Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 41:30

Sharp stones [are] under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

30. The impression left where he has lien.

Under him he hath sharp potsherds,

He spreadeth a threshing-sledge upon the mire.

The scales of the belly, though smoother than those on the back, still are sharp, particularly those under the tail, and leave an impression on the mire where he has lien as if a sharp threshing-sledge with teeth had stood on it or gone over it (Isa 41:15).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Sharp stones are under him – Margin, as in Hebrew, pieces of pot sherd. The Hebrew word ( chaddud), means sharp, pointed; and the phrase used here means the sharp points of a potsherd, or broken pieces of earthenware. The reference is, undoubtedly, to the scales of the animal, which were rough and pointed, like the broken pieces of earthenware. This description would not agree with the whale, and indeed will accord with no other animal so well as with the crocodile. The meaning is, that the under parts of his body, with which he rests upon the mire, are made up of sharp, pointed things, like broken pottery.

He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire – That is, when he rests or stretches himself on the mud or slime of the bank of the river. The word used here and rendered sharp pointed things ( charuts) means properly something cut in; then something sharpened or pointed; and is used to denote a threshing sledge; see this instrument described in Isa 28:27-28, note; Isa 41:15, note. It is not certain, however, that there is any allusion here to that instrument. It is rather to anything that is rough or pointed, and refers to the lower part of the animal as having this character. The Vulgate renders this, Beneath him are the rays of the sun, and he reposeth on gold as on clay. Dr. Harris, Dr. Good, and Prof. Lee, suppose it refers to what the animal lies on, meaning that he lies on splinters of rock and broken stone with as much readiness and ease as if it were clay. But the above seems to me to be the true interpretation. It is that of Gesenius, Rosenmuller, and Umbreit. Grotius understands it as meaning that the weapons thrown at him lie around him like broken pieces of pottery.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 30. Sharp stones are under him] So hard and impenetrable are his scales, that splinters of flint are the same to him as the softest reeds.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

According to this translation the sense is, his skin is so hard and impenetrable, that the sharpest stones are as easy to him as the mire, and make no more impression upon him. But the words are and may be otherwise rendered, as continuing the former sense, They (to wit, the arrows, darts, or stones cast at him) are or fall

under him, like (which particle is oft understood) sharp shreds, or fragments of stones;

he spreadeth sharp pointed things (to wit, the pieces of swords or darts which were flung at him, and broken upon him) upon the mire. The fragments of broken weapons lie as thick at the bottom of the water in the place of the fight as little stones do in the mire, or as they do in a field after some fierce and furious battle. Or thus, With him (or for him, i.e. for his defence) are sharp stones; he spreadeth himself like an arrow or threshing instrument (which is filled and fortified with iron)

in the mire or mud in the bottom of the water: so he doth not describe his resting-place, but rather his back, which he not unfitly compares to sharp stones or threshing instruments, because the darts or stones east at him pierce no more into him than they would do into them if they were thrown at them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

30. stonesrather,”potsherds,” that is, the sharp and pointed scales on thebelly, like broken pieces of pottery.

sharp-pointed thingsrather,”a threshing instrument,” but not on the fruits ofthe earth, but “on the mire“; irony. When he lies onthe mire, he leaves the marks of his scales so imprinted on it, thatone might fancy a threshing instrument with its sharp teeth had beendrawn over it (Isa 28:27).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Sharp stones [are] under him,…. And yet give him no pain nor uneasiness;

he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire; and makes his bed of them and lies upon them; as sharp stones, as before, shells of fishes, broken pieces of darts, arrows, and javelins thrown at him, which fall around him: this does not so well agree with the crocodile, the skin of whose belly is soft and thin; wherefore dolphins plunge under it and cut it with a thorn, as Pliny h relates, or with spiny fins i; but with the whale, which lies among hard rocks and sharp stones, and large cutting pieces of ice, as in the northern seas.

h Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 25. i Sandys’s Travels, l. 2. p. 78.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

30 His under parts are the sharpest shards,

He spreadeth a threshing sledge upon the mire.

31 He maketh the deep foam like a caldron,

He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

32 He lighteth up the path behind him,

One taketh the water-flood for hoary hair.

33 Upon earth there is not his equal,

That is created without fear.

34 He looketh upon everything high,

He is the king over every proud beast.

Under it, or, taken like , Job 41:11, as a virtual subject (vid., Job 28:5): its under parts are the most pointed or sharpest shards, i.e., it is furnished with exceedingly pointed scales. is the intensive form of (Arab. hadd , sharpened = iron, p. 542, note), as , 1Sa 17:40, of (smooth),

(Note: In Arabic also this substantival form is intensive, e.g., lebbun , an exceedingly large kind of tile, dried in the open air, of which farm-yards are built, nearly eight times larger than the common tile, which is called libne ( ).)

and the combination (equal the combination , comp. Job 30:6) is moreover superlative: in the domain of shards standing prominent as sharp ones, as Arab. chairu ummatin , the best people, prop. bon en fait de peuple (Ew. 313, c. Gramm. Arab. 532). lxx , by drawing to Job 41:30, and so translating as though it were (Arab. rifade , stratum ). The verb ( rafada ), cogn. , signifies sternere (Job 17:13), and then also culcire ; what is predicated cannot be referred to the belly of the crocodile, the scales of which are smooth, but to the tail with its scales, which more or less strongly protrude, are edged round by a shallow cavity, and therefore are easily and sharply separated when pressed; and the meaning is, that when it presses its under side in the morass, it appears as though a threshing-sledge with its iron teeth had been driven across it.

The pictures in Job 41:31 are true to nature; Bartram, who saw two alligators fighting, says that their rapid passage was marked by the surface of the water as it were boiling. With , a whirlpool, abyss, depth (from = , to hiss, clash; to whirl, surge), alternates; the Nile even in the present day is called bahr (sea) by the Beduins, and also compared, when it overflows its banks, to a sea. The observation that the animal diffuses a strong odour of musk, has perhaps its share in the figure of the pot of ointment (lxx , which Zwingli falsely translates spongia ); a double gland in the tail furnishes the Egyptians and Americans their (pseudo) musk. In Job 41:32 the bright white trail that the crocodile leaves behind it on the surface of the water is intended; in Job 41:32 the figure is expressed which underlies the descriptions of the foaming sea with , canus , in the classic poets. , hoary hair, was to the ancients the most beautiful, most awe-inspiring whiteness. , Job 41:33, understood by the Targ., Syr., Arab. version, and most moderns (e.g., Hahn: there is not on earth any mastery over it), according to Zec 9:10, is certainly, with lxx, Jer., and Umbr., not to be understood differently from the Arab. mithlahu (its equal); whether it be an inflexion of , or what is more probable, of (comp. Job 17:6, where this nomen actionis signifies a proverb = word of derision, and , to compare one’s self, be equal, Job 30:19). is also Hebr.-Arab.; the Arabic uses turbe , formed from turab (vid., on Job 19:25), of the surface of the earth, and et – tarba – u as the name of the earth itself. (for , as , Job 15:22, Cheth. = , resolved from , asuw , 1Sa 25:18, Cheth.) is the confirmatory predicate of the logical subj. described in Job 41:33 as incomparable; and (from , the a of which becomes i in inflexion), absque terrore (comp. Job 38:4), is virtually a nom. of the predicate: the created one (becomes) a terrorless one (a being that is terrified by nothing). Everything high, as the , Job 41:33, is more exactly explained, it looketh upon, i.e., remains standing before it, without turning away affrighted; in short, it (the leviathan) is king over all the sons of pride, i.e., every beast of prey that proudly roams about (vid., on Job 28:8).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(30) He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.Some render, He spreadeth, as it were, a threshing-wain upon the mire. The statement is, that he not only can lie without inconvenience upon sharp-pointed things, but his own body presents a sharp surface to the mud he lies on.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

30. Sharp stones Literally, pieces of potsherd. For description of potsherd, see Job 2:8. AElian, (H.A., 10:24,) also compares the sharp-edged scales, on the under side of the crocodile, to pointed potsherds, .

Sharp pointed things Hharouts, signifies “a threshing sledge;” also “gold;” a sense in which Carey takes it, who remarks “that the crocodile is said to spread gold upon the mud when his tail, the upper part of which is of a saffron colour, trails along, or lies upon, a bed of mud A kind of seeming incongruity is doubtless intended in the notion of the crocodile spreading gold upon the mud. It is what man would not do. The crocodile, on the contrary, spreads the gold-entinted portions of his belly and tail on the mud.” The word is almost unanimously accepted to signify an instrument for threshing, and is here used tropically. The impression that the tail of the animal (which is half his length) makes on the mire, is as if a threshing sledge had lain there. “This sledge consisted simply of two planks fastened together side by side, and bent upward in front; precisely as is the common stone-sledge of New England, though less heavy. Many holes are bored in the bottom beneath, and into these are fixed sharp fragments of hard stone.” Dr. Robinson, ii, p. 307. “This comparison is somewhat ironical, as it is not customary to spread out threshing instruments ‘upon the mire,’ but upon the fruits of the ground.” Umbreit.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments