Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 41:4
Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant forever?
4. Will he consent to be one of thy domesticated animals, and serve thee?
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Will he make a covenant with thee? – That is, will he submit himself to thee, and enter into a compact to serve thee? Such a compact was made by those who agreed to serve another; and the idea here is, that the animal here referred to could not be reduced to such service – that is, could not be tamed.
Wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? – Canst thou so subdue him that he will be a perpetual slave? The meaning of all this is, that he was an untamable animal, and could not be reduced, as many others could, to domestic use.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. Will he make a covenant] Canst thou hire him as thou wouldst a servant, who is to be so attached to thy family as to have his ear bored, that he may abide in thy house for ever? Is not this an allusion to the law, Ex 21:1-6?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A covenant, to wit, to do thee faithful service, as the next words explain it. Canst thou bring him into bondage, and force him to serve thee?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. Can he be tamed for domesticuse (so Job 39:10-12)?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Will he make a covenant with thee?…. To live in friendship or servitude, as follows;
wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? oblige him to serve thee for life, or reduce him to perpetual bondage; signifying, that he is not to be tamed or brought into subjection; which is true of the whale, but not of the crocodile; for several authors i speak of them as making a sort of a truce with the priests of Egypt for a certain time, and of their being tamed so as to be handled, and fed, and brought up in the house.
i Herodot, ut supra, (Euterpe, sive, l. 2.) c. 69. Aelian. l. 8. c. 2. & l. 10. c. 21. Solin. c. 45. Plin. l. 8. c. 46.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) A servant for ever.The crocodile being probably quite untameable.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Will he make a covenant? The same phrase, , is used in the description in Gen 15:18, of the covenant between the Lord and Abraham. The phrase means literally, “cut a covenant,” and reappears in the Greek and the Latin, and apparently springs from a like primeval custom common to them all.
A servant for ever Will he, as a consideration for sparing his life, enter into a covenant of perpetual service? On the hypothesis that this book was written subsequently to the Mosaic economy, there may be in the phrase “servant for ever,” an allusion to the mode by which Israelitish servants covenanted to serve for ever. Exo 21:6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 41:4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
Ver. 4. Will he make a covenant with thee? ] And compound, where he cannot conquer.
Wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Will he: 1Ki 20:31-34
wilt thou: Gen 1:28, Psa 8:5, Psa 8:6
a servant: Exo 21:6, Deu 15:17
Reciprocal: 1Sa 11:1 – Make Pro 6:7 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
41:4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take {n} him for a servant for ever?
(n) To do your business, and be at your command?