem afforded of the great adversary of man. That adversary named in Scripture, the Dragon, that Old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan (Rev. 20:2). Under the figure of Leviathan, the dragon that is in the sea, mention made by the prophet (Isa. 27:1) of some powerful adversary and oppressor of the Church and people of God: whom the Lord, when he comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity, will punish and slay with his sore and great and strong sword. Perhaps some human oppressor of the Church thus indicated, as Pharaoh, the great enemy of Israel, is spoken of under the same figure (Psa. 74:13-14; Isa. 51:9). The king of Egypt expressly called the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers (Eze. 29:3). These, however, exhibited as types of the great oppressor of man, called by Peter, Your adversary, the devil, [that] goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The chosen form of that adversary, in his first and successful attempt upon the human race, that of a serpent. The Leviathan, as some kind of dragon, very generally understood by early Christian writers as allegorically representing the dragon and old serpent of the Revelation. Parts of the description impressively applicable to our great adversary, and very frequently employed by evangelical writers and preachers as illustrative of his character. Leviathan may be viewed as an emblem of Satan in respect to
(1) His loftiness and dignity as a creature. Satan a fallen angel; probably one of the highest, if not the very highest of the heavenly hierarchy.
(2) His fierceuess and cruelty. Satan a murderer from the beginning, sparing neither age, sex, nor condition.
(3) His power of inflicting mischief and working destruction. One of Satans names Apollyon or Abaddon, viz., the Destroyer.
(4) The difficulty of overcoming him. Satan not to be overcome by any mere human effort. The strong man armed who is only to be evercome by one stronger than he (Luk. 11:21).
(5) The universality of his sway. Satan the god and prince of this world; the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience; the ruler of the darkness of this world. Keeps his palace (our fallen race), and has his goods in peace until the stronger than hethe Lord Jesus Christ, the Mighty God, or God the Champion (Isa. 9:9)comes upon him, overcomes him, and divideth the spoils (Luk. 11:21). He is so strong that if all of us should combine against him, he would laugh at us, as Leviathan laugheth at the shaking of a spear. He is well armed at every point, and he knows how to arm his slave, the sinner, too; he will plate him from head to foot with mail, and put weapons into his hand against which the puny might of Gospel ministers and human conscience can never prevail. Prejudice, ignorance, evil educationall these are the chain-armour with which Satan girds himself. A hard heart is the impenetrable breastplate which this evil spirit wears; a seared conscience becomes to him like greaves of brass; habitude in sin is a helmet of iron. The demon who possesses men is not to be wounded by our artillery.Metropolitan Pulpit, Feb. 5, 1865. Bunyans description of Apollyon, partly taken from that of Leviathan in the text. Now the monster was hideous to behold: he was clothed with scales like a fish (and they are his pride); he had wings like a dragon, feet like a bear, and out of his belly came fire and smoke, and his mouth was as the mouth of a lion. But one conqueror of the great Leviathanthe Lord Jesus Christ; who took our nature, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2:14-15). But one weapon by which he can be wounded, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:17). I have written unto young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one (1Jn. 2:14).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
TEXT 41:134
41 Canst thou draw out leviathan with a fishhook?
Or press down his tongue with a cord?
2 Canst thou put a rope Into his nose?
Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
3 Will he make many supplications unto thee?
Or will he speak soft words unto thee?
4 Will he make a covenant with thee,
That thou shouldest take him for a servant for ever?
5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?
Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
6 Will the bands of fishermen make traffic of him?
Will they part him among the merchants?
7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons,
Or his head with fish-spears?
8 Lay thy hand upon him;
Remember the battle, and do so no more.
9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain:
Will not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10 None is so fierce that he dare stir him up;
Who then is he that can stand before me?
11 Who hath first given unto me, that I should repay him?
Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.
12 I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
Nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.
13 Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who shall come within his jaws?
14 Who can open the doors of his face?
Round about his teeth is terror.
15 His strong scales are his pride,
Shut up together as with a close seal.
16 One is so near to another,
That no air can come between them.
17 They are joined one to another;
They stick together, so that they cannot be sundered.
18 His sneezings flash forth light,
And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning torches,
And sparks of fire leap forth.
20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goeth,
As of a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21 His breath kindleth coals,
And a flame goeth forth from his mouth.
22 In his neck abideth strength,
And terror danceth before him.
23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together:
They are firm upon him; they cannot be moved.
24 His heart is as firm as a stone;
Yea, firm as the nether millstone.
25 When he raiseth himself up, the mighty are afraid:
By reason of consternation they are beside themselves.
26 If one lay at him with the sword, it cannot avail;
Nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
27 He counteth iron as straw,
And brass as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make him flee;
Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble.
29 Clubs are counted as stubble:
He laugheth at the rushing of the javelin.
30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds:
He spreadeth as it were a threshing-wain upon the mire.
31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot:
He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He maketh a path to shine after him;
One would think the deep to be hoary.
33 Upon earth there is not his like,
That is made without fear.
34 He beholdeth everything that is high:
He is king over all the sons of pride.
COMMENT 41:134
Job. 41:1The belligerence of the Leviathan, or crocodile, is described. His thick hide cannot be penetrated by a fishhook. Can anyone take him captive? Would anyone entertain the vain hope of subduing the Leviathan? All of mankind is impotent before this monster. But Yahweh can control this beast with all but serene detachment. Each interrogation leads to the great question, Who then is he that can stand before me?Job. 41:10. Whether Leviathan is or is not a mythological creature (Job. 3:8) as Pope, et al, insist is not of ultimate significance. The claim that we have here mythological details was not first discovered with the Ras Shamra texts. Egypt is called Rahab in Isa. 30:7; thus a real nation is called by a mythological name. Discourse analysis, transformational grammar, contemporary cultural and linguistic studies all support the valid use of mythological data for real or historically accurate descriptions. The theological conclusion is not vitiated even if we have mythological elements present in the literary structure. The author believes that the crocodile cannot be captured by a fish hook; the word is found only here and in Isa. 19:8; Hab. 1:15. The crocodile has an immobile tongue attached to the lower jaw, and the imagery suggests efforts at capturing the beast with a rope.
Job. 41:2Can you place a rope (agmonrush, reedIsa. 9:13; Isa. 19:15; Isa. 58:5or as Qumran Targum, zemannose ring) made of reeds through his nose? Both animals and men were held captive or led about with hooks drawn through the nose or jaws2Ki. 19:28; Isa. 37:29; Eze. 29:4; Eze. 38:4. The stela of Esarheddon depicts him holding the biblical tirhakah of Egypt and Balu of Tyre by ropes attached to clips in their lips.[395] Ea of the Mesopotamian Creation Epic says that He laid hold on Mummu, holding him by the nose-rope.[396] We also have inscriptions from the Near East (Asurbanipals inscriptions) which describe ropes through human jawsIsa. 37:29.
[395] Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton), pp. 296, 447.
[396] Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Princeton), p. 61, line 72.
Job. 41:3Leviathan appears here as a human prisoner. Will he plead for mercy as would a human prisoner?
Job. 41:4Will he cut a covenant[397] with you? Could you induce him, as a vassal, to enter service forever?Exo. 21:5; Deu. 15:17; and 1Sa. 27:12.[398] The Qumran Targum renders the second line will you take him as eternal slave?
[397] The covenant envisioned is that of a vassal with the suzerain, i.e., vanquished with the victorsee G. E. Mendenhall, Law and Covenant in Israel and in the Ancient Near East, Biblical Colloquim, Pittsburgh, 1955.
[398] See Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 138b, 145, for same expression in Ugaritic Texts.
Job. 41:5In the East, doves and sparrows are still a favorite live playmate of children. In view of this fact, Yahweh asks Job if he wants to make Leviathan a playmate.[399]
[399] See suggestions of D. W. Thomas, Yetus Testamentum, 1964, pp. 115116, though The Qumran Targum contains your daughters, i.e., young girls, against Thomas emendation to sparrows.
Job. 41:6Fishermen work together, then divide the catch after it is landed, and this procedure entails bargaining with one another. This social institution is the basis for this imagery.[400] Do you want to catch Leviathan and then bargain with one another over how he is to be divided?
[400] The word rendered merchant in the A. V. is literally Canaanites or hucksters Isa. 23:8; Zec. 14:21; Pro. 31:24. See W. F. Albright, Role of the Canaanites, The Bible in the Ancient Near East, ed. by G. E. Wright, 1961, pp. 328362.
Job. 41:7The words (sukkot and silsal) rendered as barbed irons in A. V. mean harpoons and fish-spears respectively and are unique. But the context makes plain that they are instruments for catching fish, neither of which could ensnare the hard skin of Leviathan.
Job. 41:8Effective advice is given to Job by use of powerful imperatives. Before you attempt to take Leviathan, realize what you are trying to do. No one lives to tell of his efforts, because there is no vulnerable spot on Leviathan.
Job. 41:9In the Hebrew text, chapter 41 begins with this verse. His hope is in vain if he aspires to effectively assail this monster. As there is no antecedent for the pronoun his, it not only refers to Job, it refers to anyone who attempts it. The A. V. renders the interrogative particle by will not. Most translators omit the particle. The second line provides an enormous amount of possibility for applying the creative imagination of motif research specialists, such as Pope and his pan-Ugaritic hermeneutic. This is another form of contemporary hermeneutical psychoanalysis, which stems from the works of Dilthey, Schleiermacher, Heidegger, Gadamer, et al Here is a warningnot to attempt to capture Leviathan, because the pursuer will collapse by even looking at him.
Job. 41:10Who is cruel or fierce enough to awaken Leviathan from sleep? i.e., stir him up. Arousing Leviathan is sheer folly. It is madness to arouse the monster; it is pure foolishness to criticize Yahweh. Some emend the before me to before him which keeps the thought on Leviathan. Dahood is followed by Blommerde. See his bibliographical notes.
Job. 41:11The text literally says who has confronted me? By retaining Job. 41:10, this text would mean that it is more dangerous to criticize Yahweh than to arouse Leviathan. Paul quotes the Hebrew text (not LXX as meaning is slightly different) version of this line in Rom. 11:35. Since God owns everything, no claims can be made against Him. The emphasis is not on the legal aspects but the inequality of power. No one could face Leviathan and survive. Why do you think that you can face me and survive, Job? You cannot even stand before one of my creatures. Why do you suppose that you can encounter your creator and come out of the conflict victoriously?
Job. 41:12We now begin to encounter a detailed description of Leviathan. The first line means that Yahweh has broken His silence concerning His strength or physical structure.
Job. 41:13Perhaps the imagery here refers to the scales of the crocodile. Dhorme understands the face of his garment to be the tough outer layer of protection as opposed to the back. The second line says literally his double bridle, which is understood to mean come within his jaws as in the A. V.
Job. 41:14The crocodiles teeth inspire terror. This formidable enemy has thirty-six sharp teeth in his upper jaw and thirty in his lower jaw. In our context, Yahweh is saying that Job cannot even encounter this creature let alone the one who inspires awesome terror, God. If Leviathan is invincible, what of Yahweh?
Job. 41:15Literally his pride (gaawah) refers to the hard scales which cover the crocodile. Close seal renders the Hebrew -sar[401] but emendation yields -sor, stone or flint, which gives the thought of hardness of the seals with which the scales are compared.
[401] For emendation, see M. Dahood, Biblica, 1964, p. 399.
Job. 41:16The scales are so tightly packed that not even air (Heb. ruahwind) can get between them. That the scales are firm and close is confirmed by the presence of the verb el, enter, which means nothing can enter between.
Job. 41:17This verse reinforces the imagery from Job. 41:16.
Job. 41:18The spray from the sneezing of the crocodile flashes in the sunlight. Pope imagines that he sees a mythological dragon in this verse. Actually it is only in his highly imaginative but brilliant mind. The dawn is symbolized by the crocodile in Egyptian hieroglyphs. The reddish eyes of the crocodile sparkle like the eyelids of the dawn.
Job. 41:19This verse is not describing a fire-breathing dragon as Pope suggests. The actual state of affairs makes the imagery perfectly understandable. When the crocodile arises up out of the water, after a sustained period beneath the surface, it propels water in a hot stream from its mouth. The sparkling steam looks like fire in the sunlight. No mythology is required to properly understand the verse.
Job. 41:20Yahwehs theophany is described in Psa. 18:9 and 2Sa. 22:9. Smoke or steam hurtle heavenward, as a boiling pot (Heb. kedud, Job. 41:19kidod, flame, as comparative particle, like, or as a boiling pot) and burning (not in Hebrew text but implied) rushes. Each image is of steam or vapor moving upwards. The word rendered rushes is found in verse two and is translated rage.
Job. 41:21This imagery is understandable as hyperbolical language, not necessarily mythological as Gunkel, Pope, et at. The Qumran Targum renders the second line Sparks issue from his mouth.
Job. 41:22The strength (Heb. dbh is rendered lymw in The Qumran Targum and contains connotations of sexual vigor) of the crocodiles neck is very apparent. The neck is often thought of as the place of strengthJob. 15:26 and Psa. 75:5. Dismay[402] goes before him. The dancing surely refers to the movement of the panic-striken victims attempting to evade his charge.
[402] For this reading, see F. M. Cross, Vetus Testamentum, 1952, p. 163, for dismay rather than terror, but Hebrew also yields an acceptable meaning.
Job. 41:23The A. V. rendering makes little sense, particularly in the first line. Literally the word rendered as flakes in A. V. is falling parts, i.e., the flabby parts of his skin. The various possibilities all yield the same basic results, i.e., the hardness of the crocodile is indicated.
Job. 41:24The attitude of Leviathan is described by the image of a millstone. In Eze. 11:19; Eze. 36:26, this same word is used to describe a heart of stone in contrast to a heart of flesh. The bottom or stationary stone received the harder wear.
Job. 41:25Leviathan produces only the sensations and manifestations of fear, but he knows no fear.
Job. 41:26No human weapons avail (Heb. lit. does not stand) against his mighty armour. He is impervious to human power. Think, Job, if he can generate fear, what about me?
Job. 41:27-30No weapon, not even strong metal, avails against his defenses, which in Job. 41:30 are compared with his scales. When he lies on the ground, he leaves marks resembling the marks of the threshing sledge.
Job. 41:31Leviathans motion in the water is described as churning up foam. He churns the water into a boilJob. 30:27. The word for pot describes an ordinary household utensilJer. 1:13. The references to ointment is problematic. Perhaps it refers to the boiling foam like unguent rising to the surface during the rigorous underwater activity of Leviathan.
Job. 41:32The white foam which Leviathan leaves behind as he lights a path[403] is the basis of the imagery in the first line. The deep (tehom) is his habitat.
[403] M. Dahood, Ephermerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 1968, p. 36.
Job. 41:33Leviathan is peerless and fearlessJob. 4:19; Job. 7:21; Job. 10:9; Job. 14:8; Job. 17:16; Job. 19:25; Job. 20:11; and Job. 34:15. Blommerde renders the first line on earth is not his equal.[404]
[404] He follows M. Dahood, Biblica, 1964, p. 410. Pope, following Gunkel, insists that the passage is not about the crocodile but a mythological monster, which stems from his assumption that Ugaritic employment of the mythological motif necessitates the presence of the motif in Job, though Ugaritic evidence does support the antiquity of the Book of Job.
Job. 41:34Leviathan is king of the sons of prideJob. 28:8. Surely this suggests a creature from the natural world perhaps like a crocodile.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XLI.
(1) Leviathan.There can be little doubt that by this is meant the crocodile or alligator, whatever may be the true meaning of behemoth.
Or his tongue . . .Some render, or press down his tongue with a cord; but the Authorised Version seems preferable.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
b. SECONDLY, LEVIATHAN, WHOSE HOME, LIKE THAT OF BEHEMOTH, IS BOTH IN THE WATER AND ON LAND. LIKE HIM, HE IS HIDEOUS AND FORMIDABLE IN HIS STRUCTURE; BUT, UNLIKE HIM, HE IS A FEARLESS AND RAPACIOUS MONARCH OVER THE BESTIAL WORLD: A MONSTER BEFORE WHICH HEROES TREMBLE; AND INDEED THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF TERROR ITSELF. YET EVEN HE IS THE HANDIWORK OF GOD, verses, Job 41:1-34.
. Leviathan his intractableness and invincibility, Job 41:1-11.
a. If Job be what he professes to be, let him catch, tame, and reduce to perpetual servitude leviathan, and in full confidence enter into contract with the merchants to deliver unto them on demand, leviathan: if he feel himself impotent to essay such an enterprise as this, he may form some idea of the folly of contending with Him who made leviathan, and of his foolhardiness in summoning a being of such power and wisdom to the tribunal of human judgment, Job 41:1-7.
1. Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? According to the almost unanimous opinion of recent commentators, the term leviathan is here used of the crocodile. See Excursus VIII. This animal, together with the hippopotamus, formerly abounded in the Nile; and it is possible that both, in very ancient times, were to be found in some of the rivers of Palestine, though rarely, we may assume, because of the comparative smallness of these rivers. It is supposed by some that the lengthy description given of these monsters is due to their being entirely unknown, except by vague report, to the people among whom Job lived, and that this is the ground for their having been selected for the climactical closing of the object lessons from nature, set before Job by his Creator. But the lesson would have been none the less impressive on the supposition that, now and then, one of these monsters should have been seen among the marshes either of the Jordan, of Merom, of the Wady Zerka, or of the lower portions of Esdraelon, in which the crocodile would have enjoyed a decided vantage ground in case of any effort to take or destroy him. Dr. Tristram speaks of various reports of the existence of the crocodile in the Wady Zerka or “Blue River,” on the plain of Sharon, a little to the south of Carmel, and says, “I have not the smallest doubt that some few specimens of this monster reptile, known to the natives under the name of timsah, still linger among the marshes of the Zerka. This is undoubtedly the Crocodile River of the ancients, and it is difficult to conceive how it should have acquired the name, unless by the existence of the animal in its marshes. The crusading historians mention the existence of the crocodile in their day in this very river. When we observe the strong affinity between the herpetological and ichthyological fauna of Egypt and Palestine, there is scarcely more reason to doubt the past existence of the crocodile in the one, than its present continuance in the other.” The Land of Israel, 103, 104. “There is nothing,” says Zockler, “to forbid the assumption that instead of the Egyptian crocodile, (or, at least, along with it,) the author had in view a Palestinian species or variety of the same animal, which is no longer extant, and that this Palestinian crocodile, just because it was rarer than the saurian of the Nile, was, in fact, held to be impossible of capture.” See Pierrotti, ( Cust. and Trad. of Palestine, pp. 33-39;) also Dr. Robinson, ( Phys. Geog., p. 175,) who remarks that “it does not appear that any person, either native or foreigner, has ever himself actually seen a living crocodile in this region.” These animals belong to the class of saurian reptiles, crocodilidae, and sometimes attain to the enormous length of thirty or even thirty-five feet. AElian relates that during the reign of Psammetichus a crocodile was seen of more than thirty-seven feet, and speaks of another under Amasis more than thirty-nine feet in length. (Larcher’s Herodotus, 1:283.) Sonnini and Captain Norden declare, that they have been sometimes met with in the Nile, fifty feet in length. They are of a bronzed green color, speckled with brown; are covered with bony plates in six rows of nearly equal size all along the back, giving it the appearance of Mosaic; they have as many as sixty vertebrae. The head is oblong, about half as broad as it is long; there are, according to Oken, fifteen teeth on each side of the lower jaw, and eighteen on each side of the upper. “Naturalists,” says Chabas, cited by Delitzsch, “count five species of crocodiles living in the Nile, but the hieroglyphics furnish a greater number of names determined by the sign of the crocodile.” There was certainly a great variety of species of this monster, and some which differ from all living species have, according to Delitzsch, also actually been found in Egyptian tombs. This animal is exceedingly fierce, wily, and treacherous, and its destructive voracity may be symbolized by the immense size of its mouth.
Canst thou draw , timshok. This, the first word in this abrupt and startling introduction of leviathan, appears without the mark of interrogation, unless, with Hitzig, we find it in the , nose, with which the preceding description closes, and which also signifies “even,” “yea even,” and in ironical affirmation is used with the force of a question, as in the sneering remark of the serpent to Eve, Gen 3:1, which commences with an “really?” “is it really so?” Compare 1Sa 14:30; Hab 2:5. In the opinion of some there is peculiar reason for the use of this word timshok, from the fact that the Egyptian hieroglyph msuh for crocodile, (Coptic, temsah; Arabic, timsah,) had not been Hebraized, and they (Ewald, Delitzsch, and Dillmann) find in the likeness of the Hebrew verb and the Egyptian noun, a possible play upon words: but all such constrained allusion is rather a play of critical fancy, and is unworthy of the occasion. The employment of the Hebrew verb may, possibly, serve as a finger pointer to the animal intended by livyathan.
With a hook The hhakkah was a draw net, (Delitzsch, Hitzig,) or, according to Ewald and Furst, an ordinary fishhook. Literally: Thou drawest out leviathan with a hoop net! Job’s moral prowess must have received a severe shock as the intensified irony of this verse which, with great significance, waited not for an interrogation particle burned down into his soul.
Or his tongue It is worthy of special notice, that the wisest naturalists of antiquity, Herodotus, (ii, 68,) Aristotle, Plutarch, (De Iside., 75,) Pliny, ( H. N., 8:37,) etc., either denied that the crocodile had a tongue, or, in the case of Pliny, any use for it; while the text unpretendingly assumes its existence, indicating a minuteness of knowledge upon natural subjects, which should make modern naturalists wary of questioning the poet’s statements, even in a single point. The peculiar form of the question of the text seems to imply special knowledge of the structure of the tongue of the crocodile, which is fleshy and flat, and attached nearly the whole of its length to the jaw. On this account the animal is not able to protrude it forth. Sir Samuel Baker says, “The tongue of the crocodile is so unlike that of any other animal, that it can hardly be called by the same name; no portion throughout the entire length is detached from the flesh of the lower jaw it is more like a thickened membrane from the gullet, to about half way along the length of the jaw.” Nile Tributaries, 241.
With a cord which thou lettest down And with a cord dost thou press down his tongue? or “sinkest thou his tongue into the line?” The latter reading, of Schultens, Hirtzel, Delitzsch, is grammatically admissible, but as Dillmann well says, “presents an impracticable idea.” The question rather looks to the compressing of the tongue by some rope of the net alluded to in the preceding clause. The accompanying engraving exhibits a portion of an ancient Egyptian net now in the Berlin Museum. It was of a long form, says Wilkinson, like the common dragnet, with wooden floats on the upper, and leads on the lower, side; but, though it was sometimes let down from a boat, those who pulled it generally stood on the shore, and landed the fish on a shelving bank.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 41:1-34 God Describes Leviathan to Job – In Job 41:1-10 God describes to Job the greatest aquatic animal under His creation, which in Hebrew is called “leviathan” ( ). Regarding the identification of this sea creature, the most popular view understands this creature as a crocodile, which inhabits the rivers. The view of a crocodile is supported by the verses describing leviathan’s reptile characteristics: fierce teeth (Job 41:14), and his scales (Job 41:7; Job 41:15; Job 41:23). Another popular view is to interpret leviathan as the whale. He is a creature that makes the sea boil (Job 41:31). However, a whale does not have rows of scales (Job 41:15), but rather skin, being a mammal. Nor does a whale have a distinct neck, as leviathan (Job 41:22). In my opinion, this passage probably describes a dinosaur of the sea, as does the previous passage about “behemoth” describe a land dinosaur. This view is supported by another passage in Psa 104:26 that describes leviathan as a creature that plays in the sea. This cannot be a crocodile, which primarily inhabits rivers; nor can it be a whale because it is reptilian.
Psa 104:26, “There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.”
Job 41:1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Job 41:1
[65] Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, editors, The Books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon According to the Wycliffite Version made by Nicholas de Hereford About A.D. 1381 and Revised by John Purvey About A.D. 1388 ( Oxford: The Clarendon Press, c1850, 1881), 55.
Job 41:10 Job 41:10
Job 41:25 When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.
Job 41:25
Job 41:31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
Job 41:31
Job 41:33 Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
Job 41:33
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
God Reveals Himself to Job by His Creation Did not Job believe God heard his prayers in the midst of his prosperity? How much more should God hear him in the midst of his suffering? In a mighty display of nature’s energy, a whirlwind approaches Job, and a divine voice begins to come forth and speak to Job. God now reveals His true character to Job because his friends had misrepresented Him. He reveals Himself as the omnipotent Creator of the universe, who daily watches over each aspect of His creatures with love and concern through His omniscience and omnipresence. More specifically, God reveals that He alone is just and Job and all of mankind are in need of redemption through faith in God. In man’s fallen condition since the Garden of Eden, all of creation has been made subject to vanity and endures suffering. God will now lead Job into an act of intercession for his friends in order to receive his own deliverance as a testimony that man will have to redeem himself. Yet, what man is qualified to redeem mankind? Job will understand that it must be a man, a man who was righteous before God, a man who must suffer, a man who must be an intercessor, that will redeem mankind. The fullness of this revelation will come at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, when God Himself becomes a man to redeem His people, and with it, all of creation.
We find a similar passage of Scripture in Isa 40:12 to Isa 41:29, where God challenges backslidden Israel to produce her reasons for trusting in idols (Job 41:21). In a similar manner God reveals to Israel her frailty and weakness in the midst of His majestic creation that reveals Him as the divine creator of all things.
Here is a proposed outline:
God’s First Speech Job 38:1 to Job 40:2
Job’s Reply Job 40:3-5
God’s Second Speech Job 40:6 to Job 41:34
Job’s Reply Job 42:1-6
Job 38:1 to Job 42:6 God Reveals Himself to Job by His Creation (The Purpose of the Sciences and Art) The Lord spoke to me this morning and said that the sciences and arts are an expression of God’s divine nature. God reveals His divine nature through His creation (Job 38-41), and the sciences are the tools that mankind uses to explore His creation. The arts are an expression of man’s heart and emotions, and when the Spirit of God is allowed to inspire mankind, he speaks in poetry and song, in paintings and other works of art. (March 24, 2009)
Job 38:1 to Job 40:2 God’s First Speech to Job: The Story of His Creation In Job 38:1 to Job 40:2 God delivers His first speech to Job. The story of creation recorded in Job 38:1 to Job 40:2 serves as a testimony to Job of God’s divine attributes. In this passage of Scripture the Lord revealed to Job His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, and His infinite wisdom and power over all of His creation. He reveals to Job the fact that He daily oversees the activities of His creation. God’s description of creating the heavens and earth in Job 38:4-38 reveals His omnipotence. His description of overseeing and sustaining His creatures reveals His omniscience and omnipresence.
In the study of the Holy Scriptures we discover a number of passages revealing the events in the Story of Creation. For example, we have the testimony of the Father’s role in Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:4 as the One who has planned and foreknown all things in His creation. We also have the testimony of the Jesus Christ the Son’s role in creation recorded Joh 1:1-14, who is the Word of God through whom all things were created. In Pro 8:22-31 we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit’s role in creation as the Wisdom and Power of God. 2Pe 3:5-7 refers to the story of creation with emphasis upon God’s pending destruction of all things in order to judge the sins of mankind. Heb 11:3 tells us how it is by faith that we understand how the world was created by the Word of God. Another passage of Scripture that reveals the story of Creation is found in Job 38:1 to Job 40:2, where the wisdom and majesty of God Almighty are revealed by describing the details of how His creation came into existence. We can find other brief references to the creation of the earth throughout the Scriptures, such as Psalms 104 and many other individual verses.
Here is a proposed summary of Job 38:1 to Job 40:2:
God Asks Job for Dialogue Job 38:1-3
God As Creator of the Earth Job 38:4-38
God Created the Earth Job 38:4-7
God Created the Seas Job 38:8-11
God Created Day and Night Job 38:12-15
The Depths and Breath of the Sea & Earth Job 38:16-18
God Created Light and Darkness Job 38:19-21
God Created Snow and Ice Job 38:22-30
God Created the Stars & Constellations Job 38:31-33
God Created the Clouds Job 38:34-38
God As Sustainer of Life on the Earth Job 38:39 to Job 39:30
God Sustains the Lion Job 38:39-40
God Sustains the Raven Job 38:41
God Sustains the Wild Goats & Deer Job 39:1-4
God Sustains the Wild Donkey Job 39:5-8
God Sustains the Wild Ox Job 39:9-12
God Sustains the Ostrich Job 39:13-18
God Sustains the Horse Job 39:19-25
God Sustains the Hawk & Eagle Job 39:26-30
God Concludes His First Speech Job 40:1-2
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
God Describes the Largest Animals in Creation – In Job 40:15 through Job 41:34 God describes the greatest land animal (Job 40:15-24), then the greatest animal of the sea in His divine creation (Job 41:1-34). The point of God describing these two majestic creatures is to point out to Job that if man cannot tame God’s creatures, neither can he overcome a contest against God. This passage further reveals to Job his frailty and weakness as one of God’s creatures.
The story of Leviathan and Behemoth are embedded in ancient Jewish mythology. The Jewish Pseudepigrapha refer to these two monsters on a number of occasions as figurative images of wickedness. According to ancient Jewish tradition, these two creatures were made on the fifth day of creation and are now reserved by God to be later used as a part of the fulfillment of their Messianic prophecies.
“And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters. But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Duidain, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell, where my grandfather was taken up, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of Spirits created. And I besought the other angel that he should show me the might of those monsters, how they were parted on one day and cast, the one into the abysses of the sea, and the other unto the dry land of the wilderness.” ( 1 Enoch 60.7-9) [44]
[44] 1 Enoch, trans. R. H. Charles, ed. R. H. Charles, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 2:224.
“And these things I saw towards the Garden of the Righteous. And the angel of peace who was with me said to me: These two monsters, prepared conformably to the greatness of God, shall feed . . .” ( 1 Enoch 60.23-24) [45]
[45] 1 Enoch, trans. R. H. Charles, ed. R. H. Charles, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 2:225.
“Then didst thou preserve “two living creatures”; the name of the one thou didst call Behemoth and the name of the other thou didst call Leviathan. And thou didst separate the one from the other; for the seventh part, where the water was gathered together, was unable to hold them (both). And thou didst give Behemoth one of the parts which had been dried up on the third day to dwell in, (that namely) where are a thousand hills: but unto Leviathan thou gavest the seventh part, namely the moist: and thou hast reserved them to be devoured by whom thou wilt and when.” ( 4 Ezra 49-52) [46]
[46] 4 Ezra, trans. G. H. Box, ed. R. H. Charles, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 2:579.
“And Behemoth shall be revealed from his place and Leviathan shall ascend from the sea, those two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation, and shall have kept until that time; and then they shall be for food for all that are left.” ( 2 Baruch 29.4) [47]
[47] 2 Baruch, trans. R. H. Charles, ed. R. H. Charles, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 2:497.
Rabbinic tradition reflects a similar approach in identifying these two creatures.
“And the Lord said, Let the lakes of the waters swarm forth the reptile, the living animal, and the fowl which flieth, whose nest is upon the earth; and let the way of the bird be upon the air of the expanse of the heavens. And the Lord created the great tanins, the lev-ya-than and his yoke-fellow which are prepared for the day of consolation, and every living animal which creepeth, and which the clear waters had swarmed forth after their kind; the kinds which are clean, and the kinds which are not clean; and every fowl which flieth with wings after their kinds, the clean and the unclean.” ( The Targum of Jonathan Gen 1:21) [48]
[48] J. W. Etheridge, The Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel On the Pentateuch With The Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum From the Chaldee (1862).
Church tradition has followed a literal interpretation for these two creatures, attempting to identify them with some of God’s larger animals, such as the elephant and mastodon, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the whale, and the dinosaur.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job’s Weakness when Compared with the Strength of the Crocodile
v. 1. Canst thou draw out leviathan, v. 2. Canst thou put an hook, v. 3. Will he, v. 4. Will he make a covenant with thee, v. 5. Wilt thou play with him as with a bird, v. 6. Shall the companions make a banquet of him? v. 7. Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, v. 8. Lay thine hand upon him; remember the battle, do no more, v. 9. Behold, the hope of him is in vain, v. 10. None is so fierce, v. 11. Who hath prevented Me, v. 12. I will not conceal his parts, v. 13. Who can discover the face of his garment, v. 14. Who can open the doors of his face, v. 15. His scales are his pride, v. 16. One is so near to another that no air can come between them.
v. 17. They are joined one to another, they stick together that they cannot be sundered, v. 18. By his neesings, v. 19. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, v. 20. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron, v. 21. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth, v. 22. In his neck remaineth strength, v. 23. The flakes of his flesh are joined together, v. 24. His heart is as firm as a stone, v. 25. When he raiseth up himself, v. 26. The sword of him that layeth at him, v. 27. He esteemeth iron as straw, v. 28. The arrow, v. 29. Darts are counted as stubble, v. 30. Sharp stones are under him, v. 31. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot, v. 32. He maketh a path to shine after him, v. 33. Upon earth there is not his like, v. 34. He beholdeth all high things,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Job 41:1-34
The crowning description of a natural marvelthe “leviathan,” or crocodileis now given, and with an elaboration to which there is no parallel in the rest of Scripture. It forms, however, a fit climax to the gradually more and more elaborate descriptions of Job 38:39-41; Job 39:1-30; and Job 40:15-24.
Job 41:1
Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? The word leviathan, or more properly livyathan, which has previously occurred in Job 3:8, and is found also in Psa 74:14; Psa 104:26; and Isa 27:1, seems to be derived from , “twisting,” and , “a monster,” whence the or of the Pentateuch and also of Job (Job 7:12), Jeremiah (Jer 9:11), and Ezekiel (Eze 29:3). It is thus a descriptive epithet rather than a name, and has not unnaturally been used to designate more than one kind of animal. The best modern critics regard it as applied sometimes to a python or large serpent, sometimes to a cetacean, a whale or grampus, and sometimes, as hero, to the crocodile. This last application is now almost universally accepted. The crocodile was fished for by the Egyptians with a hook, and in the time of Herodotus was frequently caught and killed (Herod; 2:70); but probably in Job’s day no one had been so venturous as to attack him. Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? rather, or press down his tongue with a cord? (see the Revised Version); i.e. “tie a rope round his lower jaw, and so press down his tongue.” Many savage animals are represented in the Assyrian sculptures as led along by a rope attached to their mouths.
Job 41:2
Canst thou put an hook into his nose? rather, a reed, or a rope of reeds. The exact meaning is doubtful. Or bore his jaw through with a thorn? A hook or ring is meant, rather than a “thorn”such a “hook” or “ring” as was commonly used for keeping fish captive in the water, or for bringing prisoners of rank into the presence of the monarchs who had captured them.
Job 41:3
Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? Ironical. Will he behave as human captives do, when they wish to curry favour with their captors?
Job 41:4
Will he make a covenant with thee? As captive monarchs do. Wilt thou take him as a servant for ever? (comp. Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17).
Job 41:5
Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? The Egyptians were especially fond of pet animals, and Job’s countrymen, it may be assumed, were the same. Besides dogs, we find the Egyptians keeping tame antelopes, leopards, and monkeys. A tame crocodile would certainly seem to be an extraordinary pet, but Herodotus says that the Egyptians tamed them (2:39), and Sir Gardner Wilkinson informed me that he had known some tame ones at Cairo. The Mesopotamian Arabs domesticate falcons to assist them in the chase of the bustard and the gazelle. And this usage, though not represented on the Assyrian monuments, is likely to have been ancient. Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? i.e. Wilt thou so secure him that he may be delivered over to thy handmaidens, to be made their pet and playfellow?
Job 41:6
Shall the companions make a banquet of him? rather. Shall the companions make a traffic of him? By “the companions” we may understand either the guilds or companies of fishermen, which might be regarded as engaged in making the capture, or the travelling bands of merchants, who might be supposed willing to purchase him and carry him away. As no one of these last could be imagined rich enough to make the purchase alone, a further question is asked, Shall they part him among the merchants? i.e. allow a number to club together, each taking a share.
Job 41:7
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? The hippopotamus was captured in this way by the Egyptians at an early date, and hence the idea of trying the same mode of capture with the crocodile would naturally arise; but in the time of Job it would seem that no one had been bold enough to attempt it. The skin of the crocodile is penetrable in very few places, and his capture by a single man with a harpoon, though now sometimes practised, is still a work of danger and difficulty. Or his head with fish-spears? Fish-spears would have small effect on the head of a crocodile, which is bony and covered by a very tough skin. There is a vulnerable place, however, at the point where the head joins the spine, at which the ancient Egyptians, when they ventured to attack the crocodile, were wont to strike.
Job 41:8
Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. This is again ironical, like Job 41:3-6. “Only just put forth thy hand against himbethink thee of wardo it once and no more.”. The idea is that once will be enough. A man will not live to do it a second time.
Job 41:9
Behold, the hope of him is in vain; i.e. the hope of capturing or killing him. Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? The very sight of the savage and invulnerable animal is enough to make a man fall to the ground with fear.
Job 41:10
None is so fierce that dare stir him up. The crocodile is often seen asleep, or nearly asleep, upon sand-banks washed by the Nile. He would be a bold man who should creep near, and stir him up. Who then is able to stand before me? Here we reach the point whereto the whole argument has been working up. If man cannot cope with creatures, which are the work of God’s hands, how much leas can he presume to cope with him who is their Maker!
Job 41:11
Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? i.e. “Who hath laid me under any obligation, so that I should be bound to fall in with his views, and take such a course as he might prescribe?” The allusion is to Job’s persistent demand for a hearinga controversy (Job 9:34, Job 9:35; Job 10:3; Job 13:3, Job 13:22; Job 23:3-7, etc.)a trial, in which he shall plead with God, and God with him, upon even terms as it were, and so the truth concerning him, his sins, his integrity, his sufferings, and their cause or causes, shall be made manifest. God resists any and every claim that is made on him to justify himself and his doings to a creature. He is not a debtor to any. If he explains himself to any extent, if he condescends to give an account of any of his doings, it is of pure grace and favour. It has been observed that we might have expected this to be the conclusion of the entire discourse begun in Job 38:1-41; and that no doubt would have been, according to ordinary laws of human composition, its more proper place. But Hebrew poetry is erratic, and pays little regard to logical lawn If anything important has been omitted in its more proper place, it is inserted in one which is, humanly speaking, less proper. The details concerning the crocodile, which are calculated to deepen the general impression, having been passed over where we might have expected them, are here subjoined, as filling out the description of Job 38:1-10.
Job 41:12
I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. The further description is introduced by this formal announcement, which is perhaps best rendered, I will not keep silence concerning his limbs‘ nor concerning the matter of his might‘ or the comeliness of his proportion (see the Revised Version); i.e. I will enter upon these points seriatim, and set them forth severally.
Job 41:13
Who can discover the face of his garment? Some critics understand this in a general sense, “Who can lay him open to assault?” Others suggest a more definite meaning,” Who can strip off his outer covering?” the scaly coat, that is, which forms his special defence, and expose the comparatively tender skin below? If this were done, he would then be at the hunter’s mercy; but who will undertake to do it? Who, again, can come to him with his double bridle? Come, i.e; with a double bridle in his hand, and place it in the monster’s jaws. (So Schultens and Professor Lee.) Others translate, “Who will come within [the range of] his double bridle? and understand by “his double bridle” his two rows of teethHomer’s (Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, Professor Stanley Leathes, etc.).
Job 41:14
Who can open the doors of his face? Who can make him open his huge, gaping jaws, if he chooses to keep them shut? Who would dare to do so? His teeth are terrible round about. The crocodile has “two rows of sharply pointed teeth, thirty or more on each side”. They are “so formed and disposed as to tear their prey rather than masticate it”. The voracity of the full-grown crocodile is great; and.he will not scruple to attack and devour men, if they come in his way. The natives of Upper Egypt have a wholesome terror of him.
Job 41:15
His scales are his pride; or, his pride is in the channeling of his scales (literally, of his shields). The scales of the crocodile are arranged in five rows along his entire back, with a depression between the rows which is like a “channel.” Each individual scale resembles a shield. They are shut up together as with a close seal; each, i.e.‘ closely attached to its fellow,so that there is no space between them. “A rifle-ball,” according to Canon Tristram, “glances off from them as from a rock”.
Job 41:16
One is so near to another, that no air can come between them (see the comment on the preceding verse).
Job 41:17
They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered; literally, they are soldered one to another (comp. Isa 41:7).
Job 41:18
By his neesings a light doth shine. “Neesings” is old English for “sneezings.” According to Aristotle, the crocodile is in the habit of sneezing, but I do not find this fact noted by modern writers Boehart asserts it very positively, but he does not profess to speak from his own knowledge. And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. This probably does not mean more than that his eyes flash with light upon occasion, which is no doubt true, though the eyes, being small, have not generally attracted very much attention.
Job 41:19
Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. The description now becomes highly poetical, and it would be a mistake to endeavour to substantiate it. The intention is to represent the impression which the animal would make on an impressible but unscientific observer viewing it in its native haunts for the first time. Splashing, snorting, and throwing up spray all around, it would seem to be breathing out steam and smoke, from which the idea of fire is inseparable (see the next verse).
Job 41:20
Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron; rather, as from a seething pot and rushes; i.e. as from a pot heated by burning rushes.
Job 41:21
His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. All the representations of dragons breathing smoke and flames, found in the myths and sagas of so many countries, probably rest upon the observed fact of ,team or spray streaming forth from the mouth and widely opened nostrils of the crocodile. The steam has seemed to be smoke, and smoke has naturally suggested flame and fire.
Job 41:22
In his neck remaineth strength. It has been well remarked that the whale has no neck, or at any rate none that is visible, while the crocodile has one that is of great strength, and that naturally attracts observation. “Le cou assez marque,” says the ‘Dictionnaire des Sciences’ (l.s.c.). It is nearly of the same diameter with the head at the point of junction, and where it adjoins the body is still larger. And sorrow is turned into joy before him; rather, and terror danceth before him (see the Revised Version). Whithersoever he proceeds, he causes terror; people tremble, take to flight, and disappear.
Job 41:23
The flakes of his flesh are joined together. Even the softer muscles, and parts which in most animals are yielding and flabby, in the crocodile are bound up, and, as it were, soldered together (comp. Job 41:17). They are firm in themselves; rather, they are firm upon him; literally, fused upon him, like detached pieces of metal, which are melted one into another. They cannot be moved. His whole body is so firmly compacted together that it is all one piece; the separate parts cannot be moved separately. One result is that the crocodile has great difficulty in turning.
Job 41:24
His heart is firm as a stone. Some regard this as intended physically, and note that the great saurians, with their cold and sluggish circulation, have hearts which are comparatively torpid, not contracting or expanding readily. Others take the “stony heart” to mean a fierce and obstinate disposition. In either case, the description will well suit the crocodile. Yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone. A repetition and slight exaggeration of the preceding idea.
Job 41:25
When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid. Egyptian historians said that one of their early kings had been slain by a crocodile. The worship paid to crocodiles in some parts of Egypt, and the hatred felt towards them in others, were probably alike inspired by fear. AElian says that, in the districts where crocodiles were worshipped, it was not safe for any one to wash his feet or to draw water at the.river, and that in the vicinity of some towns people did not dare to walk along the bank of the stream (‘Nat. An.,’ 10.24). In modern times they have been known to precipitate men from the bank into the water by a sweep of their tail, and then to devour them at their leisure. By reason of breakings they purify themselves; rather, they are confounded. The “breakings” may by either the breakings forth of the animal from his lair among the Nile rushes, or his “breaking” of the weapons of his assailants.
Job 41:26
The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold. It either makes no impression or it snaps in his hand. Equally vain are the spear, the dart, and the javelin. Habergeon is a mistranslation.
Job 41:27
He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass (rather, bronze) as rotten wood. Even the hardest metals are useless against the crocodile. Moderns observe that even firearms are of little avail against him. The back and tail, at any rate, resist musket-balls (Bochart); and a rifle-bullet will glance aside if it strikes one of the scales (Tristram); see Job 41:15.
Job 41:28
The arrow cannot make him flee; literally, the son of the bow (comp. Lam 3:13, where arrows are called “sons of the quiver”). Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble. (On “stubble” as a metaphor for weakness, see above, Job 21:18, and compare the next verse.)
Job 41:29
Darts are counted as stubble; rather, the club is counted as stubble. Maces, either of hard wood or of metal, were used by the Assyrians. They had heavy heads, and were quite as effective weapons as either swords or spears. If a strong man could have succeeded in dealing a blow with one on the head of a crocodile, it would probably have proved fatal; but intending assailants were doubtless charged, and scattered “as stubble,” before they could find opportunity to strike. He laugheth at the shaking of a spear; rather, at the rushing of the javelin (see the Revised Version).
Job 41:30
Sharp stones are under him; rather, jagged potsherds are under him; i.e. “his belly is covered with jagged scales”a thing which is true of the crocodile, but scarcely of any other beast. He spreadeth sharp pointed things (rather, a threshing-wain, or a corn-drag) upon the mire. He leaves on the mud on which he has lain, i.e.‘ an impression as of an Oriental threshing-wain, or corn-drag, which is “a thick plank of timber, stuck full on the under side, of flints or hard cutting stones arranged in the form of the palate or rough tongue of a cow”. The mud-banks on which crocodiles have been lying are said to be scored all over with such impressions.
Job 41:31
He maketh the deep to boil like a pot. The rush of the crocodile through the water of the stream or pool in which he dwells causes a stir and a commotion which is forcibly compared to the boiling of water in a caldron. He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. It is generally allowed that by “the sea” here is meant the Nile, as in Isa 18:2; Isa 19:5; and Nah 3:8. The swirl of the Nile, as the crocodile makes his rush, is like the heaving of a pot of boiling oil or ointment
Job 41:32
He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary. He leaves a white trail behind him as he passes from sand-bank to sand-bank through the shallows. It is as if the Nile had grown old and put on hoar hairs.
Job 41:33
Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear (comp. Job 41:24-29).
Job 41:34
He beholdeth all high things He looks without fear on everything that is high and great. Nothing alarms him; nothing disturbs his equanimity. He is a king over all the children (literally, sons) of pride (comp. Job 28:8). He feels himself superior to all other animals that come within his ken. They may be “sons of pride,” but he has more to be proud of than the proudest of them. Ordinarily, the lion poses as “the king of beasts;” but here he is, as it were, deposed, and relegated into the second position (Job 38:39), the crocodile being exalted into his place. From different points of view, there are several great beasts which might be regarded as the lords of the animal creation.
HOMILETICS
Job 41:1-34
Jehovah to Job: the second answer: 3. Concerning leviathan.
I. THE ANIMAL INTENDED.
1. A serpentine creature. This implied in the name leviathan, which signifies “a wreathed or twisted animal,” as distinguished from the tannin, or “long-extended monsters” (Gen 1:21).
2. An aquatic monster. Though amphibious as to its habits, the behemoth was essentially a land animal; the entire description of leviathan points to a tenant of the deep (verses l, 2, 31, 32).
3. A gigantia crocodile. Believed by earlier interpreters to be the whale, it is now commonly accepted as the crocodile, which, equally with behemoth, frequented the Nile.
II. THE MONSTER DESCRIBED.
1. Its untamable ferocity. (Verses 1-9.) The idea is presented in a variety of ways.
(1) The impossibility of catching the animal is his tongue with a cord exhibited. Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or which thou lettest down?’ literally, “or with a cord pressest thou down his tongue,” The meaning is that the crocodile cannot be caught like a fish; hence men cannot do with it as fishers do with fish, “put a hook [literally, ‘a rope of rushes’] into his nose, or bore his jaw through with a thorn,” rather “with a hook or ring “the allusion being to the Egyptian mode of dealing with fish that have been caught. “They passed the stalk of a rush through the gills, and thus attached them together, in order more conveniently to carry them home’.
(2) The impossibility of utilizing the animal is next represented. “Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?” in order to be spared when caught?persuading thee, perhaps, that thou canst turn him to good and profitable account. Well, what canst thou make of him? A bond-servant like one of the domesticated animals? “Will he make a covenant with thee, to take him as a perpetual slave?”a toy or plaything for thyself or children? “Wilt thou play with him as a little bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?” an article of trade for the merchants? Wilt thou kill him and cut him up for the fish-market? “Shall the companions [literally, ‘ the partners,’ i.e. of the fish-guild] banquet of him [or rather, as the parallel shows, ‘ trade upon or with him ‘]? shall they part him among the merchants?” literally, “the Canaanite” or Phoenician merchants.
(3) The impossibility of destroying him is further portrayed. “Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish-spears?” Nay, wert thou only to lay thine hand upon him, thou shouldst have speedy cause to repent thy rashness; “thou shouldest remember the battle” so decidedly that thou wouldst not care to repeat it. Nay, the hope of any assailant being able to prevail against the formidable creature is absolutely vain, the very sight of it being such as to fill one with dismay. Probably no one in Job’s time had ever thought of attacking the monster, although crocodiles were caught in Egypt prior to the days of Herodotus.
2. Its terrifying aspect. (Verses 12-24.) Jehovah invites attention to three points: the parts of the animal, i.e. the separate limbs or members; the power of the brute, i.e. the great strength of which it is possessed; and the comely proportion of the creature, i.e. the beauty of his armour, or hide.
(1) The limbs of the animal. Its massive jaws set round with a twofold row of teeth: “Who can come to him with [or, ‘within’] his double bridle?” i.e. who can enter within his double teeth, which “are terrible round about”? Its mouth emitting violent puffs of hot breath: “Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.” Its nostrils sneezing as it lies basking in the sun: “By his neesings a light doth shine.” Its eyes flashing in the morning light as they rise above water. “His eyelids are like the eyelids of the morning;” i.e. they appear first above the water, intimating that the creature’s body is about to rise as the first streaks of dawn announce the approach of day. Hence to describe the dawn the Egyptians depict two eyes of the crocodile.
(2) The strength of the brute. “In his neck remaineth strength,” so that “sorrow rejoiceth before him” (margin), which falls below the original”On his neck strength dwells, and horror danceth before him,” meaning that wherever the monster appears he spreads consternation before him, which is represented by a lively poetic fancy as if those who ran before the animal were dancing before him. The effect of his appearance is likewise vividly portrayed. “When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves,” literally, “from (or by) breakings” i.e. the breakings forth of the creature from his lair, they miss the way, becoming utterly confounded in presence of the huge brute.
(3) The comely proportion of the creature. The impenetrable hide of the crocodile is one of its most characteristic features. Jehovah describes its close-fitting scales, which, like strong shields soldered together (verse 15), are so close that no air can come between (verse 15), and so fast together that they cannot be sundered (verse 17), and so impervious that “darts are counted as stubble, and he laugheth at the shaking of a spear” (verses 26-29). Even the under parts of this creature’s body, unlike those of other animals, are compact and firm (verse 23), being furnished also with splinters of potsherd, i.e. sharp scales, so that on the mud-bank where it lies it leaves the impression of a threshing-sledge (verse 30); while its “heart is firm as a stone; yea, as a piece of the nether millstone” (verse 24).
3. Its impetuous movement. One who saw two alligators fighting says “that their rapid passage was marked by the surface of the water as if it were boiling” (verse 23). The animal also moves with such velocity as to leave behind it a bright white trail of foam, as if the deep were hoary (verse 32).
4. Its incontestable supremacy. “Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.” Hence all other creatures shrink before him. “He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride,” i.e. over all other beasts of prey.
III. THE LESSON INDICATED.
1. The impossibility of contending with God. If no man can hope successfully to encounter a crocodile, how foolish must it be to think of striving against God (verse 10)!
2. The sovereignty of God‘s procedure in the world. If God in fashioning so wonderful a beast had acted solely on his own irresponsible will, was it not probable that he might in the same manner act in connection with man (verse 11)?
3. The probability of God‘s works in providence being marked by wisdom. If in the structure of a crocodile there was so much appearance (and reality) of design, it was not surely unreasonable to hope that the same characteristic of design would not be absent from the Creator’s doings in the higher realm of intelligence.
4. The likelihood of finding mysteries in God‘s dealings with men. If Job had been asked to say why God had made so ferocious a beast, he could not have done so. It is doubtful if any one can satisfactorily explain the introduction of carnivorous animals among other peaceful creatures. Why, then, should there not be found enigmas in the higher world of human life?
Learn:
1. The great power of God, who can control the fiercest of creatures.
2. The weakness of man, whom an unreasoning animal can affright.
3. The wisdom of faith, which always trusts where it cannot understand.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Job 41:1-34
Description of the leviathan, or crocodile.
The description is in two parts.
I. The first part shows THE DIFFICULTY OR WELL–NIGH IMPOSSIBILITY OF CIRCUMVENTING AND CAPTURING THIS HUGE AND SLIPPERY CREATURE. (Job 41:1-7.) In language of irony and almost of taunt this fact is set forth. Here, then, is a mere creature of God before which man must feel his helplessness. If man cannot overcome the creature, how much less shall he pretend to vie with the Creator, make his imperfect will the rule of the world, and bend the pride of the wicked beneath him?
II. The second part (Job 41:8-34) is A DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL OF THE PARTS, THE ORGANS, THE TERRIBLE ASPECT, THE FURY, THE OBSTINATE POWER OF DEFENCE, AND THE PROUD DOMINION OF THIS TERRIBLE CREATURE OVER ALL OTHERS IN HIS RIVER–HAUNTS. Without at all straining the language or the sense, the crocodile may be regarded as the type or allegory of the wickedin his destructive fierceness and passion, his callousness, his place of pride and worldly defencesthe alarm and confusion which he spreads around him. So fearful and so real does wickedness seem in the high places of the earth. Inwardly, the good man may escape from its power and influence; outwardly, he seems exposed to its baneful sway, and seeks in vain for dominion over it. The leviathan is the symbol of those “kings of the children of pride.” The conquest over the kingdoms of force and fraud is reserved for the Divine might of righteousness alone.
The great lesson of this chapter is, then, that almighty power and justice are inseparable. Separate in thought for a moment these principles, and imagine either without the other to be associated with the nature of God, and we have a world that is horrible to contemplatea world where force without right is the only law, or a world where right is ever vainly struggling against force. Put these cases before the mind, and we at once see that they are not only dreadful but impossible alternatives, Neither is that human world, in which, with all its mysteries and seeming inconsequences, pious and dutiful souls are thankful and content to live, the world that is firmly and broadly based upon the eternal will of absolute power and justice. Thus, too, we are taught the truth concerning ourselves. Till we know both our weakness and our moral frailty, we know nothing truly about ourselves. To be conscious of impotence in presence of evil is to confess that we are unrighteous. And this leads to that humble conviction of dependence in which is the great root of piety. Dependence, in the natural and in the moral life, is the law of our being. In the recognition of it, in the acceptance of those relations and the fulfilment of those duties which the gospel builds upon this foundation, consists man’s health and peace. The thought of a God who is mere arbitrary power, as the gods and fates of the heathen, can never inspire loving trust or holiness. The thought of a God who is just, but not all-powerful, so that he cannot carry out his righteous purposes (as in ancient Manichaeism and in the strange theory, e.g; of J. S. Mill), can never support the feeble soul in the midst of the temptations of the world, in its struggle against evil. The foundation laid in Zion is built of no such crumbling material; it is raised upon a truth on which to rest is to be secure from disturbance, for upon it all the history of time and the life of mankind are built.
“Praise, everlasting praise, be paid
To him that earth’s foundations laid;
Praise to the Lord whose strong decrees
Sway the creation as he please.”
J.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 41:1-34
Leviathan the terrible.
This terrible monster has a whole chapter to himself. His portrait is painted on a broad canvas, and it is as full of life and movement as it is of form and colour. Representing the crocodile, though enlarged and idealized, leviathan is a picture of the most terrible of the works of nature.
I. THERE ARE TERRIBLE THINGS IN NATURE. When we look at the cruel jaws of the crocodile, gaping in readiness for its prey, and the little snake-like eyes watching intently, in spite of an inert attitude of body that tempts us to despise the creature as no better than a log of wood, we have before us the mystery of natural terror. Could God have made this horrible monster? Is there something in the animal world like the tares in the field, that an enemy sowed in the night? The unity and harmony of nature forbid such a thought. Moreover, the crocodile has as much right to live as the fish or the calf that it feeds on. Even when it snaps at an innocent and beautiful young creature, it is but fulfilling that great natural instinct of hunger, without which the world would perish. Far more terrible than the crocodile is the old serpent, who brought into the world not natural death, hut sin and the death of the soul.
II. NATURE IS ADVANCING IN BEAUTY AND JOY. Both behemoth and leviathanthe idealized hippopotamus and the idealized crocodileare survivals of a more ancient order of creatures than those which now inhabit our globe. Geology teaches us that once such creatures, and greater ones, were the chief if not the sole inhabitants of the earth. They are really akin to the huge mastodon, a monster that would dwarf an elephant; and the dinosaurus and ichthyosaurus, in comparison with which the most tremendous reptile of our own day is an insignificant animal. While these monsters crashed through the forests or plunged in the rivers the world was no fit place for man. But since their time God has peopled the earth with a fairer and more docile fauna. At all events, with such animals as now inhabit it, he has made it possible for so weak a being as man to rule the world. The older ugly and fearful creatures remain to bear witness to the past. But by their contrast with the general life of the present they show how God is improving the earth.
III. THE MOST FEARFUL CREATURES HAVE THEIR LIVES ADJUSTED BY GOD. There is poetry in the magnificent description of leviathan, especially because the whole hangs together in harmony. There are no real “freaks of nature.” The most eccentric creatures have their spheres. The terror and fury of the lower life of nature is all calmly provided for by God. We may, perhaps, think that something must have been wrong,
“When dragons in their prime
Tare each other in their slime.”
To us this fury, this agony of nature, is fearful and mysterious. But in the sight of God it is innocence itself compared with fury of sin and the agony of remorse. The terrible things of nature may possibly prove to have come from some perversion of God’s original plan by the influence of evil beings; this, however, is but a will conjecture. But the terrible sin of man is a certain fact, and the evil of the heart from which it springs is worse than the cruel rage of leviathan, just because the human evil is quite out of harmony with the will of God and in direct antagonism to his law.W.F.A.
Job 41:11
The universal rule of God.
This is witnessed to even by leviathan. The splendid terror of the water-master is depicted in order that we may be made to feel in some way how great God must be, who made him and who rules over him.
I. IT INCLUDES THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE. All nature is as much under the hand and power of God to-day as when it first appeared at the dawn of creation. Even the disorder and confusion that have entered into nature have not been able to tear it away from the rule of God. God rules through terror and confusion and death as truly as through beauty and life. God does not confine himself to what we call the spiritual. He is not only concerned with that which, in the narrow sense of the word, we understand as “the religious.” He is the great Architect, Mechanic, Engineer, of the universe.
II. IT IS NOT ALWAYS VISIBLE TO MAN. The hand that guides is unseen. The reign of law seems to drive back the reign of God. Thus Matthew Arnold writes
“The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full and round earth’s shore,
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled; But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.”
III. IT IS NOT THE LESS REAL BECAUSE IT IS UNSEEN. We cannot see the guiding hand, but often we can most thankfully detect its presence by the providential result. We may not be able to discern the steersman for the driving spray, but if we have come safely into port we may be sure that he is at-the helm. The reign of law cannot dispense with the rule of God, if God is the great Lawgiver. The most wonderful scientific truth that has been brought home to recent generations is the fixed and uniform system of law in nature. How came this to be so? and how is it that the rigorous laws make for the well-being of God’s creatures, as they obviously do? Surely law itself points to a ruling mind. The world is not left to itself, or it would be in chaos. The order of the world throughout, extending to the most distant galaxy of stars, proclaims the universal rule of its one Lord.
IV. IT WILL MAKE ITSELF FELT BY THOSE WHO DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE IT AT PRESENT. Our denial of God’s universal rule does not destroy it. We do not abrogate God’s laws by ignoring them. The existence of an atheist does not mean the non-existence of God. For the present God waits, giving us our trial, and opportunities for knowing him peaceably and happily. But some day we must behold his throne of glory, if that throne exists at all. Then it will be well for us to have acknowledged it first, and to approach it as his obedient servants coming home from their toil.W.F.A.
Job 41:34
A king over all the children of pride.
This magniloquent title crowns the elaborate description of leviathan, which occupies the whole chapter. It gives us a vivid idea of the supremacy and kinship that are to be found in nature.
I. THERE ARE GRADATIONS OF RANK IN NATURE. Nature is not democratic or communistic. Among her various orders we observe ascending ranks of living creatures. There is a natural aristocracy; there is a natural kingship. All creatures are not endowed alike. Some are gifted with powers that lift them above their fellows. We see the same facts in the human world. All men are not endowed equally. Some have five talents, some two talents, some but one talent. There are men who seem born to rule; power is native to them. Now, these facts may seem to justify a rigid adherence to differences of rank and a repression of efforts to bring about a state of equality. But we must modify the application of them to men in two or three respects.
1. Men are all of one greatly, and are therefore am! brethren, whereas in the animal world we have been considering differences of species.
2. Men have a moral nature, and can discern a higher right than that of might.
3. Men have a religion, which teaches them that their own instincts and wills are to be subordinate to the will of God.
II. THE HIGHEST KINGSHIP IS MENTAL AND MORAL. It is only in a highly rhetorical description that the crocodile, even when idealized, can be described as “a king over all the children of pride,” for he does not really rule over the beasts and birds and fishes of the Nile. It is his dragon-like size and form and power that suggest to us an idea of royalty. And what royalty! Here we have the reductio ad absurdum of the kingship of force. It is natural and right in the crocodile, who lives up to his nature. Yet with all his toughness and terror this animal is one of the most senseless of creatures. It is not much to be able to boast of physical supremacy. The born kings of men are the great leaders in the higher lifeleaders of thought, as Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Bacon, Newton, Kant; leaders of religious life and conduct, as St. Paul, Athanasius, Luther, Wesley.
III. GOD IS KING OF KINGS. It would be a fearful thing if the power and supremacy that are entrusted to the larger animals had been given to them without limits or restraints. But the kingly animals, the lion and the eagle, as well as leviathan himself, are all obedient subjects of the Lord who rules over all the works of nature. They could not rebel against their Suzerain if they would. Their kingdoms are but satrapies of the grand empire of nature which God rules absolutely. Hence the order of the worm in spite of the power of these monstrous creatures. Man alone is able to rebel. Yet God overrules the rebellion even of the human world, and brings kings to do his will, although they may recognize him as little as leviathan recognizes his Lord and Maker. Thus God gives power within limits. Men of the largest liberty and the highest privileges will be called to account before their supreme Master. Therefore it is for us to look up above all earthly greatness and rule to that perfect kingship and that one supreme authority which has been revealed to us in Christ for the guidance of our lives into the path of loyal obedience.W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAP. XLI.
God’s great power in the Leviathan.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 41:1. Canst thou draw out Leviathan leviathan, is derived from lavah, coupled, and ten, a dragon, i.e. a large serpent, or fish: as the word tanin, is used both for a land serpent, and a kind of fish; so that, after comparing what Bochart and others have written on the subject, it appears to me, says Parkhurst, that the compound leviathan, the coupled dragon, denotes some animal partaking of the nature both of land serpents and fishes, and in this place signifies the crocodile, which lives as well under water as on shore. See Boch. tom. ii. p. 769, who seems to have proved, by arguments strictly conclusive, that the crocodile must be meant in this chapter. I would just observe, of the word occurring in the Margin to chap. Job 3:8 of this book, that Parkhurst thinks it contains an allusion to the punishment of some kind of criminals, who were cast to the crocodiles to be devoured by them. Johnson, in his Natural History of Quadrupeds, p. 143, says, that among some of the Indians these animals were formerly kept for this purpose. And I would just remark, that as these animals are found in many of the eastern rivers, as well as in the Nile, it does not follow at all from this description, either that Moses was the writer of this Book, or any other person who drew his ideas immediately from Egypt and the Nile. This first verse relates to the manner of taking the crocodile; and therefore the best commentary on it will be to give an authentic account how it is done. The difficulty of this enterprise will appear from Diodorus Siculus, who says, that they cannot be secured but in iron nets. When Augustus conquered Egypt, he struck a medal, the impress, of which was a crocodile chained to a palm-tree, with this inscription: “None ever bound him before.””In order to take these animals,” says Thevenot, “they make a number of holes or ditches on the banks of the river, which they cover with sticks, and things of the like kind: afterwards, when the crocodiles pass over these cavities, especially, when the waters rise in the river, which is the season of catching them, on account of their going further off from the river at that time, they fall into the holes, and cannot get out again: in this confinement they are suffered to continue without food for several days; after which they let down certain nooses with running knots, wherewith they fasten their jaws, and then draw them out.” These nooses are the chebel, the cord here mentioned, and this shews that the word lashon, is not to be understood of the tongue only, but of the whole fauces. The clause should be rendered, Canst thou bind his jaws with a cord? Maillet, speaking of these animals, says, that the manner of taking them is very difficult, and sometimes very remarkable: the most common method is, to dig great trenches or ditches along the Nile, which are covered with straw, and into which the creatures fall unawares. They are sometimes taken with hooks, baited with the quarter of a pig, or bacon, which they are very fond of. See Heath and Dr. Young. Hasselquist, speaking of the difficulty of taking this animal, says, “He frequently breaks the nets of fishermen, if they come in his way, and they are exposed to great danger. I found a fishing-hook in the palate of the crocodile which I dissected.” See his voyages, p. 216.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Second Discourse of Jehovah (together with Jobs answer):
To doubt Gods justice, which is most closely allied to His wonderful omnipotence, is a grievous wrong, which must be atoned for by sincere penitence:
Job 40:6 to Job 42:6
1. Sharp rebuke of Jobs presumption, which has been carried to the point of doubting Gods justice:
Job 40:6-14
Job 40:6.Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
7Gird up thy loins now like a man:
I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
8Wilt thou also disannul my judgment?
wilt thou condemn me that thou mayest be righteous?
9Hast thou an arm like God?
or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him?
10Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency,
and array thyself with glory and beauty.
11Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath;
and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.
12Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low;
and tread down the wicked in their place.
13Hide them in the dust together:
and bind their faces in secret.
14Then will I also confess unto thee
that thine own right hand can save thee.
2. Humiliating exhibition of the weakness of Job in contrast with certain creatures of earth, not to say with God; shown
a. by a description of the behemoth (hippopotamus):
Job 40:15-24
15Behold now behemoth,
which I made with thee;
he eateth grass as an ox.
16Lo now, his strength is in his loins,
and his force is in the navel of his belly.
17He moveth his tail like a cedar:
the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
18His bones are as strong pieces of brass;
his bones are like bars of iron.
19He is the chief of the ways of God:
He that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
20Surely the mountains bring him forth food,
where all the beasts of the field play.
21He lieth under the shady trees,
in the covert of the reed, and fens.
22The shady trees cover him with their shadow;
the willows of the brook compass him about.
23Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not:
he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan in his mouth.
24He taketh it with his eyes:
his nose pierceth through snares.
b. by a description of the leviathan (crocodile): Job 40:2541:26 [E. V. Job 41:1-34]
E.V. [Heb.]
41. [40.]
1[25] Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook?
or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
2[26] Canst thou put a hook into his nose?
or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
3[27] Will he make many supplications unto thee?
will he speak soft words unto thee?
4[28] Will he make a covenant with thee?
wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
5[29] Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?
or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
6[30] Shall the companions make a banquet of him?
shall they part him among the merchants?
7[31] Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons?
or his head with fish spears?
8[32] Lay thine hand upon him,
remember the battle, do no more.
[41]
9[1] Behold the hope of him is in vain:
shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10[2] None is so fierce that dare stir him up;
who then is able to stand before Me?
11[3] Who hath prevented me that I should repay him?
whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.
12[4] I will not conceal his parts,
nor his power, nor his comely proportion.
13[5] Who can discover the face of his garment?
or who can come to him with his double bridle?
14[6] Who can open the doors of his face?
his teeth are terrible round about.
15[7] His scales are his pride,
shut up together as with a close seal.
16[8] One is so near to another,
that no air can come between them.
17[9] They are joined one to another,
they stick together that they cannot be sundered.
18[10] By his neesings a light doth shine,
and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19[11] Out of his mouth go burning lamps,
and sparks of fire leap out.
20[12] Out of his nostrils goeth smoke,
as out of a seething pot, or cauldron.
21[13] His breath kindleth coals,
and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
22[14] In his neck remaineth strength,
and sorrow is turned into joy before him.
23[15] The flakes of his flesh are joined together:
they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.
24[16] His heart is as firm as a stone;
yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.
25[17] When he raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid:
by reason of breakings they purify themselves.
26[18] The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold:
the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
27[19] He esteemeth iron as straw,
and brass as rotten wood.
28[20] The arrow cannot make him flee;
slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
29[21] Darts are counted as stubble;
he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
30[22] Sharp stones are under him:
he spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mire.
31[23] He maketh the deep to boil like a pot;
he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
32[24] He maketh a path to shine after him;
one would think the deep to be hoary.
33[25] Upon earth there is not his like,
who is made without fear.
34[26 He beholdeth all high things:
he is a king over all the children of pride.
3. Jobs answer: Humble confession of the infinitude of the divine power, and penitent acknowledgment of his guilt and folly:
Job 42:1-6
1Then Job answered the Lord and said:
2I know that Thou canst do everything,
and that no thought can be withholden from Thee.
3Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?
therefore have I uttered that I understood not;
things too wonderful for me which I knew not;
4Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak:
I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me.
5I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
but now mine eye seeth Thee:
6Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. That the omnipotent and infinitely wise activity of the Creator in nature is at the same time just, was in the first discourse of God affirmed for the most part only indirectly, or implicite. Only once, in Job 38:13-15, was this aspect of His character expressly presented, and then only incidentally. The second discourse of Jehovah is intended to supply what is still lacking as to this point, to constrain Job fully to recognize the justice of God in all that He does, and in this way to vanquish the last remainder of pride and presumption in his heart. It accomplishes this end by a twofold method of treatment. First by the direct method of severely censuring the doubt which Job had uttered as to the divine justice, and by vindicating Gods sole and exclusive claim to the power requisite for exercising sovereignty over the universe (first, and shorter part: Job 40:6-14). Next by the indirect method of attacking his pride through a lengthened description of two proud monster-beasts, mighty creations of Gods hand, which after all the amazing wonder which their gigantic power calls forth, are nevertheless only instruments in the hand of the Almighty, and must submit, if not to the will of man, at least to the will of God, who crushes all tyrannous pride (second, and longer part: Job 40:15 to Job 41:26 [ Job 41:34]). This second part, which is again divided into two unequal halves-the shorter describing the behemoth- Job 40:15-24, the longer the leviathan, Job 40:25-41:26. [E. V., Job 41:1-34], falls back on the descriptive and interrogative tone of the first discourse of God; in contrast with which however it is characterized by an allegorizing tendency. It directly prepares the way for Jobs second and last answer, in which he renews the humble submission which he had previously made, and strengthens it by a penitent confession of his own sinfulness.-The strophic arrangement of this second discourse of Jehovah is comprehensively simple and grand, corresponding to the contents, which are thoroughly descriptive, with a massive execution. It embraces in all five Long Strophes, of 812 verses each, not less than three of which are devoted to the description of the leviathan in Job 40:2541:26, [E. V., Job 41.] These five Long Strophes include indeed shorter subordinate divisions, but not, strictly speaking, regularly constructed strophes.-Against the modern objections to the authenticity of the episode referring to the behemoth and leviathan, see above in the Introd. 9, II. (also the notice taken of the peculiar theory of Merx in the Preface).
2. First Division (Long Strophe): Severe censure of Jobs presumptuous doubt respecting the justice of the divine course of action: Job 40:6-14.
Job 40:6. Then answered Jehovah Job out of the storm, etc.-This intentional repetition of Job 38:1 is to show that God continues to present Himself to Job as one who, if not exactly burning with wrath towards him, would have him feel His mighty superiority. That here also, instead of , the original text was , is evident from the Masorah itself. The absence of the art. , if it originally belonged here, is by no means to be explained, with Ramban, as designed to indicate that the storm was no longer as violent as before.
Job 40:7 precisely as in Job 38:3.
Job 40:8. Wilt thou altogether annul my right?– stands in a climactic relation to Jobs contending () reproved in Job 40:2. To break () Gods right would be the same as to abolish, annul the same (comp. Job 15:4). Job was on the point of becoming guilty of this wickedness, in that he sought to substitute what he assumed to be right, his idea of righteousness, for that of God, so that he might be accounted righteous, and God unjust, (see the second member).
Job 40:9. Or hast thou an arm like God?– interrogative, as in Job 8:3; Job 21:4; Job 34:17. The arm of God as a symbol of His power, comp. Job 22:8; so also the thunder-voice spoken of in the second member; comp. Job 37:2 seq.-, lit., wilt, canst thou thunder? dost thou pledge thyself to thunder?
Job 40:10. Then put on majesty and grandeur, as an ornament; clothe, deck thyself with these attributes of divine greatness and sovereignty (comp. Psa 104:1 seq.; Job 21:6 [5]. The challenge is intended ironically, since it demands of Job that which is in itself impossible; in like manner all that follows down to Job 40:13 (comp. Job 38:21).
Job 40:11. Let the outbreakings of thy wrath pour themselves forth.-, effundere, to pour forth, to cause to gush forth, as in Job 37:11; Pro 5:16. , lit., over-steppings, are here the overflowings, or outbreakings of wrath; comp. Job 21:30; and for the thought, particularly in the second member, comp. Isa 2:12 seq. The fact that Jehovah ironically summons Job to display such manifestations of holy wrath and of stern retributive justice against sinners, conveys an indirect, but sufficiently clear and emphatic assurance of the truth that He Himself, Jehovah, governs the world thus rigidly and justly; comp. above, Job 38:13 seq.
Job 40:12. Look on all that is proud, and bring it low.-This almost verbal repetition of Job 40:11 b is intended to emphasize the fact that at the moment when God casts His angry glance upon the wicked, the latter is cast down; comp. Psa 34:17 [16].-And overturn the wicked in their place, , . ., to throw down, or perhaps to tread down (related to ). In the latter case the passage might be compared with Rom 16:20.-On in their place [= on the spot], comp. Job 36:20.
Job 40:13. Hide them in the dust altogether;i.e., in the dust of the grave (hardly in holes of the earth, or of rooks, as though Isa 2:10 were a parallel passage).-Shut up fast (lit., bind, fetter) their faces in secret, i.e., in the interior of the earth, in the darkness of the realm of the dead; here substantially = Comp. the passage out of the Book of Enoch Job 10:5, cited by Dillmann: , .
Job 40:14. Then will I too praise thee, not only wilt thou praise thyself (comp. Job 40:8)-That thy right hand brings thee succor;i.e., that thou dost actually possess the power (the arm, Job 40:9) to put thy ideas of justice into execution with vigor; comp. the similar expressions in Psa 44:4 [3]; Isa 59:18; Isa 63:5. This conclusion of the rebuke which Jehovah administers directly to Jobs insolent presumption, as though he only knew what is just, prepares at once the transition to the description which follows of the colossal animals which are introduced as eloquent examples of Gods infinite creative power, which for the very reason of its being such is of necessity united to the highest justice.
3. Second Division: The descriptions of animals, given for the purpose of humiliating Job by showing his weakness, and the absolute groundlessness of his presumptuous pride.
a. The description of the behemoth: Verses 1524.
Job 40:15. Behold now the behemoth.-Even Dillm., one of the most zealous opponents of the genuineness of the whole section, is obliged to admit that the connection with what precedes by means of is an easy one. Moreover it is by no means one that is purely external, for the behemoth is brought to Jobs attention for the very purpose of illustrating the proposition that no creature of Gods, however mighty, can succeed against Him, can with his right hand obtain for himself help against Him (see Job 40:14 b). This is clearly enough indicated by the second member: which I have made with thee;i.e. as well as thee ( as though it were comparative, as in Job 9:26; comp. Job 37:18). Job is bid to contemplate his fellow-creature, the behemoth, far huger and stronger than himself, that he may learn how insignificant and weak are all created beings in contrast with God, and in particular how little presumptuous and proud confidence in external things can avail against Him (comp. the passage of Horace; Vis consil expert mole ruit sua, etc.). The name (which the ancient versions either misinterpreted as a plural [so the LXX.: ], or left untranslated, as a proper name [Vulg., etc.]), in itself denotes, in accordance with the analogy of other plural formations with an intensive signification: the great beast, the colossus of cattle, the monster animal. The word is, however, a Hebraized form of the Egyptian p–ehe–mau, the water-ox (p=the, ehe=ox, mau or mou=water), and like this Egypt, word (besides which indeed the hieroglyphic apet is more frequently to be met with), and the Ital. bomarino, it signifies the Nile-horse, or hippopotamus. For it is to this animal that the whole description which follows refers, as is most distinctly and unmistakably shown by the association with another monster of the Nile, the crocodile: not to the elephant, of which it is understood by Thom. Aquinas, Oecolampadius, the Zrich Bib., Drusius, Pfeifer, Le Clerc, Cocceius, Schultens, J. D. Michaelis [Scott, Henry. Good refers the description to some extinct pachyderm of the mammoth or mastodon species. Lee, following the LXX., understands it of the cattle, first collectively, and then distributively]. The correct view was taken by Bochart (Hieroz. iii. 705 seq.), and after him has been adopted by the great majority of moderns. With the following vivid description of this animals way of living and form, beginning with the mention of his eating grass (supporting himself on tender plants, the reeds of the Nile, roots, etc.), may be compared Herod, ii. 6971; Pliny viii. 25; Aben Batuta, ed. Defrem 4., p. 426; among the moderns, Rppell: Reisen in Nubien, 1829, p. 52 seq.; and in particular Sir Sam. Baker in his travels, as in The Nile and its Tributaries, The Albert Nyanza, etc. (See extracts from these works, with striking illustrations of the hippopotamus in the Globus, Vol. XVII., 1870, Nos. 2224) [Livingstone, Travels and Researches, p. 536].
Job 40:16. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, etc.– as in Job 18:7; Job 18:12. in b, a word found only here (derived from the root , to wind, to twist, which is contained also in , navel, as also in root), cannot signify, the bones, of which mention is first made in Job 40:18 (against Wetzstein in Delitzsch), but the cords, the sinews and muscles, which in the case of the hippopotamus (not, however, of the elephant) are particularly firm and strong just in the region of the belly.
Job 40:17. He bends his tail like a cedar;i.e. like a cedar-bough; the tert. comp. lies in the straightness, firmness and elasticity of the tail of the hippopotamus (which is furthermore short, hairless, very thick at the root, of only a fingers thickness, however, at the end, looking therefore somewhat like the tail of the hog, but not at all like that of the elephant). , instead of being translated he bends (Targ.), may possibly be explained to mean he stiffens, stretches out (LXX., Vulg., Pesh.).-The sinews of his thighs are firmly knit together; or also the veins of his legs (by no means nervi testiculorum ejus, as the Vulg. and Targ. [also E. V.] render it). With , they are wrapped together, they present a thick, twig-like texture, comp. , vine-tendrils [the interweaving of the vine-branches being before the poets eye in his choice of the word. Del.].
Job 40:18. His bones are pipes of brass.- here pipes, tubes, channels, as in Job 41:7; comp. , Job 28:4. , a word peculiar to our book, instead of the form which obtains elsewhere, (comp. further Job 20:24; Job 28:2; Job 41:19). Concerning , staff, pole, bar, probably the Semitic etymological basis of , comp. Delitzsch on the passage. In respect to the similes in both members of the verse, comp. Son 5:15 a.
Job 40:19. He is a firstling of Gods ways;i.e. a master-piece of His creative power (comp. Gen 49:3). can all the more easily dispense with the article here, seeing that it denotes only priority of rank (as in Amo 6:1; Amo 6:6; comp. also in Job 18:13, and often), not of time (as e.g. in Pro 8:22; Num 24:20). In respect to Gods ways in the sense of the displays of His creative activity in creating and governing the universe, comp. Job 26:14. The whole clause refers to the immense size and strength of the hippopotamus, which, at least in length and thickness, if not in height, surpasses even the elephant, and overturns with ease the ships of the Nile, vessel, crew and cargo. In reality therefore there is no exaggeration in the statement; and only an exegetical misapprehension of it, and an idle attempt at allegorizing it (stimulated in the present instance by the resemblance to Pro 8:22) could have influenced the Jewish Commentators, and those of the ancient Church, to find in this designation of the behemoth as a firstling of Gods ways a symbolic representation of Satan (comp. Book of Enoch, 60, 6 seq.; many Rabbis of the Middle Ages; the Pseudo-Melitonian Clavis Scriptur Sacr [in Pitra, Spicileg. Salesm. Vol. II.], Eucherius of Lyons in his Formul maj. et minores [Idem, Vol. III., p. 400 seq.], Gregory the Great, and most of the Church Fathers on the passage; Luther also in his marginal gloss on the passage, Brentius [see below, Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks.-The same view is taken moreover by Wordsworth, who explains: It seems probable that Behemoth represents the Evil One acting in the animal and carnal elements of mans own constitution, and that Leviathan symbolizes the Evil One energizing as his external enemy. Behemoth is the enemy within us; Leviathan is the enemy without us].-It only remains to say, that there is nothing surprising in the fact that here, in a discourse by God, He should speak of Himself in the third person; comp. above Job 39:17; Job 38:41.-He who made him furnished to him his sword, viz. his teeth, his two immense incisors (which according to Rppell in l. c. grow to be twenty-six French inches long), with which as with a sickle (a , Nicander, Theriac. 566; Nonnus, Dionysiac. 26) he mows down the grass and green corn-blades. stands for , He who hath made him, his Creator (the article being used as demonstrative; comp. Gesenius 109 [ 108, 2, a]), and elliptically for , brought near to him, furnished to him. The emendation suggested by Bttcher and Dillmann- instead of : which was created [lit. plur. which were created] so as to attach thereon a sword ( as Jussive)-is unnecessary, as is also Ewalds rendering of in the sense of to blunt, to make harmless.
Job 40:20 gives a reason for Job 40:19 b:For the mountains bring him forth food.-=, produce, fruit, vegetation. The clause is not intended to describe the hippopotamus as an animal that commonly or frequently grazes on the mountains (in point of fact it is only in exceptional instances that he ascends the mountains or high grounds, when the river-banks and the grounds immediately around them have been eaten up). It only intends to say that entire mountains, vast upland tracts, where large herds of other animals abide, must provide for him his food (see b).
Job 40:21 states where the hippopotamus is in the habit of staying: He lies down under the lotus-trees, in the covert of reeds and fens (comp. Job 8:11)-, plur. of , or of (a word which occurs also in the Arabic), are not the lotus-flowers, i.e., the water-lilies (Nympha Lotus) [so Conant], but the lotus-bushes, or trees (Lotus silvestris s. Cyrenaica), a vegetable growth frequently found in the hot and moist lowlands of Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Syria, with thorny branches, and a fruit like the plum. On b comp. the description of the hippopotamus given by Ammianus Marcellinus (XXII. 15): Inter arundines celsas et squalentes nimia densitate hc bellua cubilia ponit.
Job 40:22. Lotus-trees cover him as a shade.– (resolved from , like , Job 20:7, from ) is in apposition to the subject, with which it forms at the same time a paronomasia. Another paronomasia occurs between and in b.
Job 40:23. Behold, the river shows violence; he trembles not; lit., he does not spring up, is not startled. at the beginning of this clause has, as in Job 12:11; Job 23:8, substantially the force of a conditional particle. here without an object: to exercise violence, to act violently, (differing from Job 10:3) a word which strikingly describes a river wildly swelling and raging [sweeping its borders with tyrannous devastation. E. V., following the Vulg. absorbebit fluvium (Targ. he doth violence to the river) gives to a meaning not warranted]. He remains unconcerned (lit. he is confident) when a Jordan rushes (lit. bursts through, pours itself forth, as in Job 38:8) into his mouth. The Jordan, ( without the Art.) is used here in an appellative sense of a river remarkable for its swiftly rushing course, not as a proper name, for hippopotami scarcely lived in the Jordan. There is nothing strange in this mention of the Jordan in order vividly to illustrate the description, the same being a river well known to Job, and also to his friends. It certainly cannot be urged as an argument for the hypothesis that the author of this section is not the same with the author of the remainder of the book (against Ewald and Dillmann). [The reason why the Jordan is the river particularly here used as an illustration is, I suppose, because not unlikely, rising as it does at the foot of the snow-clad Lebanon, it was liable to more sudden and violent swellings than either the Euphrates or the Nile. It is, in fact, more of a mountain torrent than either, and probably in its irruptions it drove away in consternation the lions and other wild beasts, located in the thickets on its banks. Carey. Comp. Jer 12:5 and Jer 41:19].
Job 40:24. Before his eyes do they take him, pierce through his nose with snares.-The position and tone of the words forbid one taking this verse as an ironical challenge: Let one just take him! or as a question: Shall, or does any one take him, etc.? Instead of (i.e., while he himself is looking on, under his very eyes; comp. Pro 1:17), we must at least have read . Moreover instead of the 3d Pers. we should rather have looked for the 2d, if either of the above constructions had been the true one (comp. the questions in Job 40:25 seq.) [Job 41:1 seq.]. The clause accordingly is to be taken, with the ancient versions, and with Stickel, Umbreit, Ewald, Dillmann [Conant] as descriptive of something which actually takes place, and hence as referring to the capture of the river-horse. By the ancients in like manner as by the Nubians of to-day this was accomplished by means of harpoons fastened to a long rope. It is either to this harpoon-rope, or to a switch drawn through the nose after the capture has been effected that the word in b refers. It can hardly mean a common trap (Delitzsch [let one lay a snare which, when it goes into it, shall spring together and pierce it in the nose]).-Why does God close the description of the hippopotamus with a reference to its capture? Evidently because He wishes thereby to emphasize the thought that this animal is wholly and completely in His power, that all its size and strength are of no avail to it, and that when God determines to deliver it into the hands of men, its pride is humbled without fail. Whereas on the other hand the description of the leviathan which follows contains no such reference to its capture, but sets forth throughout only the difficulty, or indeed the impossibility of becoming its master by the use of ordinary strength and cunning; this indicates an advance over what goes before.
4. Continuation, b. First part of the description of the leviathan: Job 41:1-11 [Heb. Job 40:25-41:3]: the untamableness and invincibility of the leviathan.-Dost thou draw out the leviathan with a net? [or as E. V., Gesen., Frst, etc., with a hook]. The name denotes here neither the mythical dragon of heaven, as in Job 3:8 (see on the passage), nor the whale, as in Psa 104:26, but the crocodile, whose structure and mode of life are in the following description depicted with fidelity to the minutest particular (comp. the evidence in detail in Bochart, Hieroz. III., 737 seq.). In and of itself is the generic name of any monster capable of wreathing itself in folds, in like manner as (comp. ) may denote any monster that is long stretched out. But as the latter name is become the prevalent designation of the whale, (see on Job 7:12), so the name leviathan seems to have attached itself from an early period to the crocodile, that particularly huge and terrible amphibious monster of Bible lands, for which animal there was no special name appropriated in the primitive Hebrew, as it was not indigenous to Palestine, or at all events was but rarely found in its waters (traces indeed are not absolutely wanting of its having existed in them at one time: see the remarks of Robinson in respect to the coast-river Nahr ez Zerka, or Maat-Temsh [crocodile-waters], and also in respect to the city Crocodilon, not far from Cesarea, in his Physical Geography, etc., p. 191). The name leviathan does not involve the Hebraizing of an Egyptian name of the crocodile, (analogous to that of pe–ehe–mou in behemoth). By so much the more probable is it that in the interrogative drawest thou (without , see Ew., 324, a), the poet intends an allusion to the well-known Egyptian name of the animal, which in Copt, is temsah, in modern Arab, timsah (Ew., Del., Dillm., etc).-Dost thou with a cord press down his tongue? i.e., when, liks a fish, be has bitten the fishing-hook, dost thou, in pulling the line, cause it to press down the tongue? The question is not (with Schult., Hirzel, Delitzsch, etc.) to be rendered: Canst thou sink a line into his tongue [or his tongue into a line]? a rendering which is indeed verbally admissible, but which yields an idea that is not very intelligible. This member expresses, only with a little more art, the same thought as the first. It is not at all necessary to assume (with Ewald, Dillmann and other opponents of the genuineness of the present section), that the poet represents the capture of the crocodile as absolutely impossible, thus contradicting the fact attested by Herodotus, II., 7, that the ancient Egyptians caught this animal with fishing-hooks. That which the ironical question of God denies is simply the possibility of overcoming this animal, like a harmless fish, with ordinary craft or artifice, not the possibility of ever capturing it.-There is nothing to forbid the assumption that instead of the Egyptian crocodile (or at least along with it) the author had in view a Palestinian species or variety of the same animal, which is no longer extant, and that this Palestinian crocodile, just because it was rarer than the saurian of the Nile, was in fact held to be impossible of capture, (comp. Delitzsch II, p. 366, n. 2). It is, generally speaking, a very precarious position to question the accuracy of our poets statements even in a single point: compare e.g., the perfectly correct mention in this passage of the tongue of the crocodile, with the ridiculous assertion of Herodot. (II. 68), Aristotle, and other ancients, that the crocodile has no tongue.
Job 41:2 [Job 40:26]. Canst thou put a rush-ring into his nose, and bore through his jaw (or, his cheek) with a hook?–i.e.. canst thou deal with him as fishermen deal with the fish captured by them, piercing their mouths with iron hooks in order afterwards to thrust through them rush-cords (), or iron rings (the fishermen of the Nile use the latter to this day, see Bruce, Travels, etc.), and to lay the fish thus tied together in the water?
Job 41:3 [Job 40:27.] Will he make many supplications to thee, etc., i. e., will he speak thee fair, in order to retain his freedom? The question which follows in Job 41:28 enlarges upon this thought, with a somewhat different application. For a servant for ever is here equivalent to for a tamed domestic animal (comp. Job 39:9).
Job 41:5 [Job 40:29]. Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?– differently from Psa 104:26, where it signifies to play in something. By the bird here spoken of is meant neither the golden beetle (which in the language of the Talmud is called bird of the vineyard), nor the grasshopper (comp. Lewysohn, Zool. des Talmud. 364). We are rather to compare with it the sparrow of Catullus: Passer, delici me puell, and, as in that poem, we are to understand by the female slaves; scarcely the little daughters of the one who is addressed (as Dillmann thinks, who takes pains to exhibit here a new reason for suspecting the genuineness of this section).
Job 41:6 [Job 40:30]. Do fishermen-partners trade in him? [do they divide him among the Canaanites?] (different from Isa 44:11) are fishermen as members of a guild, or as partners in a company associated together for the capture of fish; comp. Luk 5:7; Luk 5:10, with as in Job 6:27, to make bargains for anything, to traffic with it; not to feast upon anything, to make a banquet, as the phrase is rendered by the LXX. (), Targum [E. V.], Schult., Rosenmller, etc.; for to banquet (2Ki 6:23) agrees neither with the construction with , nor the mention of the Canaanites, i.e., the Phenician merchants (Isa 23:8; Zec 14:21; Pro 31:24) in the second member. [Gesenius, Conant, etc., less simply take in its more usual sense, to dig, i.e., dig pits, lay snares for. Merx. reads from , and translates: The animal, against which hunters go in troops].
Job 41:7 [Job 40:31]. Not only is the crocodile unsuited to be an article of commerce, but. coated as he is with scales, he is equally unsuited to be the object of an exciting harpoon-hunt. With , pointed darts, comp. the Arab, sauke, which signifies both thorn and spear.
Job 41:8 [Job 40:32]. Remember the battle, thou wilt not do it again–i. e., shouldst thou presume to fight with him (, not Infinit. dependent on , but Imperat. consecut., comp. Ew., 347, b), thou wilt not repeat the experiment ( pausal form for , see Ew., 224, b). Needless violence is done to this verse also, if (as by Dillmann) the attempt be made to deduce from it the idea of the absolute impossibility of capturing and conquering the crocodile. Let it be borne in mind that the words are addressed to a single individual.
Job 41:9 [Job 41:1], Behold, every hope is disappointed; lit. behold, his hope is disappointed, that viz. of the man who should enter into a contest with the monster (the use of the suffix accordingly being similar to that of Job 37:12). Even at the sight of him one is cast down; lit. as a question: is one cast down? etc.; i.e., is it. not the fact that the mere sight of him is enough to cast one down with terror? On , which is not plur.. but sing, comp. Gesenius, 93 [ 91], 9, Rem.
Job 41:10 [Job 41:2], None so fool-hardy that he would stir him up.- is not, without further qualification, (Hirz.), but the lacking subj. is to be supplied out of the next member, and the whole clause is exclamatory: not fierce (fool-hardy, rash) enough, that he should rouse him up! Respecting , (comp. Job 30:21. And who will take his stand before Me?–i.e., appear against Me as Mine adversary; here in another sense than in Job 1:6; Job 2:1. According to some MSS. and the Targ. the text should be , referring to the crocodile: and who will stand before him? But this would destroy the characteristic fundamental thought of the verse, which consists in a conclusio a min. ad majus: If no one ventures to stir up that creature which I have made, how much less will any one dare to contend with Me, the Almighty Creator?
Job 41:11 [3]. Who gave to me first of all that I must requite it?–i. e., who would dare to appear against me as my accuser or my enemy, on the ground that he has perchance given me something, and is thus become my creditor? (Rom 11:35). As to the second half of the verse which gives the reason for the question, in which God claims all created beings as His property, comp. Psa 50:10 seq.; on see Job 28:24; on the neuter see Job 13:16; Job 15:9.-The general thoughts advanced in Job 41:2 b, and Job 41:3 are a suitable close to what is said of the invincibility of the crocodile, as a mighty illustration of Gods creative power, so that we are required neither to transpose the passage (as e.g., by placing it after Job 40:14), nor to deem it out of place here, between the description of the leviathans untamableness, and that of his bodily structure (against Dillmann).
5. Conclusion: c. Second part of the description of the leviathan: The bodily structure and mode of life characteristic of the leviathan, the king of all proud beasts: Job 41:12-34 [420].
Job 41:12 [4]. I will not keep silent as to his members (, see Job 18:13). So according to the Kthibh ; the Kri would give the idea in the form of a question: as to him should I pass his limbs in silence? which as being a little more difficult is to be preferred. In no case does the clause deserve to be called a prosaic and precise announcement of the subject to be treated of, such as would seem to be not very suitable in a discourse delivered by God (Dillmann): the idea of the ancients touching what might be suitable and in taste, and what might not be so, were quite different from our modern notions. Nor as to the fame of his powers (so Vaihinger strikingly); lit. nor of the word of his powers i.e., of their kind and arrangement (Ewald), how the case stands with respect to them; comp. in Deu 15:2; Deu 19:4. In the final clause the word is in any case equivalent to disposition, structure (Aq.: ), and seems to be a secondary form of = come-liness, gracefulness, with which the tenor of this description which follows well agrees, setting forth as it does not only that which is fearful, but also that which is beautiful and elegant in the structure of the leviathan. For this reason it is unnecessary either with Ewald to identify the word with , measure (dry measure), or with Dillmann to amend the text (to ? or ?)
Job 41:13-17 [59]: The upper and foreside [face] of the crocodile.-Who has uncovered the face of his garment?i.e., no one can uncover, lift up the upper side ( as in Isa 25:7) of his scaly coat of mail; this lies on his back with such tenacity that it cannot be removed, nor broken. [Others, Ewald, Schlott., etc., explain of the anterior part of his garment, or armor, that which pertains to the head or face; but this would be less natural, and would involve tautology-the. opening of the jaws being referred to again in the next ver.].-Into his doable jaws who enters in?-Lit., into the double of his jaws; here accordingly in a different sense from Job 30:11 [where it means bridle, the meaning which E. V. gives to it here]. The fact mentioned by Herod. II., 68, and confirmed by modern observations, to wit, that a little bird, the plover, (Charadrius gyptius, in Herod, ) enters the open jaw of the crocodile, in order to look for insects there, need not be deemed unknown to our author; only we are not to insist on his having such an incident in mind in the passage before us.
Job 41:14 [6]. The doors of his face-who has opened them?i.e., his jaws, his mouth, the aperture of which reaches back of the eyes and ears (comp. the well-known picture, taken from the Description de lEgypte, and introduced into several pictorial works on zoology, e.g., into Klotz and Glasers Leben und Eigenthmlichkeiten der mittleren und niederen Thierwelt, Leipzig, 1869, p. 15, representing the mouth of a crocodile wide open, with a Charadrius in it).-Round about his teeth is terror; comp. Job 39:20. The crocodile has thirty-six long, pointed teeth in the upper jaw, and thirty in the lower, the appearance of which is all the more terrible that they are not covered by the lips.
Job 41:15 [7]. A pride are the furrows of the shields (comp. Job 40:18), referring to the arched bony shields, of which the animal has seventeen rows, all equally large and square in form. [According to this interpretation means first channels, and then the shields bounded by those channels. Others (Gesenius, Conant, etc.) take it as an adj. = robusta (robora) scutorum].-Fastened together like a closely, fitting seal; or, construing not as appositional, but as instrumental accusative (according to Ewald, 297, b): fastened together as with a closely-fitting seal [so E. V.]. How this is to be understood is shown by the two verses which follow; in which comp., as to the phrase, , Gesen., 124, [ 122], Rem. 4; as to the verbs and Job 38:30; Job 38:38.
Job 41:18-21 [1013]. The sneezing and breathing of the crocodile.-His sneezing flashes forth light (, abbreviated from , Hiph. of , comp. Job 31:26); i.e., when the crocodile turned toward the sun with open jaws is excited to sneezing (which in such a posture happens very easily, see Bochart III., 753 seq.), the water and slime gushing from his mouth glisten brilliantly in the sunbeams. As Delitz. says truly: This delicate observation of nature is here compressed into three words; in this concentration of whole, grand thoughts and pictures, we recognize the older poet.-And his eyes are as eyelids of the dawn (Job 3:9); i.e., when with their red glow they glimmer in the water, before the animals head becomes visible above the surface of the water. This cat-like sparkle of the crocodiles eyes was observed from an early period, and is the reason why in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics two crocodiles eyes became the hieroglyph for the dawn, according to the express statement of Horus, Hierogl. I., Job 68: .
Job 41:19 [11]. Out of his mouth proceed torches;i.e., not literal torches, but streams of water shining like torches, when the animal emerging out of the water breathes violently.-Out of his nostrils goes forth smoke, like a seething pot with reeds [lit., like a kettle blown and reeds]; i.e., like a heated kettle standing over a crackling and strongly smoking fire of reeds (Ewald, Bttcher, Delitzsch, Dillm.) [Conant]. The common rendering is: as a seething pot and caldron; but is scarcely to be taken to signify something else here than above in Job 40:26 [Job 41:2]; caldron would be , Arab, iggane. With the description before us, as well as with the still more strongly hyperbolical description in the verse which follows, comp. the description of Bochart, l. c.: Turn spiritus diu pressus sic effervescit et erumpit tam violenter, ut flammas ore et naribus videatur evomere. Also what the traveler Bartram (in Rosenmllers Alterth., p. 250) relates of an alligator in Carolina, that a thick smoke streamed out of its distended nostrils, with a noise which made the earth shake. [Schlottmann calls attention to the close parallelism between Job 41:18-19 and Job 41:20-21].
Job 41:22 [14]. On his neck dwells (lit., passes the night, lodges, as in Job 17:2) strength, and despair danceth hence before him. , leaps, springs up suddenly. Both members of the verse refer to the crocodile suddenly emerging out of the water, and terrifying men or beasts, and particularly to the violent movements of its neck or head, which are sufficient to overturn ships, etc. [The trepidation, the confused running to and fro of one who is in extreme anguish (comp. Job 41:17) is compared to the dancing of one who is crazed, and this is attributed to the as the personification of the anguish. Schlott.-E. V., less suitably: and sorrow is turned into joy before him].
Job 41:23 [15] seq., describe the lower and hinder parts of the animal.-The flanks [, the flabby pendulous parts of the body, especially the belly] of his flesh are closely joined together, are fixed fast upon him, are not moved; i.e., they do not shake with the motions of the body, being thickly lined with strong scales, smaller however than those on the back. , pass. partic. of , differing accordingly from Job 28:2; Job 29:6.
Job 41:24 [16]. His heart is firmly cast as a stone, firmly cast as a nether millstone, [not as E. V., as a piece of the nether millstone, for , as that which is split off, or produced by cleavage, refers to the whole stone; hence elsewhere (Jdg 9:53; 2Sa 24:6), for the upper millstone]. It was necessary that the nether millstone should be particularly hard, because it has to bear the weight and friction of the upper stone; comp. the Biblical Archologies and Dictionaries, under the word Mill. Besides the physical hardness of the crocodiles heart (in respect to which comp. Arist. De partib. animal. 3, 4), the poet here has in view the firmness of his heart in the tropical or ethical sense, i.e., the courage and fierceness of the beast, as the following verses show clearly enough.
Job 41:25 [17]. At his rising up heroes tremble.-, or, as many MSS. read mighty ones, from to be thick, strong: comp. Exo 15:15 with Eze 31:11; Eze 32:21. , contracted from , cannot mean here before his majesty (Job 13:11; Job 31:23), but simply: at his rising, when he raises himself up.-From terror they miss their aim. , lit., from brokenness [breakings]; not however from wounds. Jerome correctly: trriti (comp. Isa 65:14). , lit., they miss, i.e., their mark (to wit, here, the slaying of the monster). [Gesenius, Conant, etc., they lose themselves for terror, spoken of a person in astonishment and terror missing his way in precipitate flight.-Frst: they disappear, i.e., they cannot hold out.-E. V., under the influence of the Vulg. and Targ. by reason of breakings they purify themselves, which hardly yields an intelligible meaning].
Job 41:26 [18]. If one reaches him with the sword, lit., he who reaches him with the sword, it doth not hold, i.e., the sword, (lit., it does not get up), it glances off without effect from the scaly armor of the beast. As to the construction comp. Ewald, 357, c; on the use of with the finite verb, which occurs only here, Ew., 322, a. In the second member, which introduces three additional subjects to the verb , this is to be again supplied: nor spear, dart, and armor.-According to the testimony of the ancient versions it would seem that must be rendered as a synonym of , coat of mail, although the context, and a comparison with the Arab, sirwe, or surwe, arrow, would favor rather the meaning missile, either the harpoon, or some peculiar kind of arrow. For the definition sling-stone has the support of the Targ., while the LXX and the Vulg. associate the word with the preceding in the sense of hasta missilis.
Verses 2729 [1921] describe more at length the ineffective rebound of ordinary human weapons from the armor of the leviathan, together with the animals fearlessness in encountering all assaults by means of such weapons. Respecting in Job 41:19, b, comp. on Job 40:18. in the same member is a poetic form for (Job 13:28). The son of the bow, Job 41:20 a is the arrow, as the son of the flame in Job 5:7 meant the spark of fire. The turning to stubble, Job 41:20 b is of course to be taken only in the subjective sense of becoming as it were stubble.
Job 41:29 [21]. Clubs are accounted (by him) as chaff; lit. a club; , as a generic term, is construed with the plur. On b ( and ), comp. Job 39:23-24.
Job 41:30 [22] continues the description of the under side of the body begun in Job 41:23 [16]. His under parts are pointed shards; lit. the sharpest of shards, ; on this mode of expressing the superlative, which occurs also in Job 30:6, comp. Gesen., 112 [ 110], Rem. 1. The comparison of the scales on the under side of the crocodile, and especially on his tail, with pointed sherds, is found also in Aelian, H. N. 10, 24. He spreadeth a threshing sledge upon the mire; i.e., by means of those same pointed scales, which leave a mark on the soft mire, like that made by the iron spikes of a threshing-sledge (comp. Isa 28:27).
Job 41:31 [23]. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot.-On , to cause to seethe, to boil and foam violently, comp. Job 30:27. The deep [), i.e., literally, the deep of the sea. (=) is a word which can also be applied to a great river, like the Nile; comp. Isa 19:5; Nah 3:8. The Bedouins to this day call the Nile bahr. sea, it being quite like a sea when it overflows its banks. He maketh the sea (comp. Job 14:11) like a pot of ointment, i.e., as respects its bubbling and foaming. An Egyptian sea may here be assumed, standing in connection with the Nile, or perhaps one of the seas of the Jordan, if the author took a Palestinian crocodile as the object of his description. The figure of the pot of ointment can hardly allude to the strong odor of musk which the crocodile emits when playing in the water (Bochart, Del.) seeing that the poet is describing here only the visible effects of his tumbling and rushing in the water.
Job 41:32 [24]. After him he maketh the path to shine, by means of the bright white trail which he leaves behind him on the surface of the water, and which in b is compared to the silver bright whiteness of hoary hair (), in the same way that the classic poets speak of a (Il. I. 350; Od. IV. 405), or of a canescere (incanescere) of the waves (Catull. Epithal. Pelei; Manilius, Astron.: Ut freta canescunt, sulcum ducente carina, etc.).
Job 41:33 [25] seq.: Conclusion of the whole description, repeating the affirmation of the invincibility of the leviathan as a proud tyrant in the animal kingdom. There is not upon the earth one who commands him; lit. there is not upon the dust (comp. Job 19:25) dominion over him, comp. Zec 9:10. So correctly the Targ., Pesh., and most of the moderns, while the LXX, Vulg., [E. V.], Umbreit, Delitzsch, [Lee, Noyes, Merx] translate: on earth there is not his like. By itself could certainly be thus rendered; but the second member-he who is made ( comp. Job 15:22) [Green, 172, 5] for no-fear (or for, into a fearless creature, )-favor rather the meaning given above.
Job 41:34 [26]. He looks on all that is high; i.e., looks it boldly in the face, without fearing or turning back before it (comp. Job 40:11). He is king overall the sons of pride, i.e., over all the huge, proudly stalking beasts of prey (comp. Job 28:8), he is therefore a tyrant in the midst of the animal kingdom, to whom the larger quadrupeds must submit, especially in consequence of the violent blows which he inflicts with his tail (Bochart, p. 767; Oken, Allgem. Naturgesch., VI, 654 seq.).
6. Jobs answer and penitent confession: Job 42:1-6.
Job 42:2. Now I know that Thou canst do all things-now that in these two animal colossi Thou hast set before me the most convincing proofs of Thine omnipotence, and at the same time of the constant justice of Thy ways. And that no undertaking (no thought, or purpose, which Thou dost undertake to carry out; sensu bono, comp. Job 17:11) is forbidden to Thee (lit. cut off) [rendered inaccessible, impracticable]. To these thoughts, which God has the power to execute without condition or any limitation whatever, belongs, in the very first rank, the appointment of severe sufferings for men who, apparently, are innocent. This Job here recognizes as the normal result of the operations of the All-wise, All-merciful, and Righteous God in His government of the world, being just as truly the result of His operations as the terrible forms and activities of the behemoth and leviathan.
Job 42:3. Who is this that obscureth counsel without knowledge? thus, namely hast thou rightly spoken to me. The words of God at the beginning of the first discourse (Job 38:2), are cited here verbally; and from this divine verdict, as one that cannot be assailed nor abrogated, the inference which follows is immediately drawn: thus have I judged, without understanding, what was too wonderful for me, without knowing;i.e., the judgments which I have heretofore pronounced respecting my sufferings as unmerited and unreasonably cruel, were uttered without understanding or knowledge. To the idea, complete in itself, conveyed by , I have judged (uttered), an object is emphatically added in the following member, so that the notion of judging passes over into that of deciding or passing judgment upon something.
Job 42:4 contains another expression, cited both from the first discourse of Jehovah (Job 38:3), and from the introduction to the second (Job 40:7), here however preceded and strengthened by the short introductory clause: Hear, I pray thee, and I will speak, and for this reason to be regarded as only a free citation, to which Job then appends the observation contained in Job 42:5. This verse (4) is not therefore to be regarded as an independent entreaty on the part of Job to Jehovah, framed however in imitation of the words of Jehovah in the passages referred to (as Rosenm., Stick., Hirz., Hahn., Del. [Scott, Noyes, Barnes] think). The meaning is: Thou hast demanded of me to make my answer to Thee, as in a judicial trial; my answer can be none other than that which now follows (Job 42:5-6). [To the view that this is the language of humility on the part of Job, seeking for further instruction from God, Carey objects: (1) That Job does not ask God any particular question on which he requires information. (2) That on the supposed view the first clause, Hear now, and I will speak, would be the formula of an opening address, leading one to expect that that address was to be of some length, at least, whereas no such address does actually follow. (3.) That the words themselves would be too arrogant for Job to use in his present humbled state of mind. (4.) That as Job 42:3 is manifestly a citation from Job 38:2, and as the words in this present verse occur in Job 38:3, they may reasonably be supposed to be a citation also. (5.) On the supposition of their being a citation, a more natural, and, at the same time, a more pregnant sense is obtained].
Job 42:5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear.-According to (, as, e.g., in Job 28:22; Psa 18:45) the hearing of the ear, i.e., on the basis of a knowledge which was mediate only, and therefore incomplete, the opposite information resting on the firm basis of immediate perception, observation, or experience; comp. Psa 48:9. But now mine eye hath seen thee–i.e., not externally, or corporeally, but intuitively, by means of that intellectual faith-perception which, in the visible manifestations of creation, beholds the Creator Himself; comp. the of Rom 1:19; also above on Job 38:1.
Job 42:6. Therefore do I recant-lit. I reject [repudiate], that, viz., which I have heretofore said; the object omitted, as in Job 7:16; Job 36:5. The LXX., Symm., and Vulg. read : I reject, blame, accuse myself (Luth.) [E. V.: abhor myself], which gives substantially the same sense with the Masoretic reading (for Bttchers rendering of this Niphal-I despair-finds no conclusive support in Job 7:5), but is by no means of necessity to be substituted for the same. And I repent (am sorry, , Niph.) in dust and ashes–i.e., like one in deep mourning, one who feels himself completely broken and humbled; comp. Job 2:8; Job 2:12. And so Job returns, as it were, to his heap of ashes, the symbol of his voluntary submission under the mighty hand of God. He perfectly resumes that patient resignation to the will of God, out of which he had allowed himself to be provoked by the accusation of the friends, in that he recognizes the divine decree of suffering as one that has been inflicted on him not unjustly, and holds his peace, until the sentence of the Most High, pronouncing His blessing upon him, again exalts the upright penitent.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The progress which this second discourse of God, taken in connection with Jobs confession of penitence, marks in the inward development of the poem, is in general clear. The destruction and punishment of the proud self-exaltation of the presumptuous censurer of Gods ways, which had constituted the aim and issue of the first discourse (see on Job 40:5), must be followed by the entire overthrow of the presumption in Jobs heart, in consequence of which he had not deeply and earnestly enough perceived his sinfulness, had doubted whether the severe visitation which had come upon him was deserved, and had thus assailed Gods justice. In addition to the complete humiliation of Job it was necessary still further to produce in him entire contrition, the voluntary confession of his guilt; and this is exactly what this second discourse aims at and accomplishes. It accomplishes this, as may be seen from the first part, which is in the form of a direct rebuke (Job 40:7-14), by the ironical challenge addressed to Job, to take the government of the world into his own hand, and to judge the proud transgressors on the earth (see Job 40:10 seq.). This is a challenge which shows an advance beyond the series of ironical questions in the first discourse, in that it imputes to him who is addressed not merely the exercise of a high, wonderful, and all-embracing divine knowledge, but rather of an omnipotent activity resembling that of God, the ruler of the universe. God now no longer says, knowest thou? or canst thou? but do it! seat thyself on my judicial throne! and the stronger irony which flashes forth from such appeals must in the nature of things be accompanied by a stronger power to cause shame to him who is addressed, so that the last remnant of presumption in his heart is swept away. By thus thinking of himself as the ruler and judge of the world, Job is obliged to think of the cutting contrast between his feebleness and the divine rule, with which he has ventured to find fault; at the same time, however, he is taught that-what he would never be able to do-God really punishes the ungodly, and must have wise purposes when He does not, as indeed He might, let loose at once the floods of His wrath (Del.). In other words: Job, brought to the lowest depths of shame, must, by that challenge, be made sensible of two things in one, the omnipotence and the inflexible justice of the divine government of the world. He is compelled to see that there cannot be, and least of all in the administration of the Most High, a bare omnipotence, disjoined from justice and love.
2. So far the purpose of this discourse is clear. But is the second part of it, which is characterized by disproportionate length, and in which nature, or rather, more particularly, the animal world, is described, in accordance with this purpose? Are we, with a number of critics (see Introd. 9) to reject this part of the book as not genuine? Or, instead of resorting to this violent operation, favored as it is by nothing in the historic transmission of the text, are we, by more profoundly fathoming the meaning and aim of this wonderful description of animals, to exhibit its original organic connection with its surroundings? Obviously there is little to be gained from such ingenious, and yet at bottom, superficial remarks as that of Herder: Behemoth and Leviathan are the pillars of Hercules at the end of the book, the Non plus ultra of another world; and just as little from the flat and shallow physical theology of the vulgar rationalism, which represents the poet as finding in these prodigies of the amphibious world (Job 40:9) the hippopotamus and the crocodile, the power, wisdom, and goodness of God (see, e.g., Wohl-farth on the passage), or from the downright allegorizing of the Church Fathers, who in the leviathan and also in behemoth found the devil, with whom also Luther is in accord, when he says; By behemoth is meant all the large monster beasts, and by leviathan all the large monster fishes. But under these names he describes the power and might of the devil, and of his servants, the ungodly multitude in the world.1 On the other side, the opinion favored by most moderns, that the hippopotamus and crocodile, like the animal pictures grouped together in the first discourse of Jehovah (Second Part, Job 38:39 seq.), are designed to illustrate the greatness and wonderful glory of Gods creative energy, and so to present impressive pictures of created existence mirroring the omnipotence of God-this opinion is far from furnishing a perfectly satisfactory explanation of the poets purpose in describing so earnestly and elaborately these two animals, and in this way dissipating completely the doubt which has been raised touching the genuineness of this section of the book. That which alone can help us to a correct appreciation of the poets purpose is the truth, flowing from the view of nature presented throughout the revealed Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, that the entire animal world is a living text-book, a mirror of morals, now warning, now encouraging and shaming us, a gallery of pictures, ethical and parenetic, collected for men by God Himself; and that in particular the animals distinguished for ferocity and size are awe-inspiring examples for us, symbols, as it were, or pictorial embodiments of the Divine Wrath. Novatian, in his work on the Jewish legislation touching food (De cibis Judaicis), says: In animalibus mores depinguntur humani et actus et voluntates; and most of the Church Fathers express themselves in substantial agreement with this view in respect to the more profound ethical and symbolical significance of the animal world. So, e.g., Clement of Alexandria, among whose utterances on this subject (Pdag. III. 11; Strom. II., p. 389 C; 405 D, etc.), that which he has said respecting the sphinx (Strom. V., p. 561 C) deserves to be mentioned here as being of special significance: the human half of this creature teaches us that God is to be loved, the animal ( ) that He is to be feared. Comp. also Irenus (Adv. hr. V. 8), Tertullian (Adv. Marc. II. 18; IV. 24; De Resurr. carn. 52), Origen (Homil. VII. in Levit.), Gregory of Nyssa (Opp. T. I., p. 165, 166), Chrysostom (Homil. in Genes. XII.), and Jerome, who (Comm. in Isaj. l. VI. c. 14, p. 259, Vall.) sets forth with peculiar vividness the ethical significance of animals, especially of the poisonous and ravenous sort: Mores igitur hominum in diversis animantibus monstrantur, sicut Pharisi et Sadduci propter nequitiam appellantur genimina viperarum et propter dolos Herodes vulpus dicitur, etc.2 That this ethico-symbolical, or, if you please, ethico-allegorical, conception of the animal world is most deeply rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, and especially in the Old Testament, scarcely requires to be more particularly proved. We need only refer to the many passages where godless men, who have sunk beneath their proper dignity, are described as beasts (), such as Psa 49:13 [Psa 49:12], Psa 49:21 [Psa 49:20]; Psa 73:22; Jer 5:8; Dan 4:12 seq.; comp. also Psa 32:9; 2Ki 19:28; Tit 1:12, etc. Is it likely that our passage, which, with the most penetrating sympathy, describes two species of wild beasts, whose ferocity and strength make them dangerous, setting forth their physical constitution and mode of life, was composed without any reference to this deeper symbolical significance of the animals for man? Because it has nothing in common with that archetypal ideal significance which belongs to those royal beasts which appear in Ezekiels description of the cherub, the lion, the eagle, and the ox, is it therefore devoid of all and every profounder meaning, and entitled simply to the claim of being a broad, detailed, poetic description of natural objects, without any religious and ethical purpose? If the passage did not itself repeatedly call attention to the deeper meaning of that which is described, we might possibly entertain in regard to it that depreciative opinion which regards it as not genuine. But after the repeated intimations which itself conveys-especially in Job 40:19; Job 41:19; Job 2 [Job 2:10], Job 2:3 [Job 2:11], Job 2:14 [Job 2:22], Job 2:17 [Job 2:25]-concerning the presumptuous pride and the tyrannical ferocity of the two animals described, it is scarcely to be doubted that, according to the clearly defined and firmly maintained purpose of the poet, these are to be regarded as symbols not merely of the power, but also of the justice of God; or, in other words, that the divine attribute of which the poet desires to present them as the vivid living mirror and manifesting medium is omnipotence in the closest union with justice (more particularly with punitive justice, or wrath), or omnipotence in its judicial manifestations. These two pictures from the animal world are designed to hold up before Job the truth that all pride and presumption shown by Gods creatures towards Him, the Creator, can avail nothing; and that there is nothing in the creation so powerful and fearful, or even so invincible to man, but that it is compelled to serve the wise and exalted purposes of God in governing the world. They are intended to teach him how little capable of passing sentence upon the evil-doer he is, who cannot even draw a cord through the nose of the behemoth, and who, if he once attempted to attack the leviathan, would have reason to remember it so long as he lived, and would henceforth let it alone (Delitzsch).-To go further in the direction of a symbolical and allegorical explanation of the two monsters, and to find in them emblems of the world-power which is hostile to God, but which is powerless as against Him, would not be advisable. At least the description contains no sort of intimation, pointing more definitely to such an emblematic application to any historical empires or nations; and the pre-eminently significant and instructive passage at the close of the discourse in which the leviathan is described as king overall the proud, gives us to understand clearly enough what is the deeper meaning which the poet wishes to put in the very foreground of his description. [See further the very striking remarks on the view of the animal kingdom conveyed by these descriptions, in their contradiction to those oriental dreams which made the animal creation an occasion of offense to the languid, oriental devotee, and their accordance with those juster views of the economy of the animal system which modern science has lately brought itself to approve, in Isaac Taylors pirit of the Hebrew Poetry, Ch. VIII.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
It will not be found difficult in the homiletic treatment of this discourse rightly to apprehend and profitably to apply both the fundamental parenetic thought which it presents (as distinguished from that of the first discourse of Jehovah), and the allegorical vesture and illustrative treatment which it receives in the second longer part. The older practical expositors indeed do not furnish much help, because they wander for the most part into the extreme of unhealthy allegorical exaggerations, just as the modern scientific exegesis, in the majority of its representatives, strays into the opposite extreme of a superficial, barren, literal interpretation. A few hints deserving attention may be introduced here from the older as well as the more recent expositions of the discourse.
Job 40:7 seq. Brentius: Thus doth the Lord say to Job: Is my judgment, by which I either afflict the pious, or declare all men to be liars, to be made void and of no effect by thy opinion? Does it behoove me to be unrighteous, in order that thy righteousness may be established? Thou art righteous indeed, and to this thou hast my own testimony (in Job 2), but thou art not therefore at liberty to calumniate Gods judgments in the afflictions which He sends.-Cramer: Those who ascribe to themselves any righteousness before God proceeding from their own powers, they do nothing else than condemn God, and attempt to annul His sentence, as though He had no authority and power to judge, and to condemn them (Rom 3:4)!-Starke: God seeks to remind man, not once simply, but again and again, of the sins which he has committed, and to work in him thorough conviction, in order that his repentance may be sincere (Mat 23:37).-Wohlfarth: As God repeatedly challenges Job to convict Him, the author of his lot, if he can, so does the Lord in His works and word call upon us to do the same. And if we do not succumb to the power of sorrow on account of our sufferings, if on the contrary we hearken to the voice of divine truth which everywhere surrounds us, we shall be constrained to acknowledge that the sufferings of the pious are always under Gods oversight, and that, so far from making the friend of virtue wholly unfortunate, it is absolutely certain that He, the Almighty and Holy One, guards innocence, and that if He will not deliver it here, He will recompense it hereafter for the pain which it has endured here below.
Job 40:15 seq. Cocceius: It will be easy, if we wish to follow Scripture, to resolve into an allegory those things which are here spoken to Job, both in general and in detail (!), and from the physical object described to learn a notable lesson. For it is a remarkable feature of Gods plan that He makes the most savage of men subserve the good of the Church, so that although they may not love God from the heart, nor understand the truth, they will nevertheless, notwithstanding their own wisdom and judgments be thereby condemned, embrace the pious, hear cheerfully the word of truth, take pleasure in the reputation of the faithful, so that now with the whole world raging against the truth of the doctrine of Christ, it is a great and blessed dispensation that many vain, proud, fierce, pleasure-loving men are so softened that they will endure the doctrine and reproofs of Christs peaceful ministers, and wish to be esteemed among Christs, without being such, etc.-V. Gerlach: That which this second discourse of God shows to Job is this, that justice and omnipotence are inseparable, and that in order to establish his righteousness, man must have as much power as God himself. If any creature feels that in itself it is powerless, it thereby confesses at the same time that it is not righteous, but is in a moral, as well as a natural sense, dependent. For righteousness is nought else than that which the Almighty has established as the law after which the world is governed; In order now to make this principle clear to Jobs perception, God does not stop in His discourse with that which He says to Job with a view to his humiliation and reconciliation; but in like manner as in the series of natural wonders presented in the previous discourse, the Lord exhibits His surpassing wisdom, so by these two most powerful beasts, which man is unable to subdue, He exhibits His power, in order to prove that man, who is not able to tame these animals, is still less able to carry out his will in the government of the world, and to humble beneath himself the pride of the unrighteous.
Job 41:1 seq. H. Vict. Andre: If in what is said of the leviathan we find it expressly set forth how utterly powerless in his own strength is man as compared with him, we are naturally led to regard this leviathan as a type of the evil, and of the human misery connected with it, which existing on the earth as they do in accordance with the divine decree and permission, present in the world without so mighty a power adverse to humanity, that the individual man, even when in his own person he is able, as in fact is the case, inwardly to release himself from their hold upon him by dint of a living faith, he is nevertheless, as regards his external participation in the evil which has come through sin into the world subject to the evil and the misery, and seeks in vain to become their master. At the close (Job 41:33 [26]), God points as with the finger to the pride of the leviathan, and characterizes him as king of all the children of self-exaltation, whose servants they make themselves through their own pride. Thus, at least in general, does that accuser [murderer] of men from the beginning (Joh 8:44), in harmony with the antecedent scenes in heaven mentioned in the prologue, present himself to us here at the close as a highly expressive figure, nay as the right key to the interpretation of Jobs own history, as well as of the entire history of humanity.
Job 42:1-6. v. Gerlach: Job, in repeating here the words of God in His first address to him, acknowledges to his own shame the truth of that which God had held up before him. Gods incomprehensible wisdom and omnipotence have convinced him that the ways of His providence also are inscrutable.-Vilmar. (Past.-theol. Bltt XI, 70): By Elihus discourses and Gods judicial manifestation, and then by the repentance which is in this way produced within him, Job is brought back to the stand-point at first occupied by him (comp. Job 2:10), and the close of the book in general must be brought back rigidly to this initial point. The bodily disease remains at first unrelieved, but the sting which by the intervention of the three friends it had inflicted on the sufferer, is plucked out of his soul. In a sense that is absolutely proper the book forms a ; after long wandering the resignation to God which marks the beginning of the book reappears in the resignation of its close. And after that the inward disease has been overcome, the outward is also healed by God.
Footnotes:
[1]Concerning Luthers predecessors in this Satanological allegoristic interpretation (which of late H. V. Andrea has again attempted to revive up to a certain point, see Homiletic Remarks below-but which the representation of Satan in the prologue clearly shows to be inadmissible), see above on Job 40:19, and comp. G. M. Dursch, Symbolik der Christichen Religion, Vol. II, (1859), p. 344seq. [Wordsworth also adopts this allegoristic interpretation, and applies in detail to Satan the description of both behemoth and leviathan.]
[2]Among later advocates of the same idea, comp., e.g., Peter Damiani, Opusc. 52; de bono religiosi status et variarum animantium tropologiis; Pierre Viret. Metamorphose Chrestienne, Genve, 1561; Joh. Bapt. Porta ( 1561), De physiologia humana; Jac. Bhme. Gnadenw. VII. 3, 4; V. 20, etc.; John Bunyan, in his Autobiography [Works, Vol. I., p. 28, Newhaven, 1831]; also G. H. v. Schubert, Geschichte der Seele, 4th Ed., p. 732 seq.; Lotze, Mikro kosmos. II. p. 108 seq; also my Theol. Naturalis, I. p. 537 seq.; 541 seq.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Lord is still the speaker, through the whole of this chapter. Having before given an instance of the sovereignty of his power, in the creation and government of the largest of land creatures: in this the Lord assumes the like sovereignty of the sea, in the instance of the Leviathian, the largest of creatures in the ocean, A beautiful description is given of this animal, and this forms the whole of the chapter from beginning to end.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? (2) Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? (3) Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? (4) Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant forever? (5) Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? (6) Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants? (7) Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? (8) Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. (9) Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? (10) None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
I stay not to offer ally comment upon this description of the Leviathan, neither shall I enter into an enquiry what animal it is that is here intended by the Leviathan: some have thought that it is the crocodile that is meant to be described; and others conceive that it is the whale: but it appears to me to be of little importance to inquire. It is sufficient that it is a creature of GOD, and, as such, displays in its formation GOD’S power and sovereignty. And the conclusion to be made from the view of such a wonderful production, is best made in the words of God himself: ‘If a man would tremble at the idea of stirring up such a creature, who can be able to stand before GOD? If the thing created be tremendous, what must the great Creator be?’
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 41:1
For the sake of its literary interest, Charles Lamb’s famous application of this verse in his essay on ‘Shakespeare’s Tragedies’ may be cited: ‘The play (i.e. King Lear’) is beyond all art, as the tamperings with it show: it is too hard and stony; it must have love scenes and a happy ending. It is not enough that Cordelia is a daughter, she must shine as a lover too. Fate has put his hook in the nostrils of this leviathan, for Garrick and his followers, the showmen of the scene, to draw the mighty beast about more easily.
Reference. XLII. 1-10. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Job, p. 63.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Theophany
Job 38-41
We have now come to the portion of the Book of Job which is known as the Theophany, or Appearance, that is to say, the appearance of the Divine Being. Let us set forth the sacred speech in its fulness and unity:
1. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind [a voice without a form], and said,
2. Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
3. Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
4. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth [or founded the earth]? declare if thou hast understanding.
5. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? [Intimating absolute order and law.]
6. Whereupon are the foundations [not the same word as in verse four] thereof fastened [or sunk]? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7. When the morning-stars sang together [the stars preceded the earth], and all the sons of God [angels] shouted for joy?
8. Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? [The ocean is personified as a new-born giant.]
9. When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it,
10. And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11. And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
12. Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days [any day in thy little life]; and caused the day-spring to know his place;
13. That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? [Note the material and moral effects of light].
14. It is turned as clay to the seal [it is changed as seal-clay]; and they stand as a garment [all things stand out as a garment].
15. And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.
16. Hast thou entered into the springs [weepings] of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search [vain search] of the depth?
17. Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18. Hast thou perceived [comprehended] the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
19. Where is the way [the land] where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof?
20. That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?
21. Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?
22. Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
23. Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24. By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? [ or, doth the east wind scatter itself over the earth?]
25. Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters [who hath riven a channel for the torrent of waters], or a way for the lightning of thunder [of voices];
26. To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
27. To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
28. Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
29. Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
30. The waters are hid as with a stone [the waters are hardened like stone, and the surface of the deep is held fast], and the face of the deep is frozen.
31. Canst thou bind the sweet influences [fastenings] of Pleiades [a heap or group], or loose the bands of Orion [the fool or giant]?
32. Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth [some say the Zodiac; others, Jupiter or Venus] in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
33. Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
34. Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
35. Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?
36. Who hath put wisdom [the gift of discerning causes] in the inward parts [the kidneys are regarded in Hebrew physiology as the seat of instinctive yearnings]? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
37. Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay [cause to lie down] the bottles of heaven.
38. When the dust groweth into hardness [when the dust is molten into a mass], and the clods cleave fast together?
39. Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion [lioness]? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
40. When they couch in their dens, and abide [sit] in the covert to lie in wait?
41. Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.
Job 39
1. Knowest [this knowledge includes perception into causes] thou the time when the wild goats [rock-climbers] of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
2. Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
3. They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows. [Arab poets call infants and young children “pangs.”]
4. Their young ones are in good liking [fatten], they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.
5. Who hath sent out the wild ass free [whose speed exceeds that of the fastest horse]? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
6. Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings [salt waste which wild asses lick with avidity].
7. He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver [task-master].
8. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.
9. Will the unicorn [ rather, a well-known species of gazelle] be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
10. Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
11. Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
12. Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?
13. Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks [a mistranslation]? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
14. Which leaveth [not in the sense of forsaking, but in the sense of committing] her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
15. And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.
16. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her’s: her labour is in vain without fear;
17. Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
18. What time she lifteth up herself on high [lashes the air], she scorneth the horse and his rider.
19. Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? [Suggesting the idea of vehement and terrific movement.]
20. Canst thou make him afraid [spring] as a grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils is terrible.
21. He paweth in the valley [he diggeth the plain], and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
22. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted: neither turneth he back from the sword.
23. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.
24. He swalloweth the ground [the space which separates the armies] with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.
25. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
26. Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?
27. Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?
28. She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.
29. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.
30. Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.
Job 40
1. Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said,
2. Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
3. Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
4. Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
5. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
6. Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
7. Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
8. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
9. Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with voice like him?
10. Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.
11. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.
12. Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.
13. Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.
14. Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.
15. Behold now behemoth [the hippopotamus], which I made with thee; he eateth grass [herbage] as an ox.
16. Lo now, his strength [his special characteristic] is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. [Unlike the hippopotamus, the elephant is mostly easily wounded in the belly.]
17. He moveth his tail like a cedar [not in size but in rigidity]: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
18. His bones are as strong pieces of brass [his bones are as tubes of copper]; his bones are like bars of iron.
19. He is the chief of the ways [the masterpiece] of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
20. Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. [“He searches the rising ground near the river for his substance, in company with the animals of the land.”]
21. He lieth under the shady trees [the lotus trees], in the covert of the reed, and fens.
22. The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
23. Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth [he is steadfast if the Jordan boast upon his mouth].
24. He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.
Job 41
I. Canst thou draw out leviathan [crocodile] with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down [sinkest his tongue in a noose]?
2. Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
3. Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?
4. Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? [The crocodile can be partially tamed.]
5. Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
6. Shall the companions [Egyptian fishermen were called Fellows or Companions] make a banquet [traffic] of him? shall they part him among the merchants [Canaanites]?
7. Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?
8. Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
9. Behold the hope of him [the hope of man that the animal may be caught] is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10. None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
11. Who hath prevented me [made me a debtor], that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.
12. I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.
13. Who can discover the face of his garment [who can lift up, as a veil, his outside covering]? or who can come to him with his double bridle [his double row of teeth]?
14. Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about [round about his teeth is terror].
15. His scales are his pride [“grand is the channeling of his shield-like scales”], shut up together as with a close seal.
16. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.
17. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.
18. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning [and were made a symbol of morning by the Egyptians],
19. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
20. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.
21. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
22. In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.
23. The flakes of his flesh [even the parts of most animals which are loose and flabby] are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.
24. His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.
25. When he raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves [lose their presence of mind].
26. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
27. He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
28. The arrow cannot make him flee: sling stones are turned with him into stubble.
29. Darts [or clubs] are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
30. Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.
31. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
32. He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.
33. Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
34. He [coldly] beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride [all beasts of prey].
The Theophany. I.
Job 38-41
Let us admit that the Theophany is poetical; that will not hinder our deriving from it lessons that are supported by reason and vividly illustrated by facts. As an incident, the Theopany is before us, come whence it may. It inquires concerning great realities, which realities are patent to our vision. It does not plunge into metaphysics only, or rise to things transcendental; it keeps within lines which are more or less visible, lines which in many cases are actually tangible. Here, then, it stands as a fact, to be perused and wisely considered.
To such questions there ought to be some answer. They are a hundred thick on the page. If we cannot answer all we may answer some. God has not spared his interrogatories. There is no attempt at concealment. He points to the door, and asks who built it, and how to get into it, and how to bring from beyond it whatever treasure may be hidden there. It is a sublime challenge in the form of interrogation.
The thing to be noted first of all, is, that it purports to be the speech of God. That is a bold suggestion. The man who wrote the first verse fixed the bound of his own task.
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said ” ( Job 38:1 ).
It was a daring line even for an author to write. He proposed his own end, and by that end he shall be judged. He himself assigned the level of his thought, and we are at liberty to watch whether he keeps upon the level, or falls to some lower line. A wonderful thing to have injected God into any book! This is what is done in the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Whether he did so or not, some man said he did. That thought must be traced to its genesis. It is easy for us now, amid the familiarity of religious education, to talk of God doing this and that, and accomplishing great purposes, and consummating stupendous miracles. We were born into an atmosphere in which such suggestions and inquiries are native and familiar. There was a time when they had to be invented or revealed. Notice that God is supposed to have taken part in the colloquy. Now Job will be satisfied. He has been crying out for God; he has been telling his friends again and again that if he could but see God everything would be rectified almost instantaneously. Job has been mourning like one forsaken, saying, Oh that I knew where I might find him! Oh that God would come to me, and prefer his accusation against me in his own person and language! Now the aspiration is answered: God is at the front. Let us see what comes of the conflict.
Still we may dwell upon the sweet and sacred thought that God is taking part in human controversies, inquiries, and studies of every depth and range. He is a friend at least who suggested that God has something to say to me when all time is night, when all sensation is pain. If we could be sure that One takes part in human conversation if only by way of cross-examination, it would be something to know; at any moment he might change his tone. It is everything to feel that he is in the conversation. Whatever point he may occupy, whatever line of reply he may adopt, to have him, who is the beginning and the ending, in the intercourse, is to have at least a possible opportunity of seeing new light, and feeling a new touch of power, and being brought into more vivid and sympathetic relations with things profound and eternal. Why do we edge the Almighty out of life by describing his supposed intervention as the suggestion of poetry? What is this poetry, supposed to be so mischievous? Is it any more mischievous than a sky? What crimes has it committed? What is the indictment against poetry? By “poetry” we are not to understand words that meet together in sound and rhyme, but the highest reason, the sublimest philosophy, the very blossom of reason. Men suppose that when they have designated a saying or a suggestion as poetical, they have put it out of court. It is not so. A fable may be the highest fact. In a romance you may find the soul of the truest history; there may not be p solitary literal incident in the whole, and yet the effect shall be atmospheric, a sense of having been in other centuries and in other lands, and learned many languages, and entered into masonry with things hither unfamiliar. Sometimes we must use wings. Poetry may be as the wings of reason. But how good the poetry is which suggests that God is a listener to human talk, and may become a party to human conversation, and may at least riddle the darkness of our confusion by the darts of his own inquiries. Here is a case in point. Does he ask little questions? Are they frivolous interrogations that he propounds? Is the inquiry worthy of his name, even though that name be poetical? Is every question here on a level with the highest thinking? Judge the Theophany as a whole, and then say how far we are at liberty to excuse ourselves from the applications of its argument on the trivial ground that it is but poetry.
Who can read all these questions without feeling that man came very late into the field of creation? No deference is paid to his venerableness. The Lord does not accost him as a thing of ancient time as compared with the creation of which he is a part. Everything was here before man came: the earth was founded, the stars shone, the seas rolled in their infinite channels; the Pleiades were sprinkled on the blue of heaven, and the band of Orion was a fact before poor Job was born. It would seem as if everything had been done that could have been done by way of preparation for him! He brought nothing with him into this creation, not even one little star, or one tiny flower, or one singing bird: the house was furnished in every chamber for the reception of this visitor. This is scientific according to the science of the passing time. Has any one invented a theory that man came first, and furnished his own house, allotted his own stars, and supplied the face of the earth with what ornamentation he required? Is there anything here inconsistent with the marvellous doctrine of evolution? Contrariwise, is not everything here indicative of germ, and progress, and unfolding, and preparation, as if at any moment the consummation might be effected and God’s purpose revealed in the entirety of its pomp and beneficence? Man is here spoken of as having just come into the sphere of things, and not having yet had time to know where he is, what is the meaning of the symbols that glitter from the sky or the suggestions that enrich the earth. A challenge like this would be quite inconsistent with a recent creation of the universe. How recent that creation would be at the time at which these inquiries were put! Now that astronomy has made us familiar with whole rows and regiments of figures, we speak of six or eight or ten thousand years as but a twinkling of the eye, but according to old reckoning how young would creation have been, if it had been created but six thousand years ago when this Theophany was written some three or four thousand years since as a matter of literary fact! Take off three or four thousand years from the supposed six, and then all the questions would be inappropriate and absurd as applied to a creation hardly finished. The speech seems to be spoken across an eternity. So that we have no fear of evolutionary figures or astronomical calculations; we have no apprehension arising from theories of growth, involvement, evolvement progress, consummation; on the contrary, the whole spirit and genius of the Bible would seem to point to age, mystery, immeasurableness, unknowableness. Everywhere there is written upon every creation of God Unfathomable. The Theophany, then, is worthy, in point of literary conception and grandeur of the opening line “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.”
Not only does man come late into the field of creation, but, viewed individually, how soon he passes away! “Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” We are of yesterday, and know nothing. The bells that announce our birth would seem to be interrupted by the toll of the knell that announces our decease. Thus God has great hold upon the whole race by the hold which he has upon the individual man. When the individual man enlarges himself into humanity, and speaks of the whole race, the speech is not without nobleness; but how soon the speaker is humbled when he is reminded that he will not have time to finish his own argument that long before he can reach an appropriate peroration he will be numbered with the generations that are dead. Thus we have greatness and smallness, abjectness and majesty, marvellously associated in the person of man. God seems to have taken no counsel with man about any of his arrangements of a natural kind. Man was not there to be consulted. Poor man! he was not asked where the Pleiades should shine; he was not invited to give an opinion upon the length and breadth of the sea; he was not asked how the rain should be brought forth, and at what periods it should descend in fertilising baptism upon the thirsty ground. He finds everything appointed, fixed, settled. Man is like the sea in so far as there seems to be a boundary which he may not pass “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further,” and here shall thy pursuit become prayer, and thy strength assume the weakness of supplication. Be the author of the Theophany who he may, be he profound reasoner or winged and ardent poet, he keeps his level well. Let us be just to him, even if we approach him from an unbelieving or a sceptical point of view. The palm be his who wins it: honour to whom honour is due. The man who dreamed this Theophany never falls into a nightmare; his dream keeps on the wing until it alights at the very gate of heaven.
Judged in relation to all the universe which has been described, how inferior is the position which man occupies in creation! some of the questions are very mocking and most humbling: man is asked if he can fly; if he can send out lightnings, and cause the electricity to come and stand at his side and say, Here am I. He is put down, snubbed, rebuked. He is pointed to the beasts of the field, and asked what he can do with them: can he hire the unicorn? “Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?” ( Job 39:9-12 ). What art thou? Gird up thy loins now like a man, and answer these questions. “Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?… canst thou put an hook into his nose?… The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon. He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee: sling stones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear. Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.” What art thou? what canst thou do? where is thy strength? Disclose it. And as for thy wisdom, what is the measure thereof? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? canst thou play with the stars? All these questions drive man back into his appropriate position. The argument would seem to be, Until you can understand these comparatively inferior matters, let other subjects alone: if you cannot explain the ground you tread upon, the probability is that you will not be able to explain the sky you gaze upon: if you know not yourself, how can you know God? And yet let us not be discouraged. If man has any superiority it must be in other directions. How great, then, must those directions be, how sublime in their scope and energy! Is man altogether overwhelmed by these inquiries? In a certain limited way he is; but does he not recover his breath, and return and say, After all, I am crowned above all these things? He does, but we must wait until he has had time to recover his breath or regain his composure. The questions come upon him like a cataract! they roar upon him from all points of the compass in great overwhelming voices, so that he is deafened and stunned and thrown down, and asks for time. Presently we shall see that man is greater than all the stars put together, and that although he cannot search the past to exhaustion he will live when the sun himself grows dim and nature fades away; he will abide in the secret of the Almighty, long as eternal ages roll. His greatness is not in the past but in the future. Hardly a star in the blue of heaven but mocks the recentness of his birthday: but he says that he will live when the stars shall all be extinguished. Greatness does not lie in one direction. Greatness may hardly lie at all in the past: “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” The Christian hope is that when Christ appears we shall be like him, that we shall see him as he is. We are not to be great as antiquarians but great as sons of God.
Here, then, is our opportunity: shall we arise and avail ourselves of it? the mischief is lest we should be tempted to follow out these inquiries in the Theophany as if our whole interest lay in the past. Into the past we can go but a little way. Who can tell the number of God’s works, or find out the Almighty unto perfection? The oldest man amongst us is less than an infant of days compared even with some gigantic trees that have been rooted in the earth for a thousand years; they stand whilst man perishes; yea, they throw a shadow over a man’s grave, and still grow on as if time meant them to be immortal. Our greatness, let us repeat, does not relate to the past, or to the past only; our opportunity is tomorrow the great morrow of eternity. So our song is, This corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality: death shall be swallowed up in victory; saints shall mock the tomb. How do we feel now? are we rebuked? are we humbled? The answer must be Yes, and No: we are very young compared with the creation of God, but all these things shall be dissolved, the heavens shall pass away with a great noise; the little eternity of the ages shall be swallowed up and forgotten, and all the eternity of God’s love and fellowship shall open as in ever-increasing brightness. How is that glory to be attained? Here the gospel preacher has his distinctive word to deliver. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” The word may be disputed, but there it is; the word may occasion great mental anxiety, but it abides there a solemn and noble fact in the book. Why should it affright us? There is music in that gospel. Hear it again. “This is life eternal.” A peculiar quality of life rather than a mere duration of life: “eternal” does not only point to unendingness but to quality of life “This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” The mystery is a mystery of music; the mystery is a mystery of light: there is no confusion in the thought, but unsearchable riches, and the embarrassment is that of wealth not of poverty. So new we have two standards of judgment: the one the great outside creation, stars and seas, beasts and birds, hidden secrets of nature, undiscovered laws of the intricate economy of the universe; there we can know but little: and the other standard of judgment is the Son of God, of whom it is said, he created all things, was before all things, that in him all things consist, that he is Lord of all the stars, even of hosts; he shaped every one of them, flashed its light into the eye of every planet that burns, and rules them all with majesty as sublime as it is gracious. The Christian gospel says that he, “being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” that he might give us eternal life. O creation! great, monotonous, hard, austere creation! we perish as to the mere matter of duration before the ages which measure the period of thine existence, but we mock thee, laugh at thee, despise thee, if thou dost challenge us with a view to the future: the past is thine, take it, and die in luxuriating upon it; the future is ours, and being in Christ we cannot die. This is our rational challenge, as well as our Christian appeal and comfort.
Note
The exact amount of censure due to Job for the excesses into which he had been betrayed, and to his three opponents for their harshness and want of candour, could only be awarded by an omniscient Judge. Hence the necessity for the Theophany from the midst of the storm Jehovah speaks. In language of incomparable grandeur He reproves and silences the murmurs of Job. God does not condescend, strictly speaking, to argue with His creatures. The speculative questions discussed in the colloquy are unnoticed, but the declaration of God’s absolute power is illustrated by a marvellously beautiful and comprehensive survey of the glory of creation, and His all-embracing Providence by reference to the phenomena of the animal kingdom. He who would argue with the Lord must understand at least the objects for which instincts so strange and manifold are given to the beings far below man in gifts and powers. This declaration suffices to bring Job to a right mind: his confesses his inability to comprehend, and therefore to answer his Maker ( Job 40:3-4 ). A second address completes the work. It proves that a charge of injustice against God involves the consequence that the accuser is more competent than he to rule the universe. He should then be able to control, to punish, to reduce all creatures to order but he cannot even subdue the monsters of the irrational creation. Baffled by leviathan and behemoth, how can he hold the reins of government, how contend with him who made and rules them all? Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
The Theophany. II.
Job 38-41
How far is it possible to read all the great questions contained in the Theophany in a sympathetic and gentle tone? May we not be wrong in supposing that all the questions were put as with the whole pomp and majesty of heaven? Has not the Lord a still small voice in which he can put heart-searching questions? Is there not a river of God, the streams whereof shall make glad his city? Is that river a great, boiling, foaming flood? Perhaps we may have been wrong in carrying the whirlwind into the questions. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,” but it is not said that the Lord answered Job like a whirlwind; even out of that tabernacle of storm God might speak to the suffering patriarch in an accommodated voice, in a whisper suited to his weakness. Let it be an exercise in sacred rhetoric to read the questions of the Theophany sympathetically, to whisper them, to address them to the heart alone. Unless we get the right tone in reading God’s Book, we shall mar all its music, and we shall miss all its gospel. The people wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of the mouth of Jesus Christ; and the tone was often an explanation of what was spoken; there was something in the Man’s way of stating what he had to say, which led hearers, otherwise hostile, to admit “Never man spake like this man.” It seems, indeed, as if the questions should be spoken with trumpets and thunders and whirlwinds a thousand in number; and yet by so speaking them we should not reveal the majesty of God; we might reveal that majesty still more vividly and persuasively by finding a way of asking the questions which would not overpower the listener or destroy what little strength he had.
God does not hesitate to charge upon the patriarch and all whom he represented something like absolute ignorance: “Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?… Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?” What hast thou done? What hast thou seen? We have only seen outsides what are called phenomena or appearances, aspects and phases of things; but what is below? “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” “Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?” Thou hast sailed across the sea, but hast thou ever walked through its depths? Hast thou not rather been carried as by some mighty nurse from continent to continent, rather than been a spectator of the springs of the infinite flood? “Hast thou walked in the search of the depth?” The word “search” is full of meaning; it signifies a kind of quest which will not be satisfied with anything but the origin, the actual fountain and spring and beginning of things: it is not enough to see the water, we must know where the water comes from; we must search into the depth. It is not enough to see the hail that falls, we want to see the house out of which it comes, the infinite snow-house in which God has laid up his treasures of cold. May we not see the treasures of the hail? We are ever kept outside. God has always something more that we have not seen. “Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?” Thus we are reminded of our ignorance. Yet we are wise, limitedly wise; we are quite great as grubbers after phenomena; we come home every night laden with more phenomena. By some mysterious process the word “phenomena” seems to satisfy our appetite because it fills our mouth. But what are these phenomena? Have we found out everything yet? Let the most learned men answer, and they will say, We have found out nothing as it really is; we have just learned enough to correct the mistakes of yesterday, and enough to humble us in view of tomorrow; we are waiting for another revelation or discovery or acquisition; we have spent one century in obliterating the misrecorded phenomena of another. This is admitted by the men themselves. They demand justice at the hands of the Christian teacher, and they are the first to admit that they know nothing in its reality, in its interior condition, quality, and meaning. We are not now forcing an interpretation upon their words, but almost literally quoting them. What is it that you are now playing with? hand it to me: what is the name of it? A flute. Very good: I have heard it, now I want to examine it! Open it for me! Why don’t you open it? What are you playing upon? It seems to be a grand, many-voiced instrument, what is the name of it? You answer me, It is an organ. Good: I like it; it touches me at a thousand points, and makes me feel as if I had a thousand lives: now open it; show me the music: I have heard it, I want to see it. You decline; in declining you are wise. Who destroys the instrument through which the music comes? Who would cut a little bird’s throat to find out the secret of its trill? Hast thou seen the treasures searched the depths gone into the interior of things? Or art thou laden like a diligent gleaner with sheaves of phenomena, which thou art going to store in thy memory today for the purpose of casting them out tomorrow? What can we then know about God, if we can know so little about his sea, and the treasure-house of his hail, and the sanctuary of his thunder? It is the same with religious emotion and religious conviction. Take your emotion to pieces. You decline to take your flute to pieces; you smile at the suggestion that you should open every part of the organ and show me the singing angels that are closeted in the good prison: how then can I take this religious emotion to pieces? These deep religious convictions resist analysis; when we approach them analytically, they treat us as murderers. Men who exclaim against vivisection, and often justly, surely ought to be proportionately indignant with the men who would take souls, so to say, fibre from fibre, and perform upon them all the tricks and cruelties of analysis. Yet the universe is beautiful and profitable exceedingly. Even what we can see of it often fills our eyes with tears. Who has not been melted to tears by the beauty of nature, by the appealing sunshine, by the flower-gemmed fields and hills, by the purling streams and singing birds, and all the tender economy of summer? Men have sometimes been graciously forced to pray because things were so comely, beautiful, tender, suggestive; they could not be wild-voiced in the presence of such charms; even the rudest felt a new tone come into his voice as he spake about the mystic loveliness. Behind all things there is a secret, call it by what name you please: some have called it secret; others have called it persistent force; others have described it by various qualifications of energy; others again have said, It is a spirit that is behind things; others have whispered, It is a father. But that there is something behind appearances is a general belief amongst intelligent men. When one of the greatest of our teachers compares what is known to a piano of so many octaves, he only numbers the octaves which he can touch: who can tell what octaves infinite lie beyond his fingers? Who will say that any one man’s fingers can touch the extremes of things? Were he to say so, we should mock him as he extended his arms to show us what a little span he has. Throughout the Theophany, then, God is not afraid to charge men with absolute ignorance of interior realities which may be spiritual energies.
Not only is man ignorant, he is powerless “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?” ( Job 38:31 ). Hark how he speaks of Pleiades as if the white sapphires were but a handful, and a child could use them! “Or loose the bands of Orion?” Answer me! “Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?” ( Job 38:32-35 ). These questions admit of some answer. Surely we should be able to give some reply to interrogatories of this kind. Then how man’s power is mocked “Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?” Try him; reason with him; show thyself friendly to him: come, thou art learned in the tricks of persuasion and all the conjuring of rhetorical argument, try thy skill upon the unicorn “canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?” Make some use of him; make a domestic of him; make a slave of the unicorn: or trust him; put confidence in him; be magnanimous to the unicorn: “Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?” Surely there is a mocking laugh running through all these particular inquiries, not a laugh of bitter mockery, but of that taunt which has a gracious meaning, and by which alone God can sometimes call us to a realization of our strength which is in very deed our weakness. Then when all the questions are answered so far, God says, “Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?” Thou art very able and yet very feeble: come, let us see what thou canst do. Thou canst beat a dog, conciliate a unicorn; thou canst slay an ox, and stand over him like a butcher-conqueror, call the eagle back from heaven’s gate; demand that he come; thou art a man, thunder at him: what is the result? Thou hast numerous trophies and proofs of thine ability, now put a thorn through the nostrils of leviathan, thrust a spear through the scales of the crocodile. Thou canst do something: thou canst not do everything. Do not understand, therefore, that weakness is power, or that power is all power; draw boundaries, lines, limits, and within these assert thy manhood and begin thy religion. Truly we are very powerless. Yet in some respects we are influential in a degree which warms our vanity. In the summer of 1886 there were shocks of earthquake in Charleston and in various other American cities. Why did the people not speak to the earthquake, and bid it be quiet? Surely they might have done that. Many of them were rich planters; many of them were gifted in the power of cursing and swearing and defying God. Look at them! Another shock, and the greatest buildings in the city are rent and dashed to the dust. Hear these men drunkards, swearers, blasphemers, worldly men begging black niggers on the open highway to pray! What a humiliation was theirs! Why did they not bind the earthquake, throw a bridle upon the neck of the infinite beast, put a bit in his mouth, and make him lie down and be still? See, they reel to and fro like drunken men! How powerless we are! And in these hours of powerlessness we know what a man’s faith is worth. It is in such crises that we know what your intellectual speculations and fine metaphysical flourishings come to; it is then that we put our finger upon the pack of her mysteries, and say, Why don’t you open this pack, and be quiet and comfortable whilst the heart is being shaken at its very centre? Not a metaphysician but would part with all the mysteries he ever knew if he could only be saved from the wolf that is two feet behind him. We are not sure that any metaphysician ever lived who would not be quite willing to go back to school again as an ignorant boy if the earthquake would only give over! Oh it rocks the town, it tears the mountains, it troubles the sea oh would it but be quiet! We would give money, fame, learning, and begin the world afresh: but we cannot live in this misery. When you see men boasting, and blaspheming and scorning the Church, and pouring contempt upon all the ordinances of religion, all you need desire by way of testing the reality of such ebullition and madness would be to see them under the influence of an earthquake: they would beg a dog to pray for them if they thought that the dog had any influence with Heaven. Are we to be led by these men and to take the cue of our life from them, and to say, How strong they are, how lofty in stature, how broad in chest, and how they breathe with all the vigour of superabounding life: they shall be our leaders, and not your praying men in the Church? Can the blind lead the blind? they shall both fall into the ditch. You cannot tell what a man is by any one particular hour of his experience; you must see him in every degree of the circle before you can fully estimate the quality which marks him as a man.
It is something to know that we are ignorant and that we are powerless. Much is gained by knowing the limits of our ability, and the limits of our knowledge. Let a man keep within the boundary of his strength, and he will be powerful for good: let him stretch himself one little inch beyond God’s appointment, and he will be not only impotent but contemptible. Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves and strong ambition be stayed. “The Lord reigneth.” We are but men; our breath is in our nostrils. We cannot see through one little sheet of paper; the tiniest leaf that grows in the field if put upon our eye would shut out the sun. Better let us be quiet, simple, watchful, humble, patient, receiving the divine revelation as the divine Giver may see fit to disclose it.
The great argument, then, is this: as there is so much in nature which thou hast not understood, there may be also much in human life and discipline thou hast not fully comprehended. It is the argument of analogy. It is the great argument of the philosophical bishop. There is no escape from it; certainly none within the limits of the Theophany. If we do not know the interior of a piece of wood, how can we know the interior of a thought? If we cannot pluck a flower, and keep it, how could we pluck the secret of God, and retain it as our own? Again and again we have seen that to pluck a flower is to kill it. However tenderly you may treat it, however you may feed it with water, protect it from all adverse influences, you have plucked the flower, and you have killed it Thou shalt not trespass in the divine province. We may walk through the garden of God, but may not pluck the flowers that grow in that holy paradise. Things are not made valuable to us simply by holding them in the hand. The sun would be no sun if we could inclose him within our own habitation: he stands away at an inaccessible distance; he can come down to us, but we cannot go up to him. O thou great hospitable sun, terrible yet genial, distant yet quite near, thou art a bright symbol of the God who made thee. As there are mysteries in nature, so there are mysteries in life. What is your thought? Where did it come from? How did your ideas originate? What is that thing you call your soul? Show it; describe it; trace its length; name its relations; what is it? Psychology has its holy of holies as well as theology. Do not imagine that all the mysteries cluster around the name of God. We must, then, accept the mysteries of life: they are many in number; they are very pressing and urgent, and often embarrassing and difficult; but they belong to the great system of God’s government. Why should the good man have trouble? Why should the atheist have a golden harvest? Why should the blasphemer prosper and the suppliant be driven away as if by a pursuing and judicial wind from heaven? “My feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.” Ah me! my soul, wait thou patiently upon God. The mysteries of nature have their counterpart in the mysteries of life. But remember, in the second place, that as all in nature is under divine control, so is all in human life. There is a wise God over all, blessed for ever more. He comes down to us as a father, compassionate, tender, watchful, regarding every one of us as an only child, numbering the hairs of our head; he besets us behind and before; he is on the right hand and on the left, and he lays his hand upon us. We know it, for we have proved it in a thousand instances: our whole life is an argument in proof of the existence, government, and goodness of God. “Oh rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” The day is very cloudy and the night is full of weary hours; the chariot-wheels of time and the soul’s trouble roll heavily; morning after morning comes like one disappointment upon another. It requires a God-wrought faith, a very miracle of trust, to wait and not complain.
Is man, then, but a part of an economy; not an individual but part of a process; one amongst ten thousand other things? Is a man at liberty to say I have renounced my individuality; I fall into the great stream and current of what is called history; I have declined individual responsibility, and identified myself with the sum-total of things? How foolish would be this talk! Let us test that for one moment. Does Society recognise the impersonal creed? We must bring these creeds to practical tests. Suppose Society should say to all its members: Individual responsibility is gone; we are part and parcel of a stupendous economy, and we must just take our lot with the general movement: it is in vain that man after man should stand up and claim individual franchise or honour or influence or responsibility. Society never said so, and yet retained its security for any length of time. Does man himself recognise it in reference to his daily wants? Does he say: I am part of a general system of things, and therefore I do not trouble about what I should eat and what I should drink and wherewithal I should be clothed: all these are petty questions, minor and frivolous inquiries and concerns? Does man ever say so? But when he mounts his philosophic steed, then he becomes “part of a general economy,” a shadowy gentleman, an impalpable nothing, a most proud humility. The doctrine will not bear practical tests. Man is always asserting his rights. Take part of his property from him, and you will destroy his creed. Occupy the seat for which he has paid, and tell him when he comes to claim it that he is part of a great system of things, belongs to a mysterious and impalpable economy, and say, “Why so hot, my little sir? Why not amalgamate yourself with the universe?” If these creeds will not bear testing in the marketplace and at the railway station, and in all the wear and tear, in all the attrition and controversy, of life, they are vanity, an empty wind. The Christian doctrine is Every one of us shall give account of himself to God: we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. We cannot abandon our individuality socially, why should we abandon it religiously? We could not live by giving ourselves away into airy nothingness, then how can we live the better and nobler life by obliterating our personality and sinking like a snowflake on a river?
Here let us rest. God has spoken. His questions have been a multitude; they may have been thundered, they may have been whispered; now and then they may have risen into pomp and majesty and augustness, and yet now and then they may have come down into whisper and breathing and gentle speech. God’s ministry is manifold. There is no monotony in the speech of God. He reveals himself to us as we are able to bear it. We cannot go to himself directly; we can go to his Son Jesus Christ, whom he hath made Lord of all things. We hail thee, Son of man, Son of God, and we do our own convictions injustice unless we hail thee as God the Son, and crown thee Lord of all.
The Theophany, As a Whole
Job 38-41
We have been waiting for the answer of God to the tremble of Job and to the tumult occasioned by his friends. We became weary of the fray of words, for they seemed to have no legitimate stopping-place, and to bring with them no sufficient and satisfactory answer. At length God has appeared, and we have already said that the appearance of God upon the scene is itself the great answer. To have come into the action at all is to have revealed a condescension and a complacency amounting to an expression of profound and tender solicitude in regard to all that distressed and overwhelmed the life of the patriarch. If God had not spoken, his presence would have been an answer. To be assured that God draws nigh at any moment to troubled human life, is to be also sure that he will see the right vindicated: he will not break the bruised reed; he will not quench the smoking flax; nor will he allow others to break and to quench what he has lovingly taken within his fatherly care. But, as a matter of fact, God has used words, and therefore we are entitled to read them, and to estimate their value, and to consider their whole influence upon the marvellous situation which occasioned them. This is not the answer that we expected. If we had been challenged to provide an answer, our imagination would have taken a very different line from that which God adopted in his reply to Job and his comforters. But who are we that we should have imagined any answer at all? Better that we should have sat down in silence, saying, This is a trouble which puts away from its sacred dignity all words ever devised or used by man. Let man keep his words for mean occasions; let him not attempt to use them when God’s hand it laid heavily upon one of his creatures: then silence is the true eloquence, mute grief is the wisest sympathy.
The answer overwhelms our expectations. It is greater than we had supposed it would be. We were not aware that such a sweep of thought would have been taken by the great Speaker and the divine Healer. Our way would have been more direct, in some respects more dramatic: we would have seen the black enemy lifted in mid-air, and blasted by the lightning he had defied; we might have imagined him slain upon the altar of the universe, and cast down into outer and eternal darkness, and Job clothed with fine linen in sight of earth and heaven, and crowned conqueror, and having in his hand a palm worthy of his patience. Thus our little expectations are always turned upside down; thus our little wisdom is proved by its littleness to be but a variety of ignorance: so does God make all occasions great, and show how wise a thing it would be on our part to refer all matters to his judgment, and not to take them within the limits of our own twilight and confused counsels. At the last it will be even so; the winding-up will be so contrary to our expectations: the first shall be last, and the last shall be first; and men shall come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and many who had attempted to force their way into the kingdom will be ordered back into the darkness which is native to their corruption. Let us learn from this continual rebuking of expectation that things all lie within God’s power and wisdom, and that he will dispose them graciously and permanently, and vindicate his disposal by appeals to our own judgment and experience, in a larger world, where there is light enough to touch the problems of the past at every point.
In the next place, this is a terrible use to make of nature. Who could have thought that nature would be so used forced, so to say, into religious uses of the largest kind? The very stones cry out in hymns of praise to God; the whole heaven comes to vindicate the excellence of his wisdom and the completeness of his power. What can man do when Nature takes up the exposition of divine purpose and decree? Who can answer the whirlwind? Who can hold his breath in face of a tempest that leaps down from the clouds and makes the mountains shake by its tremendous energy? Who could look up when the stars put on all their light and blind the mortal vision of man? We are made afraid when we come into a realisation of this particular use of nature. We did not know that God had so many ministers who could speak tor him. We had been dreaming about the heavens, and wondering about the infinite arch, and talking about the beauty of the things that lay round about us; we had called the earth a garden of God, and thought of nature as a comforting mother and nurse: yet now when the occasion needs it all nature stands up like an army ten thousand times ten thousand strong, and takes up the cause of God and pleads it with infinite eloquence. If we have to be rebuked by nature in this way, who can stand for one moment? If a may may not utter a complaint lest the lightning blind him, who then dare, confess that he has a sorrow that gnaws his heart? If our disobedience is to be reproved by the rhythmic movement of the obedient stars, then who would care or dare to live? All things obey the Creator but man: “the heavens declare the glory of God”; night unto night uttereth speech; there is no disobedience in all the uproar of the seas; when nature is shaken she is not rebellious: but man strange, poor, weird, ghostly man can scarcely open his mouth without blasphemy, or look without insulting the heavens he gazes at, or think without planning some treason against the eternal throne. So God uses this great machine; so God hurls at us the stars that shine so placidly, and make the night so fair. Yet we must take care how we use nature: she is a dainty instrument; she resents some of the approaches we make when we intend to use her for illicit or base or unworthy purposes. We must beware how we press nature into our service. We must not appropriate nature to exclusive uses or to hint at the divisions and separations of men. Nature should be used otherwise. Better allow the great Creator to say how nature may be employed in illustrating religious thought, religious relations, and religious action.
But this is not the only use which is made of nature even by the Creator. At first we are affrighted, as we nearly always are in the Old Testament, but when the Creator speaks of nature in the New Testament he adopts quite a different tone. There is One of whom it is said, He made all things: he is before all things: by him all things consist: without him was not anything made that was made. It will be instructive to hear him speak of the uses of nature. Does he answer his hearers “out of the whirlwind?” Does he thunder upon them from the sanctuary of eternity? Hear him, and wonder at the gracious words which proceed out of his mouth Consider the lilies of the field how they grow: if God so care for or clothe the grass of the field, will he not much more care for and clothe you, O ye of little faith? Yet it would be unfair to the Old Testament if we did not point out that even there the gentler uses of nature are shown by the very Creator himself. When Jacob was cast down, when his way was supposed to be passed over, when all hope had died out of him, and every glint of light had vanished from his sky, God said to him, “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things,” the same God, the same nature; a weakened and discouraged man, yet nature in this case used to restore and comfort the soul that was overwhelmed. Thus God must use his armoury as he pleases. He can plead against us with great strength, he can overwhelm us, he can take away our breath by a whirlwind, he can blind us by excess of light; or he can so show the galaxy of heaven, and the whole panorama of the visible universe, as to heal us and comfort us, and lead us to say, He who keeps these lights in their places will not quench the smoking flax. Where is there a healer so gentle and compassionate, loving and sympathetic, as nature? Sometimes she seems to say to brokenhearted man, I was made for you; you never knew it until this hour: now I will heal you, and lead you to the altar, where you thought the fire had died out the altar which you thought God had abandoned. This appeal to nature is the higher and truer way of teaching. It brings a man out of himself. That is the first great conquest to be achieved. All brooding must be broken up; everything of the nature of melancholy or fixing the mind upon one point, or dwelling upon one series of events, must be invaded and dissipated. God would take a man for a mountain walk, and speak with him as they climbed the hill together, and watch him as the fresh wind blew upon his weary life, and revived him as with physical gospels; the Lord would take a man far out into the mid-sea, and there would watch the effect of healing influences which he himself has originated, and which he never fails to control: the man would be interested in new sights; he would feel himself in point of contact with great sweet nature; without knowing it, old age would be shed from his face, and he would ask youthful questions, and propose plans involving expenditure of hope and energy and confidence and faith of every degree and quality; and he who went out an old, bent-down, helpless man, would come back clothed with youth, having undergone a process almost of resurrection, being brought up from the dead, and set in new and radiant relation to all duty, responsibility, and labour. Here is the benefit of the Church. So long as men hide themselves in solitude they do not receive the advantage and helpfulness of social and Christian sympathy. The very effort of coming to the church helps a man sometimes to throw off his imprisonment and narrowness of view. There is something in the human touch, in the human face divine, in the commingling of voices, in the public reading of the divine word, which nerves and cheers all who take part in the sacred exercise. Solitude soon becomes irreligious; monasticism tends to the decay of all faculties that were meant to be social, sympathetic, reciprocal: “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together”: come into the larger humanity, behold the larger creation, and thus receive healing and comfort and benediction from enlargement of relation and sympathy. Never allow yourself to prey upon yourself. That act of self-consumption means everything that is involved in the words despair and ruin. Force yourselves into public relations; so to say, compel yourselves to own your kith and kindred, to take part in family life and in that larger family life called the intercourse of the Church in public worship, in public service and also know that God has made all nature to minister unto your soul’s health, establish a large intercourse with mountain and river and sea, with forest and flower-bed, and singing birds, and all things great and lovely: some day you will need them, and they will be God’s ministers to you.
This answer is a sublime rebuke to the pride which Job had once asserted during the colloquies. In chapter Job 13:22 , Job said, in quite a round strong voice, indicative of energy and independence and self-complacency, “Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.” That tone needed to be taken out of his voice. Oftentimes the musical teacher says to the pupil, Your voice must be altogether broken up, and you must start again in the formation of a voice; you think now your voice is good and strong and useful, but you are mistaken; the first thing I have to do with you is to take your voice away, then begin at the beginning and cultivate it into an appropriate expression. Job’s voice was out of order when he said, “Call thou, and I will answer,” or, if it please thee, I will adopt another policy “let me speak, and answer thou me.” Behold how complacent is Job! how willing to adopt any form of arbitration! how anxious to throw the responsibility upon another! He feels himself to be right, and therefore the other side may make its own arrangements and its own terms, and whatever they are he will boldly accept them! Every man must be answered in his own tone: “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” If your challenge is so bold and proud, God must meet you on the ground which you yourself have chosen. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said ” then comes the cataract of interrogation, the tempest of inquiry, in which Job seems to say, O spare me! for behold I am vile: what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth: once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will proceed no further: O thou God of the whirlwind, give me rest; let me have time to draw my breath! But, poor Job, thou didst say to God, “Call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me:” where is now thy boast, thy pride, thy vain talking? Thus does God humble us in a thousand ways. We pull down our barns and build greater, and behold in the morning they are without roof and without foundation and none can say where the solid structure stood. We say, “Let us build a tower which shall reach even unto heaven”; and we build it very high, and in the morning when we come to finish it, lo, there is not one stone left upon another. There is a humbling ministry in creation. Nature is full of rebuke, and criticism, and judgment; or she is full of comfort and suggestion, and religiou rapsable and most tender benediction.
How apt we are to suppose that we could answer God if we only had the opportunity! Could we but see him; could we but have an interview with him; could we but speak to him face to face, how we should vindicate ourselves! There was a man who once sought to see God, and he turned and saw him, and fell down as one dead. Sudden revelation would blind us. Let us not tempt God too much to show himself. We know not what we ask. What is the great answer to our trial? The universe. What is the great commentary upon God? Providence. What is the least profitable occupation? Controversy. Thus much have we been taught by our reading in the Book of Job. Where Job had a spiritual revelation a voice answering out of the whirlwind we have had personal example. We do not hear God or see God in any direct way, but we see Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of man, who also knows all the secrets of nature, for he was before all things, and by him all things consist: the universe is his garment; behold, he is within the palpitating, the living soul. O mighty One! when thou dost come to us in our controversies and reasonings, plead not against us with thy great power, but begin at Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms, and in all the Scriptures expound unto us the things concerning thyself; and we shall know who the speaker is by the warmth that glows in our thankful hearts.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
IX
ELIHU’S SPEECH, GOD’S INTERVENTION AND THE EPILOGUE
Job 32-42
The author’s introduction to Elihu’s speech consists of the prose section (Job 32:1-5 ), the several items of which are as follows:
1. Why the three friends ceased argument, viz: “Because he was righteous in his own eyes” (Job 32:1 ).
2. Elihu’s wrath against Job, viz: “Because he justified himself rather than God” (Job 32:2 ).
3. Elihu’s wrath against Job’s friends, viz: “Because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job” (Job 32:3 ; Job 32:5 ).
4. Why Elihu had waited to speak unto Job, viz: “Because they were older than he” (Job 32:4 ).
Elihu’s introduction (Job 32:6-22 ) consists of two sections as follows:
1. Elihu’s address to the three friends.
2. His soliloquy.
Now, an analysis of part one of this introduction consists of Elihu’s address to his three friends, with the following items:
1. He waited because he was young, and considered that days should speak and that years should teach wisdom (Job 32:6-7 ).
2. Yet there is individual intelligence, a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty which gives understanding (Job 32:8 ).
3. And greatness, and age are not always wise, therefore, I speak (Job 32:9-10 ).
4. He had waited patiently and had listened for their reasonings while they fumbled for words (Job 32:11 ).
5. They had failed to answer Job’s argument, and therefore had failed to convince him (Job 32:12 ).
6. Now beware; do not say that you have found wisdom, for God can attend to his case, but not man (Job 32:13 ).
7. I will not answer him with your speeches (Job 32:14 ). Now let us analyze his soliloquy which is found in Job 32:15-22 and consists of the following items:
1. They are amazed and silent; they have not a word to say (Job 32:15 ).
2. Shall I wait? No; I will speak and show my opinion (Job 32:16-17 ).
3. I am full of words, and must speak or burst, therefore I will speak and be relieved (Job 32:18-20 ).
4. His method was not to respect persons nor give flattering titles, because he did not know how to do so and was afraid of his Maker (Job 32:21-22 ).
Elihu’s address to Job in 33:1-7 is as follows:
1. Hear me for the integrity and sincerity of my speech, since I have already begun and am speaking to you right out of my heart (Job 33:1-3 ).
2. I also am a man, being made as a man and since we are on a common level, answer me or stand aside (Job 33:4-5 ).
3. I will be for God, and being a man, I will not terrify you, for I will not bring great pressure upon you (Job 33:6-7 ).
The point of issue now is a general charge that Job’s heart attitude toward God is not right in view of these afflictions (Job 33:8-12 ). It will be seen that Elihu’s charge is different from that of the three friends, viz: That Job was guilty of past sins.
Elihu charged first that Job had said that God giveth no account of any of his matters (Job 33:13 ).. In his reply Elihu shows that this is untrue.
1. In that God reveals himself many times in dreams and visions in order to turn man from his purpose and to save him from eternal destruction (Job 33:14-18 ).
2. In that in afflictions God also talks to man as he often brings him down into the very jaws of death (Job 33:19-22 ). [Cf. Paul’s thorn in the flesh as a preventive.] None of the speakers before him brought out this thought. This is very much like the New Testament teachings; in fact, this thought is nowhere stated more clearly than here. It shows that afflictions are to the children of God what the storm is to the tree of the forest, its roots run deeper by use of the storm.
3. In that he sends an angel sometimes to interpret the things of God, to show man what is right for him (Job 33:23-28 ).
4. Therefore these things ought to be received graciously, since God’s purpose in it all is benevolent (Job 33:29-33 ). Elihu charged, in the second place, that Job had said that God had taken away his right and that it did not profit to be a righteous man (Job 34:5-9 ; Job 35:1-3 ).
His reply is as follows:
1. The nature of God disproves it; -he is not wicked and therefore will not pervert justice (Job 34:10-15 ).
2. Therefore Job’s accusation is unbecoming, for he is by right possessor of all things and governs the world on the principles of justice and benevolence (Job 34:21-30 ).
3. What Job should have said is altogether different from what he did say because he spoke without knowledge and his words were not wise (Job 34:31-37 ).
4. Whether Job was righteous or sinful did not affect God (Job 35:4-8 ).
Elihu charged, in the third place, that Job had said that he could not get a hearing because he could not see him (Job 35:14 ). His reply was that this was unbecoming and vanity in Job (Job 35:15-16 ).
Elihu’s fourth charge was that Job was angry at his chastisements (Job 36:18 ). He replied that such an attitude was sin; and therefore he defended God (36:1-16).
Elihu’s fifth charge was that Job sought death (Job 36:20 ). He replied that it was iniquity to suggest to God when life should end (Job 36:21-23 ).
Elihu discusses in Job 37 the approaching storm. He introduces it in Job 36:24 and in Job 36:33 he gives Job a gentle rebuke, showing him how God even tells the cows of the coming storm. Then he describes the approaching storm in Job 37 , giving the lesson in Job 36:13 , viz: It may be for correction, or it may be for the benefit of the earth, but “stand still and see.”
Elihu makes a distinct advance over the three friends toward the true meaning of the mystery. They claim to know the cause; he, the purpose. They said that the affliction was punitive; he, beneficent. His error is that he, too, makes sin in Job the occasion at least of his sorrow. His implied counsel to Job approaches the final climax of a practical solution. God’s first arraignment of Job is found in Job 38:1-40:2 . Tanner’s summary is as follows:
It is foolish presumption for the blind, dependent creature to challenge the infinite in the realm of providence. The government of the universe, physical and moral, is one; to question any point is to assume understanding of all. Job, behold some of the lower realms of the divine government and realize the absurdity of your complaint.
Job’s reply follows in Job 40:3-5 . Tanner’s summary: “I see it; I hush.”
God’s second arraignment of Job is recorded in Job 40:6-41:34 . Tanner:
To criticize God’s government of the universe is to claim the ability to do better. Assuming the role of God, suppose Job, you try your hand on two of your fellow creatures the hippopotamus and the crocodile.
Job’s reply is found in Job 42:1-6 , Tanner’s summary of which is: This new view of the nature of God reveals my wicked and disgusting folly in complaining; I repent. Gladly do I embrace his dispensations in loving faith.
There are some strange silences in this arraignment and some people have been disappointed that God did not bring out all the questions of the book at the close, as:
1. He says nothing of the heaven scenes in the Prologue and of Satan.
2. He gives no theoretic solution of the problems of the book.
3. He says nothing directly about future revelation and the Messiah.
The explanation of this is easy, when we consider the following facts:
1. That it was necessary that Job should come to the right heart attitude toward God without any explanation.
2. That to have answered concerning future revelation and the Messiah would have violated God’s plan of making revelation.
3. That bringing Job to an acceptance of God’s providence of whatever form without explanation, furnishes a better demonstration of disinterested righteousness.
This is true of life and the master stroke of the production is that the theoretical solution is withheld from the sufferer, while he is led to the practical solution which is a religious attitude of heart rather than an understanding of the head. A vital, personal, loving faith in God that welcomes from him all things is the noblest exercise of the human soul. The moral triumph came by a more just realization of the nature of God.
Job was right in some things and he was mistaken in other things. He was right in the following points:
1. In the main point of difference between him and the three friends, viz: That his suffering was not the result of justice meted out to him for his sins.
2. That even and exact justice is not meted out here on the earth.
3. In contending for the necessity of a revelation by which he could know what to do.
4. In believing God would ultimately vindicate him in the future.
5. In detecting supernatural intelligence and malice in his affliction.
He was mistaken in the following particulars:
1. In considering his case hopeless and wishing for death.
2. In attributing the malice of these things to God instead of Satan.
3. In questioning the mercy and justice of God’s providence and demanding that the Almighty should give him an explanation.
The literary value of these chapters (Job 38:1-42:6 ) is immense and matchless. The reference in Job 38:3 to “The cluster of the Pleiades” is to the “seven stars” which influence spring and represents youth. “Orion” in the same passage, stood for winter and represents death. The picture of the war horse in Job 39:19-25 has stood the challenge of the ages.
The lesson of this meeting of Job with God is tremendous. Job had said, “Oh, that I could appear before him!” but his appearing here to Job reveals to him his utter unworthiness. The man that claims sinlessness advertises his guilty distance from God. Compare the cases of Isaiah, Peter, and John. The Epilogue (Job 42:7-17 ) consists of three parts, as follows:
1. The vindication of Job and the condemnation of his three friends.
2. Job as a priest makes atonement and intercession for his friends.
3. The blessed latter end of Job: “So Jehovah blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.”
The extent and value of the Almighty’s vindication of Job and his condemnation of the three friends are important. In extent it applies to the issues between Job and the three friends and not to Job’s heart attitude toward God. This he had correct-ed in Job by his arraignment of him. In vindicating Job, God justifies his contention that even and exact justice is not meted out on earth and in lime, and condemned the converse which was held by his friends. Out of this contention of Job grows his much felt need of a future judgment, a redeemer, mediator, interpreter, and incarnation, and so forth. Or if this contention is true, then man needs these things just mentioned. If the necessity of these is established, then man needs a revelation explaining all these things.
Its value is seen in God’s confirming these needs as felt by Job, which gives to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come, implicit confidence in the revelation he has given us, pointing out the fact that Job’s need of a redeemer, umpire, interpreter, and so forth has been supplied to the human race with all the needed information upon the other philosophic discussions of the book.
The signification of the Almighty’s “turning the captivity of Job” just at the point “when he prayed for his friends” is seen in the fact that Job reached the point of right heart attitude toward God before the victory came. This was the supreme test of Job’s piety. One of the hardest things for a man to do is to invoke the blessings of heaven on his enemies. This demand that God made of Job is in line with New Testament teaching and light. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for them,” and while dying he himself prayed for his executioners. Paul who was conquered by the prayer of dying Stephen often prayed for his persecutors. This shows that Job was indeed in possession of God’s grace, for without it a man is not able to thus pray. The lesson to us is that we may not expect God to turn our captivity and blessings if we are unable to do as Job did.
The more thoughtful student will see that God does not ex-plain the problem to Job in his later addresses to him, nor in the Epilogue, because to give this would anticipate, out of due time, the order of the development of revelation. Job must be content with the revelation of his day and trust God, who through good and ill will conduct both Job and the world to proper conclusions.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the author’s introduction to Elihu’s speech and what the several items of it?
2. What is Elihu’s introduction (Job 32:6-22 ) and what the two sections?
3. Give an analysis of part one of this introduction.
4. Give an analysis of his soliloquy?
5. Analyze Elihu’s address to Job in Job 33:1-7 .
6. What is the point al issue?
7. What did Elihu charge that Job had said and what Elihu’s reply?
8. What did Elihu charge, in the second place, that Job had said and what Elihu’s reply?
9. What did Elihu charge in the third place, that Job had said, and what Elihu’s answer to it?
10. What was Elihu’s fourth charge and what was Elihu’s answer?
11. What Elihu’s fifth charge and what his reply?
12. What does Elihu discuss in Job 37 ?
13. What the distinct advances made by Elihu and what his error?
14. What God’s first arraignment of Job?
15. What Job’s reply?
16. What God’s second arraignment of Job?
17. What Job’s reply?
18. What the strange silences in this arraignment and what your explanation of them?
19. What the character of the moral solution of the problem as attained by Job?
20. In what things was Job right and in what things was he mistaken?
21. What can you say of the literary value of these chapters (Job 33:1-42:6 )?
22. Explain the beauties of Job 38:31 .
23. What of the picture of the war horse in Job 39:19-25 ?
24. What the lesson of this meeting of Job with God?
25. Give an analysis of the epilogue.
26. What the extent and value of the Almighty’s vindication of Job and his condemnation of the three friends?
27. What the signification of the Almighty’s “turning the captivity of Job” just at the point “when he prayed for his friends”?
28. Does God give Job the explanation of life’s problem, and why?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Job 41:1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord [which] thou lettest down?
Ver. 1. Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? ] As men use to do the lesser fishes in angling? No, as little as thou canst bore behemoth’s nose with a snare, Job 40:24 . Leviathan is a common name for all great sea monsters, Psa 104:26 . Beza and Diodati understand it to be the crocodile; others, of the sea dragon; others, of the whirlpool: but most, of the whale; in creating whereof, Creavit Deus vastitates et stupores, saith one. Pliny writeth about them, when they swim and show themselves, annare insulas putes, you would think them to be so many islands (lib. ix. cap. 2). Another saith, they appear like huge mountains; and that when they grow old they are so fat and corpulent that they keep long together in a place, so that upon their backs (by the dust and filth gathered and condensed) grass and shrubs grow, as if there were some islands there; whereat seamen attempting to land, have cast themselves into no small dangers (Heidfeld). Some tell us of a whale that would have covered four acres of ground, his mouth so wide, that he could have swallowed a whole ship (Plin. lib. 9). Virgil calleth whales monsters; the Greeks call them and , wild beasts. The majesty and power of the Creator is much seen in these vast creatures. Psa 77:14 , “Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.” Hereupon the Jewish doctors have fabled, that God at first made two leviathans only; the one whereof he gave to the Israelites in the wilderness to feast with, the other he hath salted up for a feast to be made for the Jews, to be gathered together by the Messiah at the end of the world. Others have turned all this, and a great part of the former chapter, into allegories; whereof see Job 40:24 . Let us by the ensuing description take notice of, l. God’s omnipotence, who hath made such great wonders, whereof the sea hath more store than the earth, as they know well who are conversant therein. 2. His justice, who by these creatures oft punisheth offenders. Procopius telleth us, That in his time a great whale much infested the coasts of Constantinople, and did great mischief for fifty years together, till at length being taken and brought to land, he was found to be thirty cubits long, and ten broad. 3. His wisdom in making the whale so complete in all its parts, which all have their various uses; all which are here noted and numbered; how much more are our members, yea, our very hairs! 4. His goodness in creating such sea monsters for man’s use and benefit in many particulars; as his flesh for meat, his fat for oil, his hide for thongs, his teeth for combs, his bones for building, mounding, bodice making, &c. In Africa the whales’ bones serve commonly for rafters of houses. Leviathan he is called because of the fast joining together of his scales and members, wherein consisteth his strength; and so doth ours in unity.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job Chapter 41
Well now, in Job 41 , comes a still longer description of “leviathan,” and I understand that to be the crocodile. The crocodile is a very formidable beast. It is not so shy of the human kind; on the contrary, it preys upon men, women, and children, if it can get hold of them. It is not therefore at all so strange as the “behemoth” that we have been reading about.
“Canst thou draw out leviathan* with an hook?” You that can do such wonders; you can talk about God; and you can judge for God, and you can find fault with God! Well, can you catch leviathan with an hook? You ought to be able to do that. “Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?” (vers. 1 – -8). Be off with you! Do not you fight him. “Behold, the hope of him is in vain.” Spears or arrows are nothing to him and even a musket ball has no power to pierce the skin of a crocodile. “His scales are his pride,” because it is not only his enormous strength, and his practical invulnerability to any ordinary weapon, but there he is so confident in it himself.
* “The leviathan here described seems to be, beyond doubt, not the dolphin or the whale, as some learned men have argued, but the crocodile. So most have been convinced since Bochart (Hieroz. iii. 705, &c., 737, &c.).”
So that here we may stop tonight. It suffices to show what God uttered to overwhelm Job in his self-confidence, and to show that his ignorance was so great, his powerlessness was evident; his lack of wisdom to enter into even the outer works of God. And, after all, what was God speaking about? Earthly things. Everyone of these things is merely of a natural kind, and has to do with what is visible, with what is seen and temporal And if Job is so utterly unable to answer one of these questions – and in point of fact they are not answered to this day with all the brag of science – still, if that is the case about earthly things, what about the heavenly? What about the eternal things? There we are entirely and absolutely dependent upon God. We know nothing but what He tells us, and this is all our blessing – this is what we are waiting for – the unseen and the eternal, and, consequently, we of all people ought to be thoroughly dependent, looking up, confiding, and believing.
If the Lord will, next Wednesday evening I hope to conclude the Book, and to say a little of its general character also, besides saying what is necessary upon the particular chapter itself – the 42nd.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Canst thou . . . ? Note the Figure of speech Erotesis (App-6) throughout this chapter.
leviathan: probably the crocodile.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 41
And then in the next chapter God speaks of the leviathan. Now just what the leviathan is, they’re not quite sure. Some think that it is perhaps a crocodile, some think that it’s perhaps even a dragon, while others think that it perhaps is a hippopotamus with a hefty hide. And so those are some of the opinions. And God said, “Can you catch him with a hook like you catch a fish?”
Can you put a hook in his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Will he pray to you? and speak soft words to you? And make a covenant with you? that you might take him as a servant forever? Will you play with him like you would with a bird? or will you bind him for your maidens? Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that dare to stir him up: who then is able to stand before him? ( Job 41:2-10 )
And God goes on to speak of leviathan and of his strength and so forth and showing that Job really doesn’t have much power over nature. God has created the things of nature and all, and man stands pretty helpless even before nature, how much more before God. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Job 41:1-11
Introduction
Job 41
THE INVULNERABUITY OF LEVIATHAN (THE CROCODILE)
“Here we have the crowning description of a natural wonder, the leviathan (crocodile), with an elaboration to which there is no parallel in the rest of the Scriptures, forming a fitting climax to the gradually more and more elaborate descriptions in Job 39-41.” Yes, “Leviathan is the name of a seven-headed sea-dragon in the old Canaanite myths current prior to the Israelite occupation; but that does not prove that Leviathan in the Book of Job is a mythological creature.” “Once again the general features of the picture point to an actual animal, in this case, the crocodile.” There is a consensus of practically all scholars on this. “Most scholars hold the view that it is the crocodile which is described.”
Of course, “It must be admitted that there are many expressions here that a modern scientist would not use in describing a crocodile; but the Book of Job is neither modern nor scientific, but ancient and poetic.” D. G. Stradling tells us that, “Leviathan is mentioned in six Old Testament passages: Psa 74:14; Psa 104:26; Isa 37:2; Eze 29:3-5; and twice in the Book of Job.” The other reference in Job is Job 3:8.
Job 41:1-11
“Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?
Or press down his tongue with a cord?
Canst thou put a hook into his nose?
Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
Will he make many supplications unto thee?
Or will he speak soft words unto thee?
Will he make a covenant with thee?
That thou shouldest take him for a servant forever?
Wilt thou play with him as a bird?
Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
Will the bands of fishermen make traffic of him?
Will they part him among the merchants?
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons,
Or his head with fish-spears?
Lay thy hand upon him;
Remember the battle, and do so no more.
Behold, the hope of him is in vain:
Will not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
None is so fierce that he dare stir him up;
Who then is he that can stand before me?
Who hath first given unto me, that I should repay him?
Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.”
“Will he make supplications unto thee” (Job 41:3)? There was an ancient tale that crocodiles shed tears over the creatures they devoured, from which came the modern expression “crocodile tears,” insincere, or hypocritical tears. There seems to be a sarcastic reference to that here. “Will he make supplications unto thee”? might very well mean, “Will the crocodile cry over you”?
“Wilt …thou take him for a servant” (Job 41:4)? “Here the impossibility of domesticating the crocodile is indicated.” Heavenor described the import of these verses as God’s questions of Job: “Could Job consider the crocodile as a suitable object upon which to demonstrate his fishing ability (Job 41:1)? or as a domestic servant (Job 41:4)? or as a plaything (Job 41:5)”?
“Lay thy hand upon him; remember the battle, and do so no more” (Job 41:8). To paraphrase this, “Meddle with him (the crocodile) in any of the above ways, and you will rue the day.”
“Will not one be cast down at the sight of him” (Job 41:9)? “Any man who would lay hands on Leviathan is warned not to do it, or he will regret it, since he will collapse as soon as he sees him.”
“Who then is he that can stand before me” (Job 41:10)? The big point of the whole chapter is right here. If Job cannot vanquish a fellow-creature, such as either behemoth or leviathan, such a fact, “Contradicts Job’s claim of any right or claim against God.” Another thought that arises from this verse is, “If even the most courageous man would not be so insane as to stir up leviathan,” how could anyone be so foolish as to contend with God? “If one of God’s creatures is too formidable to assail, what must be thought of the Creator of all things”?
E.M. Zerr:
Job 41:1-9. Leviathian is from a Hebrew word that Strong defines, “a wreathed animal, i. e. a serpent (especially the crocodile or some other large sea-monster).” Moffatt’s version and Smith’s Bible Dictionary also render it crocodile. The word is also rendered, “great water animal” by Young, and “whale, dragon, serpent, sea-monster” by Robinson. The works of reference seem to intimate some indefiniteness as to the actual creature meant. The description as given in this chapter also seems to have both the crocodile and a large fish in mind. Part of the statements would apply to one and part to another. But the point under consideration is that man is frail when compared with the great brutes, and it is true of either of the ones named. I therefore shall refer to either as the language of the text suggests. Like the argument made about other creatures in the universe, the might of the one now being considered is cited to show the helplessness of man. It is true that man today can master this beast or brute by his late knowledge of scientific mechanics. But had man been the maker of all such creatures he would have known from the start how to manage them, and would not have needed to learn it by “the hard way” of experimentation and discovery.
Job 41:10. If man is not able to master this monster of the sea, who then could contend with the power that created it?
Job 41:11. Prevented is from QADAM and Strong defines it, “a primitive root; to project oneself, i. e. precede; hence to anticipate, hasten, meet (usually for help).” The word as used here means to help God and the question means to ask who has helped God in any of the works of nature.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Leviathan is almost certainly the crocodile, and there is the playfulness of a great tenderness in the suggestions Jehovah makes to Job about these fierce creations. Can Job catch him with a rope or a hook? Will he pray to Job? Will Job make a servant or a plaything of him for himself or his maidens? There is a fine, and yet most tender and humorous, satire in the words of Jehovah!
Lay thine hand upon him; Remember the battle, and do so no more.
If none dare stir up leviathan, who can stand before God? If Job dare not attempt to catch or subdue or play with this animal, how can he hope to compete with God in governing the universe? Following the question, the description returns to the beast in all the magnificence of his strength, and ends with a picture of men attempting to overcome him with sword, or spear, or dart, or pointed shaft; while all the while, in fierce anger, he holds the citadel of his being, and becomes king over all the sons of pride.
Thus the unveiling of God’s own glory ends, not in the higher reaches of the spiritual, but in, its exhibition in a beast of the river and the field. It is not the method we would have adopted, but it is the perfect method. For the man who knows God it is necessary only to make his commonest knowledge flame with its true glory for him to learn the sublimest lesson of all.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Parable of the Crocodile
Job 41:1-34
The last paragraph described the hippopotamus; the whole of this chapter is devoted to the crocodile. In a series of striking questions the voice of the Almighty suggests his greatness. He is not an animal with whom you can play, or to whom you can speak soft words, or whose skin can be reached withsharpened weapons. His scales, Job 41:12-17; his eyes, mouth, and nostrils, Job 41:18-24; his fearlessness of human attack, Job 41:25-29; his power to lash the sea into a fury, making it to boil, Job 41:30-34 -each of these features is described in graphic terms.
As before, it is clear that the object is to throw into strong contrast the puniness and littleness of man. We may not be so much given to speculations about the organic world in which we live. But we are able to appreciate the argument. Surely He who tells the number of the stars, and weighs the mountains in scales, will have His pathway through the deep, and His footsteps in mighty waters. Being all that He is, He cannot but baffle the eye of man, but the heart can fully trust Him. We know that He does all things well.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 41
1. Leviathan, the untamable beast of power (Job 41:1-11)
2. Its description (Job 41:12-24)
3. His remarkable strength (Job 41:25-34)
Job 41:1-11. The leviathan has generally been identified with the crocodile. Like the behemoth, the leviathan is a strong and untamable beast. Jehovah asks, Canst thou draw up leviathan with a hook? Canst thou pierce his jaw with a reed? Will he make a covenant with thee? Wilt thou take him for a servant forever? Then He declares that he is fierce, and even at the sight of him one is cast down. And if a creature is so mighty and strong what must the One be who called this creature into existence? Job 41:10 and Job 41:11 should be rendered as follows: Who then is able to stand before Me (the Creator)? who did give to me first that I should repay him? since all beneath the heavens is mine.
Job 41:12-24. A more detailed description of the leviathan follows. His frame is strong; his outer garment, so invulnerable, who can strip it off? His teeth are terrible, who can open the doors of his face (his mouth)? His scales, his armour, are his pride. Here is a good description of the crocodiles hide. The scales are so near each other that no air can come between them; they are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered. His sneezings flash forth light and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. The eyes of the crocodile are visible quite a distance under water. The Egyptians therefore used the crocodiles eyes in the hieroglyphics for the dawn of the morning. The entire description shows what a terrible beast it is.
Job 41:25-34. Then his great strength is unfolded. If one lay at him with the sword, it cannot avail. The dart, the spear and the pointed shaft make no impression upon him. He counteth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; clubs are counted as stubble. The final statement concerning leviathan is He is king over all the sons of pride.
This last word is significant–He is King over all the sons of pride. it has a deeper meaning. In Isa 27:1 we read: In that day the LORD with His sore and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan the crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. Here leviathan typifies the power of darkness. Both the behemoth and the leviathan typify Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride. These two beasts are likewise a good description of the beasts spoken of in Revelation, which at the end of this age will manifest their power and pride as Satans masterpieces. And now the deduction which Job could easily make. If he is proud then he belongs to leviathan the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Jobs bosom. He has searched out the depths of his heart. Pride, the Devils crime, has been cherished by him. And now with the heart laid bare by Jehovahs dealing we shall hear Jobs voice once more.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Job 3:8, *marg. Psa 74:14, Psa 104:26, Isa 27:1
leviathan: [Strong’s H3882]
lettest down: Heb. drownest
Reciprocal: Gen 9:10 – General Job 7:12 – a whale Job 26:5 – Dead things Job 40:24 – General Job 41:33 – Upon Psa 8:8 – The fowl Psa 111:2 – works Psa 148:7 – ye dragons Eze 29:4 – I will put Heb 2:8 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 41:1. Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? It is a great question among learned men, what creature is meant by , leviathan. Our translators were evidently uncertain respecting it, and therefore have given us here and elsewhere, where the word occurs, the original term itself, untranslated. The LXX., however, (who are followed in two instances by the author of the Vulgate,) have not done so, but have everywhere rendered it , the dragon. But it is far from being certain that in so doing they have given us the true meaning of the word. It is much more probable that either the whale or the crocodile is intended. It is evident the leviathan, mentioned Psa 104:26, is an inhabitant of the sea, and the description given of him is generally thought best to suit the whale. There (in the great and wide sea) go the ships: there is that leviathan which thou hast made to play therein. The same may be said concerning the leviathan, mentioned Psa 74:14. It also appears to be an inhabitant of the sea. Now the dragon and crocodile, it is argued, have nothing to do with the sea, but only with rivers, and therefore cannot be intended by leviathan here. Divers other reasons are also advanced to prove that the whale is the creature meant. That which inclines me, says Henry, rather to understand it of the whale, is not only because it is much larger and a nobler animal, but, because, in the history of the creation there is such an express notice taken of it as is not of any other species of animals whatsoever; God created great whales, Gen 1:21. By which it appears, not only that whales were well known in those parts in Mosess time, who lived a little after Job; but that the creation of whales was generally looked upon as a most illustrious proof of the eternal power and godhead of the Creator. And we may conjecture that this was the reason (for otherwise it seems unaccountable) why Moses there so particularly mentions the creation of the whales; because God had so lately, in this discourse with Job, more largely insisted upon the bulk and strength of that creature than of any other, as the proof of his power.
At the same time, however, that Mr. Henry thus delivers his opinion on the subject, he acknowledges that many learned men were of a different mind; and, in particular, observes of Sir Richard Blackmore, that though he admitted the more received opinion concerning the behemoth being the elephant, yet he agreed with the learned Bocharts notion of the leviathan, that it is the crocodile, so well known in the river of Egypt. Poole also seems to have been of the same judgment. It is evident, says he, that the Hebrew , thannin, which is parallel to this word, leviathan, is used of the crocodile, Eze 29:3-4; Eze 32:3. But I shall not positively determine this controversy, adds he, but only show how far the text may be understood of both of them, and then submit it to the readers judgment, this being a matter wherein Christians may vary without any hazard. Only this I will say, that whatever becomes of the behemoth of the former chapter, whether that be the elephant or the hippopotamus, that doth not at all determine the sense of this leviathan, but leaves it indifferent to the whale or the crocodile, as the context shall determine, which, I confess, seems to me to favour the latter more than the former. To which may be added, that it seems more probable that God should speak of such creatures as were very well known to Job and his friends, as the crocodile was, than of such as it was very uncertain whether they were known in those parts, and in Jobs time. The reader will observe, that the word leviathan is supposed to be derived from , levi, joined, or coupled, and , than, or , thannin, a dragon, that is, a large serpent, or fish, the word thannin being used both for a land-serpent and a kind of fish. And, after comparing what Bochart and others have written on the subject, it appears to me, says Parkhurst, that the compound word , leviathan, the coupled dragon, denotes some animal partaking of the nature both of land-serpents and fishes, and, in this place, signifies the crocodile, which lives as well under water as on the shore.
Dr. Dodd also agrees with Parkhurst, and the other learned men just mentioned, that Bochart has proved by arguments, strictly conclusive, that the crocodile must be meant in this chapter. It may be observed further here, that, although it might have been expected, that the Creator should have singled out and have dwelt upon two of the greatest of his works in the animal creation, the elephant and the whale, the former the largest and most eminent of quadrupeds, and the latter of fishes, for the display of his power and glory; yet, that naturalists have found great, if not insuperable difficulties in their endeavours to apply the particulars of this description to the whale. And all that can be said to solve these difficulties is, that there are many different species of whales, several that are known, and probably many more that are not known; and that although this description, in all its parts, may not exactly suit any species of them which we know, there may be others in the immense ocean with which we are not acquainted that it may suit; creatures which, though comprehended under the general name of whales, may, in many respects, be very different from, and much larger than, any that have been taken. But still it is very improbable, either that Job should know any thing of such whales, or that Jehovah, when reasoning with him and producing proofs of his power and providence, should make his appeal to creatures with which Job had no acquaintance. It seems, therefore, most probable that the crocodile is intended, and, we think, would be certain, were it not that the leviathan is represented in some of the passages where it is mentioned in Scripture, as we have observed, as an inhabitant of the sea, whereas the crocodile is only found in rivers. But perhaps the term leviathan does not always signify the same creature, but is put for different animals in different places, especially for such as are of extraordinary bulk, or of singular qualities. This verse, which speaks either of the impossibility, or rather of the great and terrible difficulty of taking the leviathan with the hook, or line, or such like instruments, may agree either to the whale or to the crocodile. As to the whale, there can be no doubt, nor much doubt as to the crocodile; the taking of which was generally esteemed by the ancients to be very difficult and perilous. Thus Diodorus Siculus says, they cannot be secured but in iron nets. When Augustus conquered Egypt, he struck a medal, the impress of which was a crocodile chained to a palm-tree, with this inscription, None ever bound him before. In order to take these animals, says Thevenot, they make a number of holes, or ditches, on the banks of the river, which they cover with sticks, and things of the like kind; afterward, when the crocodiles pass over these cavities, especially when the waters rise in the river, which is the season of catching them, on account of their going further off from the river at that time, they fall into the holes and cannot get out again; in this confinement they are suffered to continue without food for several days; after which they let down certain nooses with running knots, wherewith they fasten their jaws, and then draw them out. These nooses are the , cheblee, the cords, here mentioned, and this shows that the word , leshon, is not to be understood of the tongue only, but of the whole fauces, or jaws. Or his tongue with a cord This clause should be rendered, Canst thou bind his jaws with a cord? Some have objected, that this last clause cannot agree to the crocodile, because Aristotle, Pliny, and some other ancient authors have affirmed that it has no tongue. But, 1st, The notion that they have no tongues is a mistake, which has arisen from their tongues being but small in proportion to their vast bodies, and withal fastened to their under jaws. But that the crocodile hath a tongue is positively affirmed by several ancient authors, and by the Hebrew writers, and the Arabians, to whom this creature was best known, as also by later authors. But, 2d, It is not only of the tongue this clause speaks, but of the whole jaws of the leviathan. Maillet also bears testimony that the manner of taking these animals is very difficult, and sometimes very remarkable; the most common method, he says, is to dig great trenches, or ditches, along the Nile, which are covered with straw, and into which the creatures fall unawares. They are sometimes taken with hooks, baited with a quarter of a pig, or bacon, which they are very fond of. Heath and Dr. Young. Hasselquist, speaking of the difficulty of taking this animal, says, He frequently breaks the nets of fishermen, if they come in his way, and they are often exposed to great danger. I found a fishing-hook in the palate of the crocodile, which I dissected. Hasselquists Voyages, p. 216.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 41:1. Canst thou draw out leviathan? This word is rendered by the LXX, dragon. It occurs in Isa 27:1, and is rendered whale, dragon, and serpent. Men are now satisfied that it is not the whale but the crocodile to which this description exactly refers. The harpooners can easily pierce a whale, as is denied of leviathan; the flesh of the whale is soft, but that of the crocodile is hard. Men never sling stones at the whale; but these have been tried in vain against the dragon. But the term crooked serpent, found in many versions, applies neither to the whale nor the crocodile; and must have been occasioned by the imperfect knowledge which the learned world then had of natural history. The crocodile, common to most of the great rivers and lakes under the torrid zone, is a most terrific animal. His figure nearly resembles the lizard. His length is usually from twelve to twenty feet, his body is covered with an almost impenetrable coat of mail, and the hunters can pierce him only between his legs and his body, which they sometimes do while he is asleep. In the water he reigns lord and king, and darts on the finny tribes with amazing velocity. Designed to float on the waters he moves his upper jaw, and when he closes it on his prey, he makes the valleys echo by the collision of his grinders. On the land, happy for man, his motion is slow. Maillet and Bartram have given the history of this animal at large, and the reader will be entertained in perusing their travels.
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is called by Ezekiel, the great dragon, or crocodile, that lieth in the midst of the rivers, which hath said, my river is my own: I have made it myself.
Job 41:10. None dare stir him up. When he sleeps, resting his side against a tree, the beasts are afraid to awake him.
Job 41:21. His breath kindleth coals. His stomach is so hot that his breath, on a cold morning, appears like the steam of boiling water. The hyperbole of the ancients was sometimes very strong. The vine is said to have boughs like the cedar. Psa 80:10.
Job 41:25. When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid; that is, the beasts of the forest. This animal is the dragon or crocodile. A traveller in Africa reports that a tiger leaped on a sleeping crocodile, and began to tear his scales. The dragon by some means got hold of the tigers foot, and dragged him into the river, where he soon discoloured the water with his gore.
Job 41:29. Darts are counted as stubble. The whale cannot here be understood, for his body is exposed to the harpoon or dart: but of the scales of the crocodile all this is true.
REFLECTIONS.
Many of the creatures are so powerful and formidable, that we are by no means able to cope with them: how mad then must the presumptuous transgressor be, who defies the power and wrath of the Creator! If such sublime language were proper in describing the terrible force of leviathan; what words can express the power of Gods indignation, who is a consuming fire? He indeed beholdeth all high things in order to abase them, and will show himself the offended avenger of all those who proudly exalt themselves against him: and who may stand in his sight when he is angry? But he more delights in showing his glory from the mercyseat, in encouraging sinners to take refuge under the shadow of his wings, and to prostrate themselves before him. If his anger be thus turned away from us, his omnipotence will be our protection; and then we need fear no enemy, though we shall have those that are far more formidable than leviathan. Satan the king and father of all the children of pride, with all his legions, is not confined to the ocean; nor can he be fenced out or fled from, or resisted by our puny arm. Our wisdom, strength, and resolution will be unavailing in this unequal contest; and far more useless, than sword or spear against leviathan; all opposition, all hope of overcoming or escaping, if left to ourselves, would be in vain. His heart is stoned against compassion, and he has been the cruel murderer of souls from the beginning; he rejoices in causing destruction, and looks on all the proud and lofty of the earth as his own. But the poor in spirit, who humbly trust in the Lords mercy, are safe; relying on their Almighty helper they may defy and resist this tremendous foe, and be made more than conquerors over him. But they must remember that they are saved wholly by grace; for who hath prevented the Lord, that he should repay him? And if they are mercifully rescued from deserved wrath, and from the malice of Satan, they have no right to complain of any affliction or distress; or to boast of any wisdom, strength, or endowment of their own. Submission, dependance, and grateful obedience are their part; it behoves them to revere the divine Majesty, to be abased under a consciousness of their own vileness, to take and fill their allotted place, to cease from their own wisdom, and to give all glory to God their Saviour. When any man becomes proud of his personal strength and courage; let him be reminded of leviathan, that he may feel his inferiority. When he is vain of his sagacity, ingenuity, or mental endowments, let him consider how much Satan excels him in them all. Let us all consider the holiness of God, that we may be ashamed of our remaining unholiness; and remembering from whom every good gift cometh, and for what end it was given, let us walk uprightly and humbly with the Lord; for before honour is humility.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 40:15 to Job 41:34. Behemoth and Leviathan. Most scholars regard this passage as a later addition to the poem. The point of Job 40:8-14 is Gods reply to Jobs criticism of His righteousness; the description of these beasts, however, illustrates at great length mans impotence, which is only a secondary thought in the previous Divine speech. They therefore divert attention from the main issue. Moreover, there is a great difference between these descriptions and those of Job 38:39 to Job 39:30. Here the descriptions are heavy and laboured, gaining their effect, such as it is, by an accumulation of details, a catalogue of their points and minute descriptions of the various parts of their bodies. But the poet who gave us the pictures of the wild ass, the horse, and the eagle was a swift impressionist, springing imagination with a touch, not stifling it with the fullness of detail proper to a natural historian (Peake).
A further question is whether, in accordance with the generally accepted view, Behemoth is the hippopotamus, and Leviathan the crocodile. Some modern scholars think they are mythological figures. Gunkel, followed by Zimmern, identifies Leviathan with the chaos-monster Tiamat, and Behemoth with her consort Kingu. In some cases this identification suits, while certain details do not fit the usual explanation. Still the mythological interpretation has not been generally accepted; the inappropriateness of details on the usual theory is explained by the imperfect knowledge or the poetical exaggeration of the author.
Job 40:15-24. BehemothThe name means a huge beast; it is an intensive plural of behmh, beast. In Job 40:17 He moveth his tail like a cedar is an exaggeration: the tail is only a short, naked stump.
The statement that Behemoth is the chief of the ways of God (Job 40:19) suggests that he is Gods masterpiece. We may, however, render the beginning of the ways of God. The idea that Behemoth was the first animal might be derived from Gen 1:24, where cattle (behmh) are placed first.
Job 40:19 b is corrupt. Giesebrecht reads who is made to be ruler over his fellows. In Job 40:23 translate a Jordan, the appellative denoting any torrent: the hippopotamus is not found in the Jordan. In Job 40:24 when he is on the watch is literally in his eyes. The parallelism suggests that the meaning is attack him in his eyes.
Duhm would place Job 41:9-12 here as the conclusion of the description of Behemoth.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
LEVIATHAN
(vv.1-34)
Leviathan was a water creature, and appears to be the crocodile, the most fearsome of all aquatic beasts, unless it was another similar animal, now extinct. Job could use a hook to catch fish, but how futile the thought of a hook for a crocodile! (v.1). His jaws and his nose are impervious to any kind of attack (v.2). Could Job persuade him to respond softly to him in order to bring about his submission? (v.4). The very appearance of the crocodile is hostile and intimidating. He would certainly never be tamed to engage in play like some birds or animals, and certainly not as a pet for girls! (v.5). Who would think of trying to obtain his flesh to make a dinner of him? Harpoons were useless against him, for they could not penetrate his outer covering (v.7). If one was bold enough to lay his hand on him, let him remember the battle encountered in any such efforts, and never do it again! (v.8).
The Lord assures Job that any hope of overcoming Leviathan is futile: the very sight of the beast should overwhelm his would-be attacker. No human is so fierce that he would dare to stir up such a creature (v.10). But let us remember it is God who made this beast: Who then could possibly stand against God? Thus we are shown the fearful, untameable character of leviathan, as wild and unapproachable as behemoth, and this reminds us of the first beast of Rev 13:1-18, the beast who rises out of the sea (v.1). Being a water creature, Leviathan evidently symbolises the Gentile power that will arise during the Tribulation period, a revival of the Roman Empire, embracing ten nations who “give their power and authority to the beast” (Rev 17:13). This empire is called the Beast, and the man who rules over it will also be called the Beast. Of him people will say, “Who is like the Beast? Who is able to make war with him?” (Rev 13:4). This Beast, along with the Antichrist, will form a powerful union of such strength that they will not be afraid to challenge their own Creator! While no man can stand before them, however, the Lord will bring them down to a defeat of abject humiliation, and both will be cast alive into the lake of fire (Rev 19:20).
But the Lord says of Leviathan, “I will not conceal his limbs, his mighty power, or his graceful proportions” (v.12). The Lord would not hesitate to describe him exactly as he is, to let us know that the Lord knew him perfectly and took full account of his strength. “Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around? (vv.13-14). Men have captured crocodiles and put them in large pools of water, but who would dare to get into the same pool, as some do with dolphins?
“His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal: one is so near another that no air can come between them: they are joined one to another, they stick together, and cannot be parted” (vv.15-17). Thus he is protected as by a coat of armour. The Roman Beast too will employ every means of protecting himself against the attacks of any enemy.
But he will take the offensive also, as does the crocodile. “His sneezings flash forth light and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights. Sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his mouth” (vv.18-21). Of course this is figurative language, and speaks of the vicious words that proceed from the mouth of the Beast, as we are told of him in Rev 13:5-6, “He was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.” But the appearance of light, as though the beast brought light and wisdom with him, is a false show. The boastful pride of this man and his ominous threats are strikingly illustrated in the character of Leviathan.
“Strength dwells in his neck” (v.22), for his neck is stiffened in rebellion against God. “And sorrow dances before him” – as though sorrow was trying to clothe itself with spurious joy, yet only to bring misery and wretchedness. “The folds of his flesh” are so joined as to make him invulnerable to attack (v.23), and underneath his heart is as hard as a stone. What a picture of the great champion of infidelity, who will arise because the world has rejected the faithful, gracious Lord of glory, and this beast will think of himself as the saviour of the world!
The mighty men of earth will be afraid when this man asserts himself (v.25). Neither the sword, spear, dart or javelin can penetrate Leviathan’s armour (v.26), and all men’s efforts to defeat the Beast will be to no avail. Iron and bronze weapons, arrows, darts, slingstones and javelins are useless against him (vv.27-29). Underneath too he is equipped to resist attack (v.30).
“He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointments” (v.31). As Leviathan stirs up the water, so the Roman Beast will stir up the nations (the sea) in tumultuous trouble. The “shining wake” he leaves behind him tells us that there will be marked results from the Beast’s activity.
“On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear” (v.33). God has made this creature as a picture of the assumed greatness of the Roman Beast, who will rise as the champion of mankind in his opposition both to God and to the true welfare of the people. He will aspire to every high thing, a “king over all the children of pride” (v.34).
When this Roman Beast arises, he will be in league with the Antichrist who will erect an idolatrous image in the temple area of Jerusalem in honour of the Beast (Rev 13:14-15). This will be the ultimate peak of man’s pride, an arrogant challenge against God. Then the Lord Jesus will meet this challenge in awesome power, and both of these enemies of God will be “cast alive into the lake of fire” (Rev 19:19-20). Such will be the fearful end of him who “is king over all the children of pride.” What a lesson for us to learn now to judge our own pride!
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
41:1 Canst thou draw out {l} leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord [which] thou lettest down?
(l) Meaning the whale.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
XXVIII.
THE RECONCILIATION
Job 38:1 – Job 42:6
THE main argument of the address ascribed to the Almighty is contained in chapters 38 and 39 and in the opening verses of chapter 42. Job makes submission and owns his fault in doubting the faithfulness of Divine providence. The intervening passage containing descriptions of the great animals of the Nile is scarcely in the same high strain of poetic art or on the same high level of cogent reasoning. It seems rather of a hyperbolical kind, suggesting failure from the clear aim and inspiration of the previous portion.
The voice proceeding from the storm cloud, in which the Almighty veils Himself and yet makes His presence and majesty felt, begins with a question of reproach and a demand that the intellect of Job shall be roused to its full vigour in order to apprehend the ensuing argument. The closing words of Job had shown misconception of his position before God. He spoke of presenting a claim to Eloah and setting forth his integrity so that his plea would be unanswerable. Circumstances had brought upon him a stain from which he had a right to be cleared, and, implying this, he challenged the Divine government of the world as wanting in due exhibition of righteousness. This being so, Jobs rescue from doubt must begin with a conviction of error. Therefore the Almighty says:-
“Who is this darkening counsel
By words without knowledge?
Gird up now thy loins like a man;
For I will demand of thee and answer thou Me.”
The aim of the author throughout the speech from the storm is to provide a way of reconciliation between man in affliction and perplexity and the providence of God that bewilders and threatens to crush him. To effect this something more than a demonstration of the infinite power and wisdom of God is needed. Zophar affirming the glory of the Almighty to be higher than heaven, deeper than Sheol, longer than the earth, broader than the sea, basing on this a claim that God is unchangeably just, supplies no principle of reconciliation. In like manner Bildad, requiring the abasement of man as sinful and despicable in presence of the Most High with whom are dominion and fear, shows no way of hope and life. But the series of questions now addressed to Job forms an argument in a higher strain, as cogent as could be reared on the basis of that manifestation of God which the natural world supplies. The man is called to recognise not illimitable power only, the eternal supremacy of the Unseen King, but also other qualities of the Divine rule. Doubt of providence is rebuked by a wide induction from the phenomena of the heavens and of life upon the earth, everywhere disclosing law and care cooperant to an end.
First Job is asked to think of the creation of the world or visible universe. It is a building firmly set on deep-laid foundations. As if by line and measure it was brought into symmetrical form according to the archetypal plan; and when the cornerstone was laid as of a new palace in the great dominion of God there was joy in heaven. The angels of the morning broke into song, the sons of the Elohim, high in the ethereal dwellings among the fountains of light and life, shouted for joy. In poetic vision the writer beholds that work of God and those rejoicing companies: but to himself, as to Job, the question comes-What knows man of the marvellous creative effort which he sees in imagination? It is beyond human range. The plan and the method are equally incomprehensible. Of this let Job be assured-that the work was not done in vain. Not for the creation of a world the history of which was to pass into confusion would the morning stars have sung together. He who beheld all that He had made and declared it very good would not suffer triumphant evil to confound the promise and purpose of His toil.
Next there is the great ocean flood, once confined as in the womb of primeval chaos, which came forth in living power, a giant from its birth. What can Job tell, what can any man tell of that wonderful evolution, when, swathed in rolling clouds and thick darkness, with vast energy the flood of waters rushed tumultuously to its appointed place? There is a law of use and power for the ocean, a limit also beyond which it cannot pass. Does man know how that is?-must he not acknowledge the wise will and benignant care of Him who holds in check the stormy devastating sea?
And who has control of the light? The morning dawns not by the will of man. It takes hold of the margin of the earth over which the wicked have been ranging, and as one shakes out the dust from a sheet, it shakes them forth visible and ashamed. Under it the earth is changed, every object made clear and sharp as figures on clay stamped with a seal. The forests, fields, and rivers are seen like the embroidered or woven designs of a garment. What is this light? Who sends it on the mission of moral discipline? Is not the great God who commands the dayspring to be trusted even in the darkness? Beneath the surface of earth is the grave and the dwelling place of the nether gloom. Does Job know. does any man know, what lies beyond the gates of death? Can any tell where the darkness has its central seat? One there is whose is the night as well as the morning. The mysteries of futurity, the arcana of nature lie open to the Eternal alone.
Atmospheric phenomena, already often described, reveal variously the unsearchable wisdom and thoughtful rule of the Most High. The force that resides in the hail, the rains that fall on the wilderness where no man is, satisfying the waste and desolate ground and causing the tender grass to spring up, these imply a breadth of gracious purpose that extends beyond the range of human life. Whose is the fatherhood of the rain, the ice, the hoar frost of heaven? Man is subject to the changes these represent; he cannot control them. And far higher are the gleaming constellations that are set in the forehead of night. Have the hands of man gathered the Pleiades and strung them like burning gems on a chain of fire? Can the power of man unloose Orion and let the stars of that magnificent constellation wander through the sky? The Mazzaroth or Zodiacal signs that mark the watches of the advancing year, the Bear and the stars of her train-who leads them forth? The laws of heaven, too, those ordinances regulating the changes of temperature and the seasons, does man appoint them? Is it he who brings the time when thunderstorms break up the drought and open the bottles of heaven, or the time of heat when the dust gathers into a mass, and the clods cleave fast together? Without this alternation of drought and moisture recurring by law from year to year the labour of man would be in vain. Is not He who governs the changing seasons to be trusted by the race that profits most of His care?
At Job 38:39 attention is turned from inanimate nature to the living creatures for which God provides. With marvellous poetic skill they are painted in their need and strength, in the urgency of their instincts, timid or tameless or cruel. The Creator is seen rejoicing in them as His handiwork, and man is held bound to exult in their life and see in the provision made for its fulfilment a guarantee of all that his own bodily nature and spiritual being may require. Notable especially to us is the close relation between this portion and certain sayings of our Lord in which the same argument brings the same conclusion.
“Two passages of Gods speaking,” says Mr. Ruskin, “one in the Old and one in the New Testament, possess, it seems to me, a different character from any of the rest, having been uttered, the one to effect the last necessary change in the mind of a man whose piety was in other respects perfect; and the other as the first statement to all men of the principles of Christianity by Christ Himself-I mean the 38th to 41st chapters of the Book of Job and the Sermon on the Mount. Now the first of these passages is from beginning to end nothing else than a direction of the mind which was to be perfected, to humble observance of the works of God in nature. And the other consists only in the inculcation of three things: 1st, right conduct; 2nd, looking for eternal life; 3rd, trusting God through watchfulness of His dealings with His creation.”
The last point is that which brings into closest parallelism the doctrine of Christ and that of the author of Job, and the resemblance is not accidental, but of such a nature as to show that both saw the underlying truth in the same way and from the same point of spiritual and human interest.
“Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lioness?
Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
When they couch in their dens
And abide in the covert to lie in wait?
Who provideth for the raven his food,
When his young ones cry unto God
And wander for lack of meat?”
Thus man is called to recognise the care of God for creatures strong and weak, and to assure himself that his life will not be forgotten. And in His Sermon on the Mount our Lord says, “Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?” The parallel passage in the Gospel of Luke approaches still more closely the language in Job-“Consider the ravens that they sow not neither reap.”
The wild goats or goats of the rock and their young that soon become independent of the mothers care; the wild asses that make their dwelling place in the salt land and scorn the tumult of the city; the wild ox that cannot be tamed to go in the furrow or bring home the sheaves in harvest; the ostrich that “leaveth her eggs on the earth and warmeth them in the dust”; the horse in his might, his neck clothed with the quivering mane, mocking at fear, smelling the battle afar off; the hawk that soars into the blue sky: the eagle that makes her nest on the rock, -all these, graphically described, speak to Job of the innumerable forms of life, simple, daring, strong, and savage, that are sustained by the power of the Creator. To think of them is to learn that, as one among the dependants of God, man has his part in the system of things. his assurance that the needs God has ordained will be met. The passage is poetically among the finest in Hebrew literature, and it is more. In its place, with the limit the writer has set for himself, it is most apt as a basis of reconciliation and a new starting point in thought for all like Job who doubt the Divine faithfulness. Why should man, because he can think of the providence of God, be alone suspicious of the justice and wisdom on which all creatures rely? Is not his power of thought given to him that he may pass beyond the animals and praise the Divine Provider on their behalf and his own?
Man needs more than the raven, the lion, the mountain goat, and the eagle. He has higher instincts and cravings. Daily food for the body will not suffice him, nor the liberty of the wilderness. He would not be satisfied if, like the hawk and eagle, he could soar above the hills. His desires for righteousness, for truth, for fulness of that spiritual life by which he is allied to God Himself, are his distinction. So, then, He who has created the soul will bring it to perfectness. Where or how its longings shall be fulfilled may not be for man to know. But he can trust God. That is his privilege when knowledge fails. Let him lay aside all vain thoughts and ignorant doubts. Let him say: God is inconceivably great, unsearchably wise, infinitely just and true; I am in His hands, and all is well.
The reasoning is from the less to the greater, and is therefore in this case conclusive. The lower animals exercise their instincts and find what is suited to their needs. And shall it not be so with man? Shall he, able to discern the signs of an all-embracing plan, not confess and trust the sublime justice it reveals? The slightness of human power is certainly contrasted with the omnipotence of God, and the ignorance of man with the omniscience of God; but always the Divine faithfulness, glowing behind, shines through the veil of nature, and it is this Job is called to recognise. Has he almost doubted everything, because from his own life outward to the verge of human existence wrong and falsehood seemed to reign? But how, then, could the countless creatures depend upon God for the satisfaction of their desires and the fulfilment of their varied life? Order in nature means order in the scheme of the world as it affects humanity. And order in the providence which controls human affairs must have for its first principle fairness, justice, so that every deed shall have due reward.
Such is the Divine law perceived by our inspired author “through the things that are made.” The view of nature is still different from the scientific, but there is certainly an approach to that reading of the universe praised by M. Renan as peculiarly Hellenic, which “saw the Divine in what is harmonious and evident.” Not here at least does the taunt apply that, from the point of view of the Hebrew, “ignorance is a cult and curiosity a wicked attempt to explain,” that “even in the presence of a mystery which assails and ruins him, man attributes in a special manner the character of grandeur to that which is inexplicable,” that “all phenomena whose cause is hidden, all beings whose end cannot be perceived, are to man a humiliation and a motive for glorifying God.” The philosophy of the final portion of Job is of that kind which presses beyond secondary causes and finds the real ground of creaturely existence. Intellectual apprehension of the innumerable and far-reaching threads of Divine purpose and the secrets of the Divine will is not attempted. But the moral nature of man is brought into touch with the glorious righteousness of God. Thus the reconciliation is revealed for which the whole poem has made preparation. Job has passed through the furnace of trial and the deep waters of doubt, and at last the way is opened for him into a wealthy place. Till the Son of God Himself come to clear the mystery of suffering no larger reconciliation is possible. Accepting the inevitable boundaries of knowledge, the mind may at length have peace.
And Job finds the way of reconciliation:
“I know that Thou canst do all things,
And that no purpose of Thine can be restrained.
Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge?
Then have I uttered what I understood not,
Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.”
“Hear, now, and I will speak;
I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me.
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee,
Wherefore I repudiate my words and repent in dust and ashes.”
All things God can do, and where His purposes are declared there is the pledge of their accomplishment. Does man exist?-it must be for some end that will come about. Has God planted in the human mind spiritual desires?-they shall be satisfied. Job returns on the question that accused him-“Who is this darkening counsel?” It was he himself who obscured counsel by ignorant words. He had only heard of God then, and walked in the vain belief of a traditional religion. His efforts to do duty and to avert the Divine anger by sacrifice had alike sprung from the imperfect knowledge of a dream life that never reached beyond words to facts and things. God was greater far than he had ever thought, nearer than, he had ever conceived. His mind is filled with a sense of the Eternal power, and overwhelmed by proofs of wisdom to which the little problems of mans life can offer no difficulty.
“Now mine eye seeth Thee.” The vision of God is to his soul like the dazzling light of day to one issuing from a cavern. He is in a new world where every creature lives and moves in God. He is under a government that appears new because now the grand comprehensiveness and minute care of Divine providence are realised. Doubt of God and difficulty in acknowledging the justice of God are swept away by the magnificent demonstration of vigour, spirit, and. sympathy, which Job had as yet failed to connect with the Divine Life. Faith therefore finds freedom, and its liberty is reconciliation, redemption. He cannot indeed behold God face to face and hear the judgment of acquittal for which he had longed and cried. Of this, however, he does not now feel the need. Rescued from the uncertainty in which he had been involved-all that was beautiful and good appearing to quiver like a mirage-he feels life again to have its place and use in the Divine order. It is the fulfilment of Jobs great hope, so far as it can be fulfilled in this world. The question of his integrity is not formally decided. But a larger question is answered, and the answer satisfies meantime the personal desire.
Job makes no confession of sin, His friends and Elihu, all of whom endeavour to find evil in his life, are entirely at fault. The repentance is not from moral guilt, but from the hasty and venturous speech that escaped him in the time of trial. After all ones defence of Job one must allow that he does not at every point avoid the appearance of evil. There was need that he should repent and find new life in new humility. The discovery he has made does not degrade a man. Job sees God as great and true and faithful as he had believed Him to be, yea, greater and more faithful by far. He sees himself a creature of this great God and is exalted, an ignorant creature and is reproved. The larger horizon which he demanded having opened to him, he finds himself much less than he had seemed. In the microcosm of his past dream life and narrow religion he appeared great, perfect, worthy of all he enjoyed at the hand of God; but now, in the macrocosm, he is small, unwise, weak. God and the soul stand sure as before; but Gods justice to the soul He has made is viewed along a different line. Not as a mighty sheik can Job now debate with the Almighty he has invoked. The vast ranges of being are unfolded, and among the subjects of the Creator he is one, -bound to praise the Almighty for existence and all it means. His new birth is finding himself little, yet cared for in Gods great universe.
The writer is no doubt struggling with an idea he cannot fully express; and in fact he gives no more than the pictorial outline of it. But, without attributing sin to Job, he points, in the confession of ignorance, to the germ of a doctrine of sin. Man, even when upright, must be stung to dissatisfaction, to a sense of imperfection-to realise his fall as a new birth in spiritual evolution. The moral ideal is indicated, the boundlessness of duty and the need for an awakening of man to his place in the universe. The dream life now appears a clouded partial existence, a period of lost opportunities and barren vainglory. Now opens the greater life in the light of God.
And at the last the challenge of the Almighty to Satan with which the poem began stands justified. The Adversary cannot say, -The hedge set around Thy servant broken down, his flesh afflicted, now he has cursed Thee to Thy face. Out of the trial Job comes, still on Gods side, more on Gods side than ever, with a nobler faith more strongly founded on the rock of truth. It is, we may say, a prophetic parable of the great test to which religion is exposed in the world, its difficulties and dangers and final triumph. To confine the reference to Israel is to miss the grand scope of the poem. At the last, as at the first, we are beyond Israel, out in a universal problem of mans nature and experience. By his wonderful gift of inspiration, painting the sufferings and the victory of Job, the author is a herald of the great advent. He is one of those who prepared the way not for a Jewish Messiah, the redeemer of a small people, but for the Christ of God, the Son of Man, the Saviour of the world.
A universal problem, that is, a question of every human age, has been presented and within limits brought to a solution. But it is not the supreme question of mans life. Beneath the doubts and fears with which this drama has dealt lie darker and more stormy elements. The vast controversy in which every human soul has a share oversweeps the land of Uz and the trial of Job. From his life the conscience of sin is excluded. The author exhibits a soul tried by outward circumstances; he does not make his hero share the thoughts of judgment of the evildoer. Job represents the believer in the furnace of providential pain and loss. He is neither a sinner nor a sin bearer. Yet the book leads on with no faltering movement toward the great drama in which every problem of religion centres. Christs life, character, work cover the whole region of spiritual faith and struggle, of conflict and reconciliation, of temptation and victory, sin and salvation; and while the problem is exhaustively wrought out the Reconciler stands divinely free of all entanglement. He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Jobs honest life emerges at last, from a narrow range of trial into personal reconciliation and redemption through the grace of God. Christs pure heavenly life goes forward in the Spirit through the full range of spiritual trial, bearing every need of erring man, confirming every wistful hope of the race, yet revealing with startling force mans immemorial quarrel with the light, and convicting him in the hour that it saves him. Thus for the ancient inspired drama there is set, in the course of evolution, another, far surpassing it, the Divine tragedy of the universe, involving the spiritual omnipotence of God. Christ has to overcome not only doubt and fear, but the devastating godlessness of man, the strange sad enmity of the carnal mind. His triumph in the sacrifice of the cross leads religion forth beyond all difficulties and dangers into eternal purity and calm. That is through Him the soul of believing man is reconciled by a transcendent spiritual law to nature and providence, and his spirit consecrated forever to the holiness of the Eternal.
The doctrine of the sovereignty of God, as set forth-in the drama of Job with freshness and power by one of the masters of theology, by no means covers the whole ground of Divine action. The righteous man is called and enabled to trust the righteousness of God; the good man is brought to confide in that Divine goodness which is the source of his own. But the evildoer remains unconstrained by grace, unmoved by sacrifice. We have learned a broader theology, a more strenuous yet a more gracious doctrine of the Divine sovereignty. The induction by which we arrive at the law is wider than nature, wider than the providence that reveals infinite wisdom, universal equity and care. Rightly did a great Puritan theologian take his stand on the conviction of God as the one power in heaven and earth and hell; rightly did he hold to the idea of Divine will as the one sustaining energy of all energies. But he failed just where the author of Job failed long before: he did not fully see the correlative principle of sovereign grace. The revelation of God in Christ, our Sacrifice and Redeemer, vindicates with respect to the sinful as well as the obedient the Divine act of creation. It shows the Maker assuming responsibility for the fallen, seeking and saving the lost; it shows one magnificent sweep of evolution which starts from the manifestation of God in creation and returns through Christ to the Father, laden with the manifold immortal gains of creative and redeeming power.