Job 41 commentary

—The description of the Leviathan, is yet further to convince Job of his own weakness, and of God's almighty power. Whether this Leviathan be a whale or a crocodile, is disputed. The Lord, having showed Job how unable he was to deal with the Leviathan, sets forth his own power in that mighty creature. If such language describes the terrible force of Leviathan, what words can express the power of God's wrath? Under a humbling sense of our own vileness, let us revere the Divine Majesty; take and fill our allotted place, cease from our own wisdom, and give all glory to our gracious God and Saviour. Remembering from whom every good gift cometh, and for what end it was given, let us walk humbly with the Lord.

CHAPTER 41

Job 41:1-34.

1. leviathan--literally, "the twisted animal," gathering itself in folds: a synonym to the Thannin (Job 3:8, Margin; see Psa 74:14; type of the Egyptian tyrant; Psa 104:26; Is 27:1; the Babylon tyrant). A poetical generalization for all cetacean, serpentine, and saurian monsters (see on Job 40:15, hence all the description applies to no one animal); especially the crocodile; which is naturally described after the river horse, as both are found in the Nile.

tongue ... lettest down?--The crocodile has no tongue, or a very small one cleaving to the lower jaw. But as in fishing the tongue of the fish draws the baited hook to it, God asks, Canst thou in like manner take leviathan?

2. hook--rather, "a rope of rushes."

thorn--rather, a "ring" or "hook." So wild beasts were led about when caught (Is 37:29; Eze 29:4); fishes also were secured thus and thrown into the water to keep them alive.

3. soft words--that thou mayest spare his life. No: he is untamable.

4. Can he be tamed for domestic use (so Job 39:10-12)?

5. a bird?--that is, tamed.

6. Rather, "partners" (namely, in fishing).

make a banquet--The parallelism rather supports Umbreit, "Do partners (in trade) desire to purchase him?" So the Hebrew (De 2:6).

merchants--literally, "Canaanites," who were great merchants (Ho 12:7, Margin).

7. His hide is not penetrable, as that of fishes.

8. If thou lay ... thou wilt have reason ever to remember ... and thou wilt never try it again.

9. the hope--of taking him.

cast down--with fear "at the (mere) sight of him."

10. fierce--courageous. If a man dare attack one of My creatures (Ge 49:9; Nu 24:9), who will dare (as Job has wished) oppose himself (Psa 2:2) to Me, the Creator? This is the main drift of the description of leviathan.

11. prevented--done Me a favor first: anticipated Me with service (Psa 21:3). None can call Me to account ("stand before Me," Job 41:10) as unjust, because I have withdrawn favors from him (as in Job's case): for none has laid Me under a prior obligation by conferring on Me something which was not already My own. What can man give to Him who possesses all, including man himself? Man cannot constrain the creature to be his "servant" (Job 41:4), much less the Creator.

12. I will not conceal--a resumption of the description broken off by the digression, which formed an agreeable change.

his power--literally, "the way," that is, true proportion or expression of his strength (so Hebrew, De 19:4).

comely proportion--literally, "the comeliness of his structure" (his apparatus: so "suit of apparel" Jud 17:10) [Maurer]. Umbreit translates, "his armor." But that follows after.

13. discover--rather, "uncover the surface" of his garment (skin, Job 10:11): strip off the hard outer coat with which the inner skin is covered.

with--rather, "within his double jaws"; literally, "bridle"; hence that into which the bridle is put, the double row of teeth; but "bridle" is used to imply that none dare put his hand in to insert a bridle where in other animals it is placed (Job 41:4; 39:10).

14. doors of ... face--his mouth. His teeth are sixty in number, larger in proportion than his body, some standing out, some serrated, fitting into each other like a comb [Bochart].

15. Rather, his "furrows of shields" (as "tubes," "channels," see on Job 40:18), are, &c., that is, the rows of scales, like shields covering him: he has seventeen such rows.

shut up--firmly closed together. A musket ball cannot penetrate him, save in the eye, throat, and belly.

18. Translate: "his sneezing, causeth a light to shine." Amphibious animals, emerging after having long held their breath under water, respire by violently expelling the breath like one sneezing: in the effort the eyes which are usually directed towards the sun, seem to flash fire; or it is the expelled breath that, in the sun, seems to emit light.

eyelids of morning--The Egyptian hieroglyphics paint the eyes of the crocodile as the symbol for morning, because the eyes appear the first thing, before the whole body emerges from the deep [Horæ Hierogliphicæ 1.65. Bochart].

19. burning lamps--"torches"; namely, in respiring (Job 41:18), seem to go out.

20. seething--boiling: literally, "blown under," under which a fire is blown.

21. kindleth coals--poetical imagery (Psa 18:8).

22. remaineth--abideth permanently. His chief strength is in the neck.

sorrow--anxiety or dismay personified.

is turned into joy--rather, "danceth," "exulteth"; wherever he goes, he spreads terror "before him."

23. flakes--rather, "dewlaps"; that which falls down (Margin). They are "joined" fast and firm, together, not hanging loose, as in the ox.

are firm--Umbreit and Maurer, "are spread."

in themselves--rather, "upon him."

24. heart--"In large beasts which are less acute in feeling, there is great firmness of the heart, and slower motion" [Bochart]. The nether millstone, on which the upper turns, is especially hard.

25. he--the crocodile; a type of the awe which the Creator inspires when He rises in wrath.

breakings--namely, of the mind, that is, terror.

purify themselves--rather, "they wander from the way," that is, flee away bewildered [Maurer and Umbreit].

26. cannot hold--on his hard skin.

habergeon--coat of mail; avail must be taken by zeugma out of "hold," as the verb in the second clause: "hold" cannot apply to the "coat of mail."

27. iron ... brass--namely, weapons.

28. arrow--literally, "son of the bow"; Oriental imagery (La 3:13; Margin).

stubble--Arrows produce no more effect than it would to throw stubble at him.

29. Darts--rather, "clubs"; darts have been already mentioned (Job 41:26).

30. stones--rather, "potsherds," that is, the sharp and pointed scales on the belly, like broken pieces of pottery.

sharp-pointed things--rather, "a threshing instrument," but not on the fruits of the earth, but "on the mire"; irony. When he lies on the mire, he leaves the marks of his scales so imprinted on it, that one might fancy a threshing instrument with its sharp teeth had been drawn over it (Is 28:27).

31. Whenever he moves.

sea--the Nile (Is 19:5; Na 3:8).

pot of ointment--the vessel in which it is mixed. Appropriate to the crocodile, which emits a musky smell.

32. path--the foam on his track.

hoary--as hair of the aged.

33. who--being one who, &c.

34. beholdeth--as their superior.

children of pride--the proud and fierce beasts. So Job 28:8; Hebrew, "sons of pride." To humble the pride of man and to teach implicit submission, is the aim of Jehovah's speech and of the book; therefore with this as to leviathan, the type of God in His lordship over creation, He closes.

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 לויתן livyathan is retained by the Vulgate and the Chaldee. The Septuagint have, Αξεις δε δρακοντα; "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 לוי levi תן 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: Επεαν νωτον συος δελεασῃ περι αγκιστρον, μετιει ες μεσον τον ποταμον, κ. τ. λ. "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.

Canst thou put a hook onto his nose? - Canst thou put a ring in his nose, and lead him about as thou dost thine ox? In the East they frequently lead thy oxen and buffaloes with a ring in their noses. So they do bulls and oxen in this country.

Bore his jaw through with a thorn? - Some have thought that this means, Canst thou deal with him as with one of those little fish which thou stringest on a rush by means of the thorn at its end? Or perhaps it may refer to those ornaments with which they sometimes adorned their horses, mules, camels, etc.

Will he make many supplications - There are several allusions in these verses to matters of which we know nothing.

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, Exo 21:1-6?

Wilt thou play with him - Is he such a creature as thou canst tame; and of which thou canst make a pet, and give as a plaything to thy little girls? נערותיך naarotheycha; probably alluding to the custom of catching birds, tying a string to their legs, and giving them to children to play with; a custom execrable as ancient, and disgraceful as modern.

Shall thy companions make a banquet - Canst thou and thy friends feast on him as ye were wont to do on a camel sacrificed for this purpose? Or, canst thou dispose of his flesh to the merchants - to buyers, as thou wouldst do that of a camel or an ox? It is certain, according to Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 70, that they killed and ate crocodiles at Apollonople and Elephantis, in Egypt.

Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? - This refers to some kind of harpoon work, similar to that employed in taking whales, and which they might use for some other kinds of animals; for the skin of the crocodile could not be pierced. Herrera says that he saw a crocodile defend itself against thirty men; and that they fired six balls at it without being able to wound it. It can only be wounded under his belly.

Lay thine hand upon him? - Mr. Heath translates, "Be sure thou strike home. Mind thy blow: rely not upon a second stroke." Mr. Good translates: - "Make ready thy hand against him.

Dare the contest: be firm."

He is a dangerous animal; when thou attackest him, be sure of thy advantage; if thou miss, thou art ruined. Depend not on other advantages, if thou miss the first. Kill him at once, or he will kill thee.

Behold, the hope - If thou miss thy first advantage, there is no hope afterwards: the very sight of this terrible monster would dissipate thy spirit, if thou hadst not a positive advantage against his life, or a place of sure retreat to save thine own.

None is so fierce that dare stir him up - The most courageous of men dare not provoke the crocodile to fight, or even attempt to rouse him, when, sated with fish, he takes his repose among the reeds. The strongest of men cannot match him.

Who then is able - If thou canst not stand against the crocodile, one of the creatures of my hand, how canst thou resist me, who am his Maker? This is the use which God makes of the formidable description which he has thus far given of this terrible animal.

Who hath prevented me - Who is it that hath laid me under obligation to him? Do I need my creatures? All under the heavens is my property.

I will not conceal his parts - This is most certainly no just translation of the original. The Vulgate is to this effect: I will not spare him: nor yield to his powerful words, framed for the purpose of entreaty.

Mr. Good applies it to leviathan: - "I cannot be confounded at his limbs and violence;

The strength and structure of his frame."

The Creator cannot be intimidated at the most formidable of his own works: man may and should tremble; God cannot.

Who can discover the face of his garment? - Who can rip up the hide of this terrible monster? Who can take away his covering, in order to pierce his vitals?

The doors of his face? - His jaws which are most tremendous.

His scales are his pride - They are impenetrable, as we have already seen.

One is so near to another - It has already been stated, that a musket-ball fired at him in any direction cannot make a passage through his scales.

By his neesings a light doth shine - It is very likely that this may be taken literally. When he spurts up the water out of his nostrils, the drops form a sort of iris or rainbow. We have seen this effect produced when, in certain situations and state of the atmosphere, water was thrown up forcibly, so as to be broken into small drops, which has occasioned an appearance like the rainbow.

The eyelids of the morning - It is said that, under the water, the eyes of the crocodile are exceedingly dull; but when he lifts his head above water they sparkle with the greatest vivacity. Hence the Egyptians, in their hieroglyphics, made the eyes of the crocodile the emblem of the morning. Ανατολην λεγοντες δυο οφθαλμους κροκοδειλου ζωογραφουσι. - Horapp. Egypt. Ieroglyph., lib. i., c. 65. This is a most remarkable circumstance, casts light on ancient history, and shows the rigid correctness of the picture drawn above. The same figure is employed by the Greek poets. Χρυσεας ἡμερας βλεφαρον. "The eyelid of the golden day."

Soph. Antig. ver. 103. Νυκτος αφεγγες βλεφαρον. "The darksome eyelid of the night."

Eurip. Phaeniss. ver. 553.

Out of his mouth go burning lamps - Dr. Young, in his paraphrase, has a sensible note on this passage: - "This is nearer the truth than at first view may be imagined. The crocodile, according to naturalists, lying long under water, and being there forced to hold its breath, when it emerges, the breath long repressed is hot, and bursts out so violently, that it resembles fire and smoke. The horse does not repress his breath by any means so long, neither is he so fierce and animated; yet the most correct of poets ventures to use the same metaphor concerning him, volvit sub naribus ignem. By this I would caution against a false opinion of the boldness of Eastern metaphors, from passages ill understood."

In his neck remaineth strength - Literally, "strength has its dwelling in his neck." The neck is the seat of strength of most animals; but the head and shoulders must be here meant, as the crocodile has no neck, being shaped nearly like a lizard.

And sorrow is turned into joy before him - ולפניו תדוץ דאבה ulephanaiv taduts deabah; "And destruction exulteth before him." This is as fine an image as can well be conceived. It is in the true spirit of poetry, the legitimate offspring of the genie createur. Our translation is simply insignificant.

The flakes of his flesh - His muscles are strongly and firmly compacted.

Hard as a piece of the nether millstone - Which is required to be harder than that which runs above.

By reason of breakings they purify themselves - No version, either ancient or modern, appears to have understood this verse; nor is its true sense known. The Septuagint have, "When he turns himself, he terrifies all the quadrupeds on the earth." The original is short and obscure: משברים יתחטאו mishshebarim yithchattau. Mr. Good takes the plural termination ים im, from the first word, of which he makes the noun ים yam, the sea, and thus translates it, "They are confounded at the tumult of the sea." In this I can find no more light than in our own. Mr. Heath has, "For very terror they fall to the ground." The translations of it are as unsatisfactory as they are various. I shall give both the verses from Coverdale: -

His herte is as harde as a stone; and as fast as the stythye (anvil) that the hammer man smyteth upon: when he goeth the mightiest off all are afrayed, and the waives hevy. The dull swell in the waters proclaims his advance; and when this is perceived, the stout-hearted tremble.

Habergeon - The hauberk, the Norman armor for the head, neck, and breast, formed of rings. See on Neh 4:16 (note).

Darts are counted as stubble - All these verses state that he cannot be wounded by any kind of weapon, and that he cannot be resisted by any human strength. A young crocodile, seen by M. Maillet, twelve feet long, and which had not eaten a morsel for thirty-five days, its mouth having been tied all that time, was nevertheless so strong, that with a blow of its tail it overturned a bale of coffee, and five or six men, with the utmost imaginable ease! What power then must lodge in one twenty feet long, well fed, and in health!

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.

He maketh the deep to boil like a pot - This is occasioned by strongly agitating the waters at or near the bottom; and the froth which arises to the top from this agitation may have the appearance of ointment. But several travelers say that the crocodile has a very strong scent of musk, and that he even imparts this smell to the water through which he passes, and therefore the text may be taken literally. This property of the crocodile has been noticed by several writers.

He maketh a path to shine after him - In certain states of the weather a rapid motion through the water disengages many sparks of phosphoric fire. I have seen this at sea; once particularly, on a fine clear night, with a good breeze, in a fast-sailing vessel, I leaned over the stern, and watched this phenomenon for hours. The wake of the vessel was like a stream of fire; millions of particles of fire were disengaged by the ship's swift motion through the water, nearly in the same way as by the electric cushion and cylinder; and all continued to be absorbed at a short distance from the vessel. Whether this phenomenon takes place in fresh water or in the Nile, I have had no opportunity of observing.

The deep to be hoary - By the frost and foam raised by the rapid passage of the animal through the water.

Upon earth there is not his like - There is no creature among terrestrial animals so thoroughly dangerous, so exceedingly strong, and so difficult to be wounded or slain.

Who is made without fear - Perhaps there is no creature who is at all acquainted with man, so totally destitute of fear as the crocodile.

He is a king over all the children of pride - There is no animal in the waters that does not fear and fly from him. Hence the Chaldee renders it, all the offspring of Fishes. Calmet says, that by the children of pride the Egyptians are meant; that the crocodile is called their king, because he was one of their principal divinities; that the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh, which signifies a crocodile; and that the Egyptians were proverbial for their pride, as may be seen in Eze 32:12. And it is very natural to say that Job, wishing to point out a cruel animal, adored by the Egyptians, and considered by them as their chief divinity, should describe him under the name of king of all the children of pride. Houbigant considers the לויתן livyathan, the coupled dragon, to be emblematical of Satan: "He lifts his proud look to God, and aspires to the high heavens; and is king over all the sons of pride." He is, in effect, the governor of every proud, haughty, impious man. What a king! What laws! What subjects! Others think that Men are intended by the sons of pride; and that it is with the design to abate their pride, and confound them in the high notions they have of their own importance, that God produces and describes an animal of whom they are all afraid, and whom none of them can conquer.

After all, what is leviathan? I have strong doubts whether either whale or crocodile be meant. I think even the crocodile overrated by this description. He is too great, too powerful, too important, in this representation. No beast, terrestrial or aquatic, deserves the high character here given, though that character only considers him as unconquerably strong, ferociously cruel, and wonderfully made. Perhaps leviathan was some extinct mammoth of the waters, as behemoth was of the land. However, I have followed the general opinion by treating him as the crocodile throughout these notes; but could not finish without stating my doubts on the subject, though I have nothing better to offer in the place of the animal in behalf of which almost all learned men and critics argue, and concerning which they generally agree. As to its being an emblem either of Pharaoh or the devil, I can say little more than, I doubt. The description is extremely dignified; and were we sure of the animal, I have no doubt we should find it in every instance correct. But after all that has been said, we have yet to learn what leviathan is!

Hope - The hope of taking or conquering him.

Stand - To the battle. Me - To contend with me who created him?

Prevented - Hath laid the first obligation upon me, for which I am indebted to him. Who can be before - hand with me in kindnesses, since all things under heaven are mine.

Discover - Or, uncover, or take off from him. Face - The upper or outward part of his garment, or, the garment itself: the word face being often redundant. And by the garment is meant the skin which covers the whole body; who dare attempt to touch his very skin? Much less to give him a wound. His double bridle - His fast jaws, which have some resemblance to a double bridle: whence the Greeks call those parts of the face which reach to the jaws on both sides, the bridles.

Doors - His mouth. If it be open, none dare enter within, and if it be shut, none dare open it.

Shut - Closely compacted together, as things that are fastened together by a seal. This likewise is true of the crocodile, but the skin of the whale is smooth and entire without any scales at all.

Sneesings - This the crocodile is said frequently to do. Eyes - To which they seem very fitly compared, because the eyes of the crocodile are dull and dark under the water, but as soon as they appear above water, cast a bright and clear light; like the morning light, suddenly breaking forth after the dark night.

Lamps - This also better agrees with the crocodile, which breathes like the river - horse, of which ancient authors affirm, that his nostrils are very large, and he breathes forth a fiery smoke like that of a furnace.

Kindleth coals - An hyperbolical expression, denoting extraordinary heat.

And sorrow - Sorrow is his companion and harbinger, which attends upon him wheresoever he goes. So anger and fear are said by the poets to accompany the God of war.

Nether mill - stone - Which being to bear the weight of the upper, ought to be the harder and stronger of the two.

Raiseth - Upon the top of the waters. Mighty - Even the stout - hearted. Breakings - By reason of their great danger and distress; which is expressed by this very word, Psal 60:2 Jonah 2:4. Purify - Those who ordinarily live in the neglect of God, they cry unto God in their trouble, and endeavour to purge their consciences from the guilt of their sins.

Hold - Heb. cannot stand, cannot endure the stroke, but will be broken by it. The crocodile's skin, no sword, nor dart, nor musquet bullet can pierce.

Turned - Hurt him no more than a blow with a little stubble.

Stones - His skin is so impenetrable, that the sharpest stones or shells are as easy unto him as the mire.

Boil - To swell, and foam, and froth by his strong and vehement motion, as any liquor does when it is boiled in a pot, especially boiling ointment. The sea - The great river Nile, is called a sea, both in scripture, as Isa 11:15, and in other authors, as Euphrates is called the sea of Babylon, Isa 21:1 Jer 51:36. Lakes also are most frequently called seas both in the Old and New Testament: and in such lakes the crocodiles are as well as in the Nile.

Shine - By the white froth or foam upon the waters. The same may be observed in the wake of a ship by night.

King, &c. - He can tame both the behemoth and leviathan, as strong and stout - hearted as they are. This discourse concerning them was brought in, to prove that it is God only, who can look upon proud men and abase them, bring them low, and hide them in the dust, he it is that beholdeth all high things, and wherein men dealt proudly, he is above them. He is king over all the children of pride, brutal or rational, and makes them either bend or break before him.

1. CAnst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down ?

Canst thou take him with a Hook and a Line, as Anglers take ordinary Fishes? Surely no. Quest. What is this Leviathan? Ans. 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, Psal. 104. 25, 26. which having been discovered in the Seas next bordering upon Arabia probably was not unknown to Iob, 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 word Thannin (which is Parallel to this word Leviathan, these two words being synonymous and the one promiscuously used for the other, as appears from Psal. 74. 13, 14. Isa. 27. 1. Ezek. 32. 2.) is used of the Crocodile, Ezek. 29 3, 4. & 32. 2, 3. But I shall not positively determine this Controversy; but onely shew 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. Onely 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 savour 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 Iob and his Friends, as the Crocodile was, than of such as it is very uncertain whether they were known in those parts, and in Iob's 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 perillous; whatsoever peculiar vertue 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 fastned to their under Jaws, as the self-same 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.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span]; [illegible: 1 span]

2. Canst thou put an hook into his nose ? or bore his jaw through with a thorn .

Heb. a Bulrush, i. e. an Hook like a Bulrush with its head hanging down, as is expressed, Isa. 58. 5.

To hang him up by it for Sale, or to carry him home for use, after thou hast drawn him out of the Sea or River, of which he spake in the former Verse.

Or, with an Iron Hook or Instrument as sharp as a Thorn: wherewith thou usest to carry little Fishes.

3. Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee ?

Doth he dread thine anger or power? or will he humbly and earnestly beg thy favour, that thou wouldst spare him, and not pursue him, or release him out of Prison? It is a Metaphor from men in distress and misery who use these means to them to whose power they are subject.

4. Will he make a Covenant with thee ? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

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?

5. Wilt thou play with him as with a bird ? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens ?

As Children play with little Birds kept in Cages, or tied with strings; which they do at their pleasure and without any fear?

For thy little Daughters; which he mentions rather than little Sons, because such are most subject to fear.

6. Shall the companions make a banquet of him ? shall they part him among the Merchants ?

Thy Friends or Assistants in the taking of him.

i. e. Feed upon him. Or, for him, i. e. for joy that thou hast taken him.

As is usual in such cases, that all who are Partners in the labour and hazard may partake of the profit also and divide the spoil.

7. Canst thou fill his skin with barbed Irons, or his head with fish-spears ?

This may be understood, either 1. of the Whale. And whereas it is objected, that the Whales at this day are taken in this manner, and therefore this cannot be understood of them, it may be replied, both that this art and way of taking Whales is a late invention, and was not known in Iob's time, and that he doth not speak of the absolute impossibility, but of the great difficulty of taking them. Or 2. of the Crocodile, whose skin is so hard that an Iron or Spear will not pierce it, as we shall see hereafter.

8. Lay thine hand upon him , remember the battel , do no more.

Either, 1. in a familiar and friendly manner, that thou mayest catch him by deceit when thou canst not do it by force. Or rather 2. in way of Hostility, seize upon him and take him by a strong hand, if thou darest do so.

But ere thou do attempt that, consider what thou art doing and how hazardous thy enterprize is, and with whom, and with what disadvantage thou art going to fight, and as it follows, do no more, proceed no further, draw back thy hand, and be thankful for so great a deliverance. Or the Verse may be rendred thus. If (which Particle is oft understood) thou offerest or attemptest to lay violent hands on him thou wilt have cause to remember (the Imperative being put for the Future, which is frequent in the Hebrew Language) the battel, and thou wilt do so no more; If thou doest escape, thou wilt never forget thy danger, nor attempt any thing of like nature for the time to come.

9. Behold, the hope of him , is in vain: shall not one be cast down, even at the sight of him ?

Either, 1. of the Fish, i. e. the hope of taking or conquering him. Or, rather 2. of the Man who laid hands upon him as hoping to take him by force, but in vain.

The prefix He being put for Halo, as it is oft-times in the Hebrew Text, as Gen. 27. 36. 1 Sam. 2. 28. Ier. 3. 6. & 31. 20. Ezek. 20. 30.

Not onely the fight, but the very fight of him is most frightful. Such is the sight of the Whale to Mariners, who fear the overturning of their Vessel. And such is the sight of the Crocodile, by which alone some have been affrighted out of their wits.

10. None is so fierce that dare stir him up : who then is able to stand before me ?

When he sleepeth or is quiet. None dare provoke him to the Battel.

To contend with me his Creatour as thou Iob dost, when one of my Creatures is too hard for him.

11. who hath prevented me that I should repay him ? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine .

To wit, with offices or service done for me, by which he hath laid the first obligation upon me, for which I am indebted to him. Who can be before-hand with me in kindnesses, since not onely the Leviathan, but all Men, and, as it follows, all things under Heaven, are mine, made by my hand, and inriched with all their indowments by my favour, without which. O Iob, thou wouldst not have had either reason or speech to use so perversly to reproach my Providence. Having how said and largely proved that Man could not contend with God in power, he now adds, that he cannot do it in justice▪ because God oweth him nothing, nor is any way obliged to him. Which having briefly hinted to prevent an objection, he returns to his former argument the description of the Leviathan.

That I should be ingaged to requite his favours

Created by my power and favour, and wholly in my possession and at my dispose, and therefore cannot possibly prevent me, as was now said.

Marginal references: Rom. 11. 35 Psal. 24. 1. & 50. 12. 1 Cor. 10. 26.

12. I will not conceal his parts , nor his power, nor his comely proportion .

i. e. I will particularly speak of them. Here is a Meiosis, as there is, Chap. 14. 11. & 15. 18. and oft elsewhere.

Heb. his bars, i. e. the Members of his Body which are strong like bars of Iron.

Which is more amiable and admirable in so vast a bulk.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word]. Chap. 18. 13.

13. Who can discover the face of his garment ? or who can come to him with his double bridle ?

Or, uncover, or take off from him.

The upper or outward part of his garment, or, the garment it self. the word face being oft redundant, as Gen. 1. 2. & 23. 3. and oft elsewhere. And by the garment is meant the skin, which covers the whole Body, and may be taken off from the Body like a garment. Who dare attempt to touch his very outward skin? much less dare any venture to approach to him, to give him a deep or deadly wound.

To put it into his mouth and lead him by it to thy Stable and Service, as thou dost by an Horse. Or rather, (because he plainly seems to persist in describing the several parts of his Body: of which he speaks both in the foregoing and following words) Who can come within his double Bridle, to wit, his vast Jaws, which have some resemblance to a double Bridle: whence the Greeks call those parts of the face which reach to the Jaws on both sides, the Bridles.

Marginal references: Or, within.

14. Who can open the doors of his face ? his teeth are terrible round about .

To wit, his Mouth. If it be open, none d[illegible: 1+ letters]re enter within it, as he now said; and here he adds, that if it be shut, none dare open it.

This is true of some kinds of Whales, though others are said to have either none or no terrible teeth: but it is more eminently and unquestionably true of the Crocodile, of which this very thing is observed by all Authors who write of it.

15. His scales are his pride , shut up together as with a close seal i.

He prides and pleaseth himself in his strong and mighty scales. Heb. his strong shields (i. e. scales) are his pride. Or (as other both ancient and modern Interpreters render it) His body (or, His back, as this word is used, Isa. 38. 17. which, if meant of the Crocodile, is emphatical, because his scales and strength is in his Back, whereas his Eelly is very soft and easily pierced.) is the strength of shields, i. e. fortified with scales strong as Shields. This is meant either, 1. of the Whale, whose skin, though it be smooth and intire and without scales, may be said to be, as (which Particle is oft understood) strong shields, because it is, as Galen reports exceeding hard and strong, and almost impenetrable and like a Shield, especially then when Shields were made of Leather; and so it is not onely on the back, as in the Crocodile, but also in the belly all over. Or, 2. of the Crocodile, which hath scales properly so called, and those most truely such as are here described, as all Authors and eye-witnesses consent.

p Closely compacted together, as things that are fastned together by a Seal.

Marginal references: Heb. strong pieces of Shield.

16. One is so near to another , that no air can come between them.

Which plainly shews that the Shields or Scales are several; which agrees better to the Crocodile, than to the Whale, whose skin is all of one entire piece, unless there were a sort of Whales having thick and strong Scales; which some have affirmed, but is not yet known and proved.

17. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundred .

It is exceeding difficult and almost impossible by any power of art to so ever them one from another.

18. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eye lids of the morning .

Which may be understood, either, 1. of any commotion or agitation of the body like that which is in neezing, as when the Whale stirreth himself, and casteth or shooteth up great spours of water into the Air by the Pipes which God hath planted in his head for this use; which water being thin and transparent and illuminated by the Sun-beams casts forth a shining light. Or, 2. of neezing properly so called, which the Crocodile is said frequently to do, because it commonly turneth its eyes to the Sun, as Strabo, and others note; which when a Man doth he is apt to neeze.

To which they seem very fitly compared, because the Eyes both of the Whale and Crocodile are dull and dark under the water, but as soon as they appear above water, they cast forth immediately a bright and clear light, though not like that of the Sun at noon day, which had been too great an Hyperbole, yet like the Morning light suddenly breaking forth after the dark Night.

19. Out of his mouth go burning Lamps , and sparks of fire leap out.

i. e. His breathings and blowings are very hot, or flaming, as the following Verses explains this. This also may seem better to agree to the Crocodile, which breaths (as Aristotle affirms) like the Hippopotamus, of which ancient Authors affirm, that his Noshils are very large, and he breaths forth a siery smoak like that of a Forna[illegible: 1+ letters], than to the Whale, which rather casts forth streams of Water, as was noted before, than flames of Fire, there being no such great heat observed in Whales, nor as far as I know, in any other fishes.

20. Out of his nostrils goeth smoak, as out of a seething pot or caldron .

Heb. Pool. So a great Caldron is called, because it sends forth a great smoak as a Pool doth vapours; as in like manner the great brazen Laver in the Temple is called a S[illegible: 1+ letters]a, for the great quantity of Water which it held.

21. His breath kindleth Coals , and a flame goeth out of his Mouth.

An Hyperbolical Expression, noting onely extraordinary Heat.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word].

22. In his neck remaineth strength , and sorrow is turned into joy before him .

His Neck is exceeding strong. This is meant either 1. Of the Whale, who though he hath no Neck no more than other Fishes have, yet he hath a part in some sort answerable to it, where the Head and Body are joined together. Or 2. Of the Crocodile, whom Aristotle (who made it his business to search out the several Natures and Parts of all living Creatures, and had all the helps and advantages which he desired to find them out▪) and Scaliger, and others, affirm to have a Neck, though some deny it.

i. e. The approach of any Enemy, which usually causeth fear and sorrow in others, fills him with joy, as being desirous of nothing more than fighting. Or, sorrow rejoiceth, or danceth, or triumpheth, &c. i. e. is prevalent and victorious, and quickly invades and conquers ail those Men, or other Creatures, which are in his way. Sorrow is his Companion, or Harbenger, which attends upon him wheresoever he goes. This may be a Po[illegible: 1+ letters]tical Expression, like that of the Poets, when they bring in Anger and Fear going along with or before Mars into the Battle.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

23. The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves, they cannot be moved .

Or, Parts, which stick out, or hang loose, and are ready to fall from other Fishes, or Creatures.

The word Flesh is used of Fishes also, as Lev. 11. 11. 1 Cor. 15. 39.

Without difficulty.

To wit, out of their place, or from the other Members of the Body.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

24. His heart is as firm as a stone, yea, as hard as a piece of the nether mill-stone .

Either 1. That part of the Body is most firm, and hard, and strong. Or 2. His courage is invincible, he is void of fear for himself, and of compassion to others, which is oft called hardness of heart.

Which being to bear the weight of the upper, ought to be the harder and stronger of the two.

25. When he raiseth up himself , the Mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purifie themselves .

Shewing himself upon the top of the Waters. Or, [illegible: 1 word] of his Height or Greatness, or Majesty, for he is represented as a King, v. 34.

Even the stout hearted Mariners or Passengers, who use to be above fear.

Either 1. Of the Sea, caused by his motion▪ which dasheth the Waves in pieces one against another. Or rather 2. Of their Mind and State: by reason of their great danger and distress; which is expressed by this very word, Psal. 60. 2. Ionah 2. 4.

Either 1. Naturally; that being the usual effect of great terrour. See Ezek. 7. 17. Or rather 2. Morally, as this word is generally used. Those Mariners who ordinarily live in a gross and general neglect of God, and of Religion, are so affrighted with this imminent danger, that they [illegible: 1+ letters]ry unto God in their trouble, as is said in like case, Psal. 107. 28. and endeavour to purge their Consciences from the guilt of their sins, by confessing and seemingly forsaking of them, and to make their Peace with God, and obrain his favour and help, by their Vows, and Promises, and Prayers.

26. The Sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold : the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon .

That approacheth to him, and dare strike at him.

Heb. cannot stand, i. e. either 1. Cannot endure the stroke, but will be broken by it. Or rather 2. Cannot abide or take hold of him, or be fixed in him; but is instantly beaten back by the excessive hardness of the skin, which cannot be pierced by it, as may be gathered from this and other passages before and after it. This also seems better to agree to the Crocodile, whose skin no Sword, nor Dart, nor Musquet Bullet, (as others add) can pierce, than to the Whale, whose skin is easily pierced, as Experience sheweth in our Whales; except the Whale here spoken of were of another kind; which is not impossible.

Or, Breast-plate. As offensive Weapons cannot hurt him, so defensive Weapons cannot secure a Man from him. But men that go upon the design of taking either Whales or Crocodiles do not use to fortifie themselves in that manner. Some therefore take this to be another offensive Weapon, a kind of dart, as this word signifies in the Arabick Language; which is but a Dialect of the Hebrew, and from which the true signification of many Hebrew words must be gathered.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]

27. He esteemeth iron as straw , and brass as rotten wood.

He neither fears nor feels the blows of the one more than of the other.

28. The arrow cannot make him flee: sling-stones are turned with him into stubble .

Heb. the son of the bow; as it is elsewere called the Son of the quiver, Lam. 3. 13. the Quiver being as it were the Mother or Womb that bears it, and the Bow as the Father that begers it or sendeth it forth.

Great stones [illegible: 1+ letters]ast out of Slings, which have a great force and efficacy: of which see on 2 Chron. 26. 14.

Hurt him no more than a blow with a little stubble.

29. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear .

So far is he from fearing it, and fleeing from it, that he scorns and desies it.

30. Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mire .

According to this Translation the sense is, His Skin is so hard and impenerable that the sharpest stones are as easie to him as the mire, and make no more impression upon him. But the words are and may be otherwise rendred 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 shreads, 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 harrow, 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 cast at him pierce no more into him than they would do into them if they were thrown at them.

Marginal references: Sharp. [illegible: 1 word] the [illegible: 1 word].

31. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot : he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment .

The deep Waters, or the Sea, which is called the deep, Psal. 107. 24 Ionah 2. 3 as it is explained in the next Clause.

To swell, and foam, and froth by his strong and vehement motion, as any Liquor doth when it is boiled in a pot.

Either the great Sea, the proper place of the Whale, Psal. 104. 25. or the great River Nilus, which is called a Sea, both in Scripture, as Isa. 11. 15. and in other Authors (of which see my Latin Synopsis) as Euphrates is called the Sea of Babylon, Isa. 21. 1. Jer. 51. 36. or Lakes or Pools, which are most frequently called Seas both in the Old and New Testament, as every one knows. And in such Lakes the Crocodiles are no less than in Nilus, as it is attested by Herodotus, and Strabo, and others.

This Clause seems to be added very emphatically to intimate that this Leviathan causeth not onely a vehement commotion, but also a great fragrancy in the Sea or Waters where it is. Which, though it was not observed by the Ancients, yet is unanimously affirmed by later Authors upon their own knowledge and experience, that it [illegible: 1+ letters]asts a perfume like Musk; of which see the Names and Words of the Authors in my Latin Synopsis.

32. He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary

When he raiseth himself to the top of the Waters, he doth as it were plow it up and make large furrows, and causeth a white froth or foam upon the Waters.

33. Upon earth there is not his like: who is made without fear .

Either, 1. strictly so called as it is distinguished from the Sea or Rivers. There is no Land-creature comparable to him for strength and courage. Or 2. largely taken. No Creature equals him in all points. Or, upon the dust, as the word properly signifies, i. e. Among all things that creep in the dust, among which this may in some sort be numbred for the shormess of its feet. But this were no great honour to it to be the chief of creeping things; and therefore the former Translation seems more proper for the present design of magnifying this Creature above all others.

Fears no enemy as being full of courage and sensible of his own invincible strength. Or, so as he cannot be bruised or broken, by reason of his prodigious hardness, of which I have spoken before.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] themselves without fear.

34. He beholdeth all high things : he is a king over all the children of pride.

He doth not turn his back upon nor hide his face from the highest and proudest Creatures, but looks upon them with a bold and undaunted countenance, as being without any fear of them, as was now said.

z He carries himself with Princely Majesty and courage towards the stoutest and loftlest Creatures; which, though of far higher stature than himself, he striketh down with one stroke of his Tail, as he commonly doth Cows, and Horses, and sometimes Elephants.

Job 41:1-5   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, לויתן signified the celestial dragon, that causes the eclipses of the sun (according to the Indian mythology, râhu 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,Vid., Grässe, Beiträge, 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 תּנּין 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 - fir‛annu. The Old Testament language possesses no proper name for the crocodile; even the Talmudic makes use of קרוקתא = κροκόδειλος (Lewysohn, §271). לויתן is the generic name of twisted, and תנין long-extended monsters. Since the Egyptian name of the crocodile has not been Hebraized, the poet contents himself in תּמשׁך with making a play upon its Egyptian, and in Arab. tmsâḥ , timsâḥ ,Herodotus was acquainted with this name (χάμψαι = κροκόδειλοι); thus is the crocodile called also in Palestine, where (as Tobler and Joh. Roth have shown) it occurs, especially in the river Damûr near Tantûra.

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).”Les naturalistes - says Chabas in his Papyr. magique, p. 190 - comptent cinq espèces de crocodiles vivant dans le Nil, mais les hieroglyphes rapportent un plus grand nombre de noms déterminés par le signe du crocodile. Such is really the case, apart from the so-called land crocodile or σκίγκος (Arab. isqanqûr), 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 κροκόδειλος of κρόκος, for κροκόδειλος 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, αλλοη (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; השׁקיע 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 משׁך 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 (σχοῖνον) 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 צפּור, Job 41:5, can hardly be meant צפּרת הכּרמים, 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. ‛asfûr - an example of a harmless living plaything (שׂחק בּ, to play with anything, different from Psa 104:26, where it is not, with Ew., to be translated: to play with it, but: therein).

Job 41:6-9   6  Do fishermen trade with him,

Do they divide him among the Canaanites?   7  Canst thou fill his skin with darts,

And his head with fish-spears?   8  Only lay thy hand upon him

Remember the battle, thou wilt not do it again!   9  Behold, every hope becometh disappointment:

Is not one cast down even at the sight of him?

The fishermen form a guild (Arab. ṣunf , sunf), the associated members of which are called חבּרים (distinct from חברים). On כּרה על, vid., on Job 6:27. “When I came to the towns of the coast,” says R. Akiba, b. Rosch ha-Schana, 26 b, ”they called selling, which we call מכירה, כירה, there,” according to which, then, Gen 50:5 is understood, as by the Syriac; the word is Sanscrito-Semitic, Sanscr. kri, Persic chirı̂den (Jesurun, p. 178). lxx ἐνσιτούνται, according to 2Ki 6:23, to which, however, עליו is not suitable. כּנענים are Phoenicians; and then, because they were the merchant race of the ancient world, directly traders or merchants. The meaning of the question is, whether one sells the crocodile among them, perhaps halved, or in general divided up. Further, Job 41:7 : whether one can kill it בּשׂכּות, with pointed missiles (Arab. shauke, a thorn, sting, dart), or with fish-spears (צלצל, so called from its whizzing, צלל, óáëëá). In Job 41:8 the accentuation is the right indication: only seize upon him - remember the battle, i.e., thou wilt be obliged to remember it, and thou wilt have no wish to repeat it. זכר .ti t is a so-called imperat. consec.: if thou doest it, thou wilt ... , Ges. §130, 2. תּוסף is the pausal form of תּוסף (once ôï͂óð, Pro 30:6), of which it is the original form.

The suff. of תּוהלתּו refers to the assailant, not objectively to the beast (the hope which he indulges concerning it). נכזבה, Job 41:9, is 3 praet., like נאלמה, Isa 53:7 (where also the participial accenting as Milra, occurs in Codd.); Fürst’s Concord. treats it as part., but the participial form נקטלה, to be assumed in connection with it, along with נקטלה and נקטלת, does not exist. הגם, Job 41:9, is, according to the sense, equivalent to הלא גם, vid., on Job 20:4. מראיו (according to Ges., Ew., and Olsh., sing., with the plural suff., without a plur. meaning, which is natural in connection with the primary form מראי; or what is more probable, from the plur. מראים with a sing. meaning, as פּנים) refers to the crocodile, and יטּל (according to a more accredited reading, יטּל = יוּטל) to the hunter to whom it is visible.

What is said in Job 41:6 is perfectly true; although the crocodile was held sacred in some parts of Egypt, in Elephantine and Apollonopolis, on the contrary, it was salted and eaten as food. Moreover, that there is a small species of crocodile, with which children can play, does not militate against Job 41:5. Everywhere here it is the creature in its primitive strength and vigour that is spoken of. But if they also knew how to catch it in very early times, by fastening a bait, perhaps a duck, on a barb with a line attached, and drew the animal to land, where they put an end to its life with a lance-thrust in the neck (Uhlemann, Thoth, S. 241): this was angling on the largest scale, as is not meant in Job 41:1. If, on the other hand, in very early times they harpooned the crocodile, this would certainly be more difficult of reconcilement with v. 31, than that mode of catching it by means of a fishing-hook of the greatest calibre with Job 41:1. But harpooning is generally only of use when the animal can be hit between the neck and head, or in the flank; and it is very questionable whether, in the ancient times, when the race was without doubt of an unmanageable size, that has now died out, the crocodile hunt (Job 7:12) was effected with harpoons. On the whole subject we have too little information for distinguishing between the different periods. So far as the questions of Jehovah have reference to man’s relation to the two monsters, they concern the men of the present, and are shaped according to the measure of power which they have attained over nature. The strophe which follows shows what Jehovah intends by these questions.

Job 41:10-11 10  None is so foolhardy that he dare excite him!

And who is it who could stand before Me? 11  Who hath given Me anything first of all, that I must requite it?

Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine.

One sees from these concluding inferences, thus applied, what is the design, in the connection of this second speech of Jehovah, of the reference to behêmoth and leviathan, which somewhat abruptly began in Job 40:15. If even the strength of one of God’s creatures admits no thought of being able to attack it, how much more should the greatness of the Creator deter man from all resistance! For no one has any claim on God, so that he should have the right of appearing before Him with a rude challenge. Every creature under heaven is God's; man, therefore, possesses nothing that was not God’s property and gift, and he must humbly yield, whether God gives or takes away. לא, Job 41:10, is not directly equivalent to אין, but the clause is exclamatory. יעורנו Chethîb, יעירנו Kerî, is the Palestine reading, the reverse the Babylonian; the authorized text (chiefly without a Kerî) is יעוּרנּוּ from עוּר in a transitive signification (ἐγείρειν), as שׁוּב, Job 39:12, comp. Job 42:10. The meaning of הקדּימני is determined according to ואשׁלּם: to anticipate, viz., by gifts presented as a person is approaching the giver (Arab. aqdama). הוּא, Job 41:11, is neutral, as Job 13:16; Job 15:9; Job 31:11, Job 31:28. תּחת is virtually a subj.: that which is under ... . After these apparently epiphonematic verses (2 and 3), one might now look for Job’s answer. But the description of the leviathan is again taken up, and in fact hitherto it was only the invincibility of the animal that was spoken of; and yet it is not so described that this picture might form the exact pendent of the preceding.

Job 41:12-14 12  I will not keep silence about his members,

The proportion of his power and the comeliness of his structure. 13  Who could raise the front of his coat of mail?

Into his double teeth-who cometh therein? 14  The doors of his face-who openeth them?

Round about his teeth is terror.

The Kerî לו authorized by the Masora assumes an interrogative rendering: as to it, should I be silent about its members (לו at the head of the clause, as Lev 7:7-9; Isa 9:2), - what perhaps might appear more poetic to many. החרישׁ (once, Job 11:3, to cause to keep silence) here, as usually: to be silent. בּדּיו, as Job 18:13. דּבר signifies the relation of the matter, a matter of fact, as דּברי, facts, Psa 65:4; Psa 105:27; Psa 145:5. חין (compared by Ew. with הין, a measure) signifies grace, χάρις (as synon. חסד), here delicate regularity, and is made easy of pronunciation from חנן, just as the more usual חן; the language has avoided the form חנן, as observed above. לבוּשׁ . clothing, we have translated “coat of mail,” which the Arab. libâs usually signifies; פּני לבוּשׁו is not its face’s covering (Schlottm.), which ought to be לבוּשׁ פּניו; but פּני is the upper or front side turned to the observer (comp. Isa 25:7), as Arab. wjh, (wag'h), si rem desuper spectes, summa ejus pars, si ex adverso, prima (Fleischer, Glossae, i. 57). That which is the “doubled of its mouth” (רסן, prop. a bit in the mouth, then the mouth itself) is its upper and lower jaws armed with powerful teeth. The “doors of the face” are the jaws; the jaws are divided back to the ears, the teeth are not covered by lips; the impression of the teeth is therefore the more terrible, which the substantival clause, Job 41:14 (comp. Job 39:20), affirms. שׁנּיו gen. subjecti: the circle, ἓρκος, which is formed by its teeth (Hahn).

Job 41:15-17 15  A pride are the furrows of the shields,

Shut by a rigid seal. 16  One joineth on to the other,

And no air entereth between them. 17  One upon another they are arranged,

They hold fast together, inseparably.

Since the writer uses אפיק both in the signif. robustus, Job 12:12, and canalis, Job 40:18, it is doubtful whether it must be explained robusta (robora) scutorum (as e.g., Ges.), or canales scutorum (Hirz., Schlottm., and others). We now prefer the latter, but so that “furrows of the shields” signifies the square shields themselves bounded by these channels; for only thus is the סגוּר, which refers to these shields, considered, each one for itself, suitably attached to what precedes. חותם צר is an acc. of closer definition belonging to it: closed is (each single one) by a firmly attached, and therefore firmly closed, seal. lxx remarkably ὥσπερ σμυρίτης λίθος, i.e., (emery (vid., Krause’s Pyrogeteles, 1859, S. 228). Six rows of knotty scales and four scales of the neck cover the upper part of the animal’s body, in themselves firm, and attached to one another in almost impenetrable layers, as is described in Job 41:7 in constantly-varying forms of expression (where יגּשׁוּ with Pathach beside Athnach is the correct reading), - a גּאוה, i.e., an equipment of which the animal may be proud. Umbr. takes גאוה, with Bochart, = גּוה, the back; but although in the language much is possible, yet not everything.

Job 41:18-21 18  His sneezing sendeth forth light,

And his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn; 19  Out of his mouth proceed flames,

Sparks of fire escape from him; 20  Out of his nostrils goeth forth smoke

Like a seething pot and caldron; 21  His breath kindleth coals,

And flames go forth out of his mouth.

That the crocodile delights to sun itself on the land, and then turns its open jaws to the sunny side, most Nile travellers since Herodotus have had an opportunity of observing;Dieterici, Reisebilder, i. 194: “We very often saw the animal lying in the sand, its jaws wide open and turned towards the warm sunbeams, while little birds, like the slender white water-wagtail, march quietly about in the deadly abyss, and pick out worms from the watery jaws.” Herodotus, ii. 68, tells exactly the same story; as the special friend of the crocodile among little birds, he mentions τὸν τροχῖλον (the sand-piper, Pluvianus Aegyptius). and in connection therewith the reflex action of sneezing may occur, since the light of the sun produces an irritation on the retina, and thence on the vagus; and since the sun shines upon the fine particles of watery slime cast forth in the act of sneezing, a meteoric appearance may be produced. This delicate observation of nature is here compressed into three words; in this concentration of whole, grand thoughts and pictures, we recognise the older poet. עטשׁ is the usual Semitic word for “sneezing” (Synon. זרר   2Ki 4:35). תּהל shortened from תּהל, Job 31:26, Hiph. of הלל. The comparison of the crocodile’s eyes with עפעפּי־שׁחר (as Job 3:9, from עפעף, to move with quick vibrations, to wink, i.e., tremble), or the rendering of the same as εἶδος ἑωσφόρου (lxx), is the more remarkable, as, according to Horus, i. 68, two crocodile’s eyes are the hieroglyphThe eyes of the crocodile alone by themselves are no hieroglyph: how could they have been represented by themselves as crocodile’s eyes? But in the Ramesseum and elsewhere the crocodile appears with a head pointing upwards in company with couching lions, and the eyes of the crocodile are rendered specially prominent. Near this group it appears again in a curved position, and quite small, but this time in company with a scorpion which bears a disc of the sun. The former (κροκοδείλου δύο ὀφθαλμοί) seems to me to be a figure of the longest night, the latter (κροκόδειλος κεκυφώς in Horapollo) of the shortest, so that consequently ἀνατολή and δύσις do not refer to the rising and setting of the sun, but to the night as prevailing against or succumbing to the day (communicated by Lauth from his researches on the astronomical monuments). But since the growth of the day begins with the longest night, and vice versâ, the notions ἀνατολή and δύσις can, as it seems to me, retain their most natural signification; and the crocodile’s eyes are, notwithstanding, a figure of the light shining forth from the darkness, as the crocodile’s tail signifies black darkness (and Egypt as the black land). for dawn, ἀνατολή: ἐπειδ́περ (probably to be read ἐπειδὴ πρὸ) παντὸς σώματος ζώου οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἐκ τοῦ βυθοῦ ἀναφαίνονται. There it is the peculiar brilliancy of the eyes of certain animals that is intended, which is occasioned either by the iris being furnished with a so-called lustrous substance, or there being in the pupil of the eye (as e.g., in the ostrich) that spot which, shining like metal, is called tapetum lucidum. For ἀναφαίνεσθαι of the eyes ἐκ τοῦ βυθοῦ, is the lustre of the pupil in the depth of the eye. The eyes of the crocodile, which are near together, and slanting, glimmer through the water, when it is only a few feet under water, with a red glow.

Nevertheless the comparison in Job 41:18 might also be intended differently. The inner (third) eyelidProf. Will refers the figure not to the third eyelid or the membrana nictitans, but to that spot on the choroidea, glistening with a metallic lustre, which the crocodile has in common with most animals of the night or the twilight, therefore to the brilliancy of its eye, which shines by virtue of its lustrous coating; vid., the magnificent head of a crocodile in Schlegel’s Amphibien-Abbildungen (1837-44). of the crocodile is itself a rose red; and therefore, considered in themselves, its eyes may also be compared with the “eyelids of the dawn.” What is then said, Job 41:19, of the crocodile, Achilles Tatius, iv. 2, says of the hippopotamus: μυκτὴρ ἐπὶ μέγα κεχῃνὼς καὶ πνέων πυρώδη καπνὸν ὡς ἀπὸ πηγῆς πυρός. Bartram has observed on the alligator, that as it comes on the land a thick smoke issues from its distended nostrils with a thundering sound. This thick, hot steam, according to the credible description which is presented here, produces the impression of a fire existing beneath, and bursting forth. The subjective truth of this impression is faithfully but poetically reproduced by the poet. On כּידוד (root כד, escudere). התמלּט signifies no more than to disentangle one’s self, here therefore: to fly out in small particles. אגמון, Job 41:19, is rendered by Saad., Gecat., and others, by qumqum (קומקום), a caldron; the modern expositors derive it from אגם = agama, to glow, and understand it of a “heated caldron.” But the word signifies either heat or caldron; the latter signification, however, cannot be linguistically established; one would look for אגּן (Arab. iggâne, a copper Germ. Waschkessel). The noun אגמון signifies, Job 40:2, the reed σχοῖνος, and in the Jerusalem Talmud, Sota ix. 12, some menial service (comp. Arab. ugum); Ew. rightly retains the former signification, like a pot blown upon, i.e., fired, heated, and beside it (in combination with it) reeds as fuel, which in themselves, and especially together with the steaming water, produce a thick smoke. The Waw is to be compared to the Arabic Waw concomitantiae (which governs the acc.).

Job 41:22-25 22  Great strength resteth upon his neck,

And despair danceth hence before him. 23  The flanks of his flesh are thickly set,

Fitting tightly to him, immoveable. 24  His heart is firm like stone,

And firm like the nether millstone. 25  The mighty are afraid of his rising up;

From alarm they miss their aim.

Overpowering strength lodges on its neck, i.e., has its abiding place there, and before it despair, prop. melting away, dissolution (דּאבה from דּאב, Arab. ḏ'b = דּוּב Hiph., Arab. ḍ'b II, to bring into a loose condition, synon. חמס), dances hence, i.e., spring up and away (ידוּץ, Arab. jadisu, to run away), i.e., it spreads before it a despondency which produces terror, and deprives of strength. Even the pendulous fleshy parts (מפּלי), especially of its belly, hang close together, דבקוּ, i.e., they are not flabby, but fit to it, like a metal casting, without moving, for the skin is very thick and covered with thick scales; and because the digestive apparatus of the animal occupies but little space, and the scales of the back are continued towards the belly, the tender parts appear smaller, narrower, and closer together than in other animals. יצוּק here is not, as Job 27:2; Job 29:6, the fut. of צוּק, but the part. of יצק, as also Job 41:24: its heart is firm and obdurate, as though it were of cast brass, hard as stone, and in fact as the nether millstone (פלח from פלח, falacha, to split, crush in pieces), which, because it has to bear the weight and friction of the upper, must be particularly hard. It is not intended of actual stone-like hardness, but only of its indomitable spirit and great tenacity of life: the activity of its heart is not so easily disturbed, and even fatal wounds do not so quickly bring it to a stand. משּׂמו from שׂת = שׂאת = שׂאת), primary form שׂאתּ, is better understood in the active sense: afraid of its rising, than the passive: of its exaltedness. אילים (according to another reading אלים) is not, with Ew., to be derived from איל (Arab. ı̂jal), a ram; but אילים Exo 15:15; Eze 17:13 (comp. גּירים 2Ch 2:16, נירי 2Sa 22:29), אלים Eze 31:11; Eze 32:21, and אוּלים Cheth. 2Ki 24:15, are only alternating forms and modes of writing of the participial adject., derived from אוּל (איל) first of all in the primary form awil (as גּר = gawir). The signif. assigned to the verb אול: to be thick = fleshy, which is said then to go over into the signif. to be stupid and strong (Ges. Handwörterb.), rests upon a misconception: âla is said of fluids “to become thick,” because they are condensed, since they go back, i.e., sink in or settle (Ges. correctly in Thes.: notio crassitiei a retrocendendo). The verb âla , ja'ûlu , unites in itself the significations to go backward, to be forward, and to rule; the last two: anteriorem and superiorem esse, probably belong together, and אל signifies, therefore, a possessor of power, who is before and over others. התחטּא, Job 41:25, has the signif., which does not otherwise occur, to miss the mark (from חטא, Arab. chaṭiya, to miss, opp. Arab. ṣâb, to hit the mark), viz., (which is most natural where אילים is the subject spoken of) since they had designed the slaughter and capture of the monster. שׁברים is intended subjectively, as תּבירא = פּחד Exo 15:16, Targ. II, and also as the Arab. thubûr, employed more in reference to the mind, can be used of pain.

Job 41:26-29 26  If one reacheth him with the sword-it doth not hold;

Neither spear, nor dart, nor harpoon. 27  He esteemeth iron as straw,

Brass as rotten wood. 28  The son of the bow doth not cause him to flee,

Sling stones are turned to stubble with him. 29  Clubs are counted as stubble,

And he laugheth at the shaking of the spear. משּׂיגהוּ, which stands first as nom. abs., “one reaching him,” is equivalent to, if one or whoever reaches him, Ew. §357, c, to which בּלי תקוּם, it does not hold fast (בּלי with v. fin., as Hos 8:7; Hos 9:16, Chethîb), is the conclusion. חרב is instrumental, as Psa 17:13. מסּע, from נסע, Arab. nz‛, to move on, hasten on, signifies a missile, as Arab. minz‛a, an arrow, manz‛a, a sling. The Targ. supports this latter signification here (funda quae projicit lapidem); but since קלא, the handling, is mentioned separately, the word appears to men missiles in general, or the catapult. In this combination of weapons of attack it is very questionable whether שׁריה is a cognate form of שׁריון (שׁרין), a coat of mail; probably it is equivalent to Arab. sirwe (surwe), an arrow with a long broad edge (comp. serı̂je, a short, round, as it seems, pear-shaped arrow-head), therefore either a harpoon or a peculiarly formed dart.On the various kinds of Egyptian arrows, vid., Klemm. Culturgeschichte, v. 371f. “The son of the bow” (and of the אשׁפּה, pharetra) is the arrow. That the ἁπ. γεγρ. תותח signifies a club (war-club), is supported by the Arab. watacha, to beat. כּידון, in distinction from חנית (a long lance), is a short spear, or rather, since רעשׁ implies a whistling motion, a javelin. Iron the crocodile esteems as תּבן, tibn, chopped straw; sling stones are turned with him into קשׁ. Such is the name here at least, not for stumps of cut stubble that remain standing, but the straw itself, threshed and easily driven before the wind (Job 13:25), which is cut up for provender (Exo 5:12), generally dried (and for that reason light) stalks (e.g., of grass), or even any remains of plants (e.g., splinters of wood).The Egyptio-Arabic usage has here more faithfully preserved the ancient signification of the word (vid., Fleischer, Glossae, p. 37) than the Syro-Arabic; for in Syria cut but still unthreshed corn, whether lying in swaths out in the field and weighted with stones to protect it against the whirlwinds that are frequent about noon, or corn already brought to the threshing-floors but not yet threshed, is called qashsh. - Wetzst.

The plur. נחשׁבוּ, Job 41:29, does not seem to be occasioned by תותח being conceived collectively, but by the fact that, instead of saying תותח וכידון, the poet has formed וכידון into a separate clause. Parchon’s (and Kimchi’s) reading תוחח is founded upon an error.

Job 41:30-34 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, תּחתּיו taken like תּחת, 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. חדּוּד is the intensive form of חד (Arab. hadı̂d, sharpened = iron, p. 542, note), as חלּוּק,   1Sa 17:40, of חלק (smooth),In Arabic also this substantival form is intensive, e.g., lebbûn, 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 (לבנח). and the combination חדּוּדי חרשׂ (equal the combination חדודי החרשׂים, 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 ἡ στρωμνὴ αὐτοῦ ὀβελίσκοι ὀξεῖς, by drawing ירפּד to Job 41:30, and so translating as though it were רפידתו (Arab. rifâde , stratum). The verb רפד (rafada), cogn. רבד, 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 מצוּלה, a whirlpool, abyss, depth (from צוּל = צלל, to hiss, clash; to whirl, surge), ים 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 ὥσπερ ἐξάλειπτρον, 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 πολιός, canus, in the classic poets. שׂיבה, hoary hair, was to the ancients the most beautiful, most awe-inspiring whiteness. משׁלו, 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 משׁל, or what is more probable, of משׁל (comp. Job 17:6, where this nomen actionis signifies a proverb = word of derision, and התמשּׁל, to compare one’s self, be equal, Job 30:19). על־עפר is also Hebr.-Arab.; the Arabic uses turbe, formed from turâb (vid., on Job 19:25), of the surface of the earth, and et - tarbâ - uas the name of the earth itself. העשׂוּ (for העשׂוּי, as צפוּ, Job 15:22, Cheth. = צפוּי, resolved from עשׂוּו, ‛asûw, 1Sa 25:18, Cheth.) is the confirmatory predicate of the logical subj. described in Job 41:33 as incomparable; and לבלי־חת (from חת, 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 לבלי־חת, 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).

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 Ps. civ. 25, 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, v. 1, 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, v. 3, 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. xxvii. 4, 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?

11 Who hath prevented me, 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? or who can come to him with his double bridle? 14 Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about. 15 His 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, that they cannot be sundered. 18 By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. 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 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. 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: slingstones are turned with him into stubble. 29 Darts 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 beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

God, having in the foregoing verses shown Job how unable he was to deal with the leviathan, here sets forth his own power in that massy mighty creature. Here is,

I. God's sovereign dominion and independency laid down, v. 11. 1. That he is indebted to none of his creatures. If any pretend he is indebted to them, let them make their demand and prove their debt, and they shall receive it in full and not by composition: "Who has prevented me?" that is, "who has laid any obligations upon me by any services he has done me? Who can pretend to be before-hand with me? If any were, I would not long be behind-hand with them; I would soon repay them." The apostle quotes this for the silencing of all flesh in God's presence, Rom. xi. 35. Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? As God does not inflict upon us the evils we have deserved, so he does bestow upon us the favours we have not deserved. 2. That he is the rightful Lord and owner of all the creatures: "Whatsoever is under the whole heaven, animate or inanimate, is mine (and particularly this leviathan), at my command and disposal, what I have an incontestable property in and dominion over." All is his; we are his, all we have and do; and therefore we cannot make God our debtor; but of thy own, Lord, have we given thee. All is his, and therefore, if he were indebted to any, he has wherewithal to repay them; the debt is in good hands. All is his, and therefore he needs not our services, nor can he be benefited by them. If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fulness thereof, Ps. l. 12.

II. The proof and illustration of it, from the wonderful structure of the leviathan, v. 12.

1. The parts of his body, the power he exerts, especially when he is set upon, and the comely proportion of the whole of him, are what God will not conceal, and therefore what we must observe and acknowledge the power of God in. Though he is a creature of monstrous bulk, yet there is in him a comely proportion. In our eye beauty lies in that which is small (inest sua gratia parvis—little things have a gracefulness all their own) because we ourselves are so; but in God's eye even the leviathan is comely; and, if he pronounce even the whale, even the crocodile, so, it is not for us to say of any of the works of his hands that they are ugly or ill-favoured; it is enough to say so, as we have cause, of our own works. God here goes about to give us an anatomical view (as it were) of the leviathan; for his works appear most beautiful and excellent, and his wisdom and power appear most in them, when they are taken in pieces and viewed in their several parts and proportions. (1.) The leviathan, even prima facie—at first sight, appears formidable and inaccessible, v. 13, 14. Who dares come so near him while he is alive as to discover or take a distinct view of the face of the garment, the skin with which he is clothed as with a garment, so near him as to bridle him like a horse and so lead him away, so near him as to be within reach of his jaws, which are like a double bridle? Who will venture to look into his mouth, as we do into a horse's mouth? He that opens the doors of his face will see his teeth terrible round about, strong and sharp, and fitted to devour; it would make a man tremble to think of having a leg or an arm between them. (2.) His scales are his beauty and strength, and therefore his pride, v. 15-17. The crocodile is indeed remarkable for his scales; if we understand it of the whale, we must understand by these shields (for so the word is) the several coats of his skin; or there might be whales in that country with scales. That which is remarkable concerning the scales is that they stick so close together, by which he is not only kept warm, for no air can pierce him, but kept safe, for no sword can pierce him through those scales. Fishes, that live in the water, are fortified accordingly by the wisdom of Providence, which gives clothes as it gives cold. (3.) He scatters terror with his very breath and looks; if he sneeze or spout up water, it is like a light shining, either with the froth or the light of the sun shining through it, v. 18. The eyes of the whale are reported to shine in the night-time like a flame, or, as here, like the eye-lids of the morning; the same they say of the crocodile. The breath of this creature is so hot and fiery, from the great natural heat within, that burning lamps and sparks of fire, smoke and a flame, are said to go out of his mouth, even such as one would think sufficient to set coals on fire, v. 19-21. Probably these hyperbolical expressions are used concerning the leviathan to intimate the terror of the wrath of God, for that is it which all this is designed to convince us of. Fire out of his mouth devours, Ps. xviii. 7, 8. The breath of the Almighty, like a stream of brimstone, kindles Tophet, and will for ever keep it burning, Isa. xxx. 33. The wicked one shall be consumed with the breath of his mouth, 2 Thess. ii. 8. (4.) He is of invincible strength and most terrible fierceness, so that he frightens all that come in his way, but is not himself frightened by any. Take a view of his neck, and there remains strength, v. 22. His head and his body are well set together. Sorrow rejoices (or rides in triumph) before him, for he makes terrible work wherever he comes. Or, Those storms which are the sorrow of others are his joys; what is tossing to others is dancing to him. His flesh is well knit, v. 23. The flakes of it are joined so closely together, and are so firm, that it is hard to pierce it; he is as if he were all bone. His flesh is of brass, which Job had complained his was not, ch. vi. 12. His heart is as firm as a stone, v. 24. He has spirit equal to his bodily strength, and, though he is bulky, he is sprightly, and not unwieldy. As his flesh and skin cannot be pierced, so his courage cannot be daunted; but, on the contrary, he daunts all he meets and puts them into a consternation (v. 25): When he raises up himself like a moving mountain in the great waters even the mighty are afraid lest he should overturn their ships or do them some other mischief. By reason of the breakings he makes in the water, which threaten death, they purify themselves, confess their sins, betake themselves to their prayers, and get ready for death. We read (ch. iii. 8) of those who, when they raise up a leviathan, are in such a fright that they curse the day. It was a fear which, it seems, used to drive some to their curses and others to their prayers; for, as now, so then there were seafaring men of different characters and on whom the terrors of the sea have contrary effects; but all agree there is a great fright among them when the leviathan raises up himself. (5.) All the instruments of slaughter that are used against him do him no hurt and therefore are not error to him, v. 26-29. The sword and the spear, which wound nigh at hand, are nothing to him; the darts, arrows, and sling-stones, which wound at a distance, do him no damage; nature has so well armed him cap-a-pie—at all points, against them all. The defensive weapons which men use when they engage with the leviathan, as the habergeon, or breast-plate, often serve men no more than their offensive weapons; iron and brass are to him as straw and rotten wood, and he laughs at them. It is the picture of a hard-hearted sinner, that despises the terrors of the Almighty and laughs at all the threatenings of his word. The leviathan so little dreads the weapons that are used against him that, to show how hardy he is, he chooses to lie on the sharp stones, the sharp-pointed things (v. 30), and lies as easy there as if he lay on the soft mire. Those that would endure hardness must inure themselves to it. (6.) His very motion in the water troubles it and puts it into a ferment, v. 31, 32. When he rolls, and tosses, and makes a stir in the water, or is in pursuit of his prey, he makes the deep to boil like a pot, he raises a great froth and foam upon the water, such as is upon a boiling pot, especially a pot of boiling ointment; and he makes a path to shine after him, which even a ship in the midst of the sea does not, Prov. xxx. 19. One may trace the leviathan under water by the bubbles on the surface; and yet who can take that advantage against him in pursuing him? Men track hares in the snow and kill them, but he that tracks the leviathan dares not come near him.

2. Having given this particular account of his parts, and his power, and his comely proportion, he concludes with four things in general concerning this animal:— (1.) That he is a non-such among the inferior creatures: Upon earth there is not his like, v. 33. No creature in this world is comparable to him for strength and terror. Or the earth is here distinguished from the sea: His dominion is not upon the earth (so some), but in the waters. None of all the savage creatures upon earth come near him for bulk and strength, and it is well for man that he is confined to the waters and there has a watch set upon him (ch. vii. 12) by the divine Providence, for, if such a terrible creature were allowed to roam and ravage upon this earth, it would be an unsafe and uncomfortable habitation for the children of men, for whom it is intended. (2.) That he is more bold and daring than any other creature whatsoever: He is made without fear. The creatures are as they are made; the leviathan has courage in his constitution, nothing can frighten him; other creatures, quite contrary, seem as much designed for flying as this for fighting. So, among men, some are in their natural temper bold, others are timorous. (3.) That he is himself very proud; though lodged in the deep, yet he beholds all high things, v. 34. The rolling waves, the impending rocks, the hovering clouds, and the ships under sail with top and top-gallant, this mighty animal beholds with contempt, for he does not think they either lessen him or threaten him. Those that are great are apt to be scornful. (4.) That he is a king over all the children of pride, that is, he is the proudest of all proud ones. He has more to be proud of (so Mr. Caryl expounds it) than the proudest people in the world have; and so it is a mortification to the haughtiness and lofty looks of men. Whatever bodily accomplishments men are proud of, and puffed up with, the leviathan excels them and is a king over them. Some read it so as to understand it of God: He that beholds all high things, even he, is King over all the children of pride; he can tame the behemoth (ch. xl. 19) and the leviathan, big as they are, and stout-hearted as they are. This discourse concerning those two animals was brought in to prove that it is God only who can look upon proud men and abase them, bring them low and tread them down, and hide them in the dust (ch. xl. 11-13), and so it concludes with a quod erat demonstrandum—which was to be demonstrated; there is one that beholds all high things, and, wherein men deal proudly, is above them; he is King over all the children of pride, whether brutal or rational, and can make them all either bend or break before him, Isa. ii. 11. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and thus the Lord alone shall be exalted.

CHAP. XLI. Verſe 1. Cauſt thou draw out Leviathan with an book?]

AS men uſe to do the leſſer fiſhes in angling? No, as little as thou canſt bore Behemoths noſe with a ſnare, chap. 40.24. Leviathan is a common name for all great Sea-Monſters, Pſal. 104.26. Beza and Deodate underſtand it of the Crocodile, others of the Sea-Dragon: others of the whirl-pool: But moſt of the Whale; in creating whereof, Creavit Deus vaſtitates & ſtupores, ſaith One.Lib. 9. cap. 2. Pliny writeth of them, when they ſwim and ſhew themſelves, an[illegible: 1 letter]are inſulas putes, you would think them to be ſo many Ilands. Another ſaith, they appear like huge mountaines; 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 Ilands there;Heidfeld. whereat Sea-men attempting to land, have caſt themſelves into no ſmall dangers.Olam. Some tell us of a Whale that would have covered four Acres of ground, his mouth ſo wide,Plin. lib 9. that he could have ſwallowed a whole Ship. Virgil calleth Whales Monſters, the Greeks call them. [non-Latin text not transcribed], Wild Beaſts. The Majeſty and Power of the Creator, is much ſeen in theſe vaſt creatures. Pſal. 74.14. Thou brakeſt the hands of Leviathan in pieces, and gaveſt him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderneſſe. Here. upon the Jew-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 Jewes, to be gathered together by the Meſſias at the end of the world. Others have turned all this, and a great part of the former chapter into allegories: whereof ſee chap. 40, 24. Let us by the enſuing deſcription take notice of, 1. Gods Omnipotency, who hath made ſuch great wonders, whereof the ſea hath more ſtore then 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 yeers together, till at length being taken and brought to land he was found to be thirty cubits long, and ten broad. 3. His Wiſdome in making the Whale ſo complete in all its parts, which all have their ſeveral uſes; all which are here noted and numbred; how much more are our members, yea, our very haires? 4. His goodneſſe in creating ſuch Sea-monſters for mans uſe and benefit in many particulars; as his fleſh for meat, his fat for oyl 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 of the faſt joyning together of his ſcales and members, wherein conſiſteth his ſtrength: and ſo doth ours in unity.

Verſe 2. Canſt thou put a hook into his noſe?] Canſt thou ring him like a Swine, or rule him like a Bear? God can, and did Sennacherib that crooked Leviathan, Iſai. 27, 1. & 37.29. And doth ſtill the Great Turk, who deſireth to devour Chriſtendom.

Or bore his jaw through with a thorn] Or twig, as men do leſſer fiſhes, taken with an Angle, or Herrings from the fiſh-market. Theſe are facetious and ironical queſtions that are put to Job in theſe five firſt verſes: hinting to him, that although he could not do any of theſe things, yet God could with eaſe.

Verſe 3. Will he make many ſupplications unto thee?] As conquered Captives uſe to do; witneſſe Benhadad, 1 King. 20.32. and Teridates King of Parthians, who being brought priſoner to Nero, thus beſpake him; I come unto thee as unto my God, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Dio in Neron. and will henceforth worſhip thee as I do the Sun in heaven; I will be whatſoever thou ſhalt appoint me; for thou art my Fate and Fortune, &c.

Will he ſpeak ſoft words unto thee?] Verba byſſina; as unto his Lord and Maſter. An elegant and pleaſant Proſopopaeia? No, his ſtomack is too great, to ſtoop ſo low.

Verſe 4 will he make a Covenant with thee?] And compound, where he cannot conquer.

Wilt thou take him for a ſervant for ever?] To be at thy diſpoſe, and to do thy drudgery? q.d. He ſcornes the motion. Before the fall, this and all other Creatures were at mans ſervice, Gen. 1.28. & 2.19, 20. But now alaſs it is otherwiſe. Howbeit to thoſe that are in Chriſt, this part of Gods loſt image is in part reſtored, Heb. 2.6. with Pſalm 8.4.5. and ſhall be perfectly, Revelat. 2.26. What ſingular ſervice the Whale did Jonas in ſhipping him to Land, who knows not?

Verſe 5. Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?] Shall he make thee ſport, as thoſe poor birds that ſerve as paſtime for little children? Or as the fooliſh Emperor Honorius, delighted in his bird Roma (ſo he called it) at the loſſe whereof, when the City was taken by the Vandals, he grieved more, then at all the reſt? I [illegible: 1 letter]diguum ſanè, regem aves praeferre viribus, ſaith the Divine Chronologer.

Wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?] Shall your daughters tye him with a thred. which lengthning or ſtraightning at their diſcretion ſhall make his priſon either larger on ſtraiter?Sena.

Verſe 6. Shall the companions make a Banquet of him?] The Cetarii Whale-fiſhers, who uſually go out in companies. It was anciently held impoſſible, and is ſtill perillous to take the Whale, and make a banquet of him; as the tongue and ſome other parts of the Whale are good meat. Or, Make a Banques for him; ſhall they feaſt thoſe Merchants they meane to ſell him to, they may get the better price for him?

Shall they part him among the Merchants?] Who might ſell him out for ſundry uſes. See verſ. 1.

Verſe 7. Canſt thou fill his skin with barbed irons?] Harpag[illegible: 2 letters]ibus. Heb. With thornes; ſcil. to pull him to the ſhore? Opianus, Albertus Magnus, Geſner, and others now write, how Whales are to be taken; and experience proves it to be feiſable. They are ſometimes caſt upon the Land by the ſurging rage or violence of the ſea, or by the ebbing thereof, left in a ford where they cannot ſwim, and ſo they become a prey to the fiſhermen with their guns, darts, &c.

Verſe 8. Lay thy hand upon him] Stroke him, clap him on the back, and ſee if that way thou canſt winne upon him, ſith by force thou canſt not catch and kill him. Or draw neer, and offer but the leaſt violence to him if thou dareſt, and he will quickly make thee repent it; ſo that thou wilt have little joy either to flatter him, or to fight it out with him, for he will be the death of thee.

Verſe 9. Behold the hope of him is in vain] Heb. Is lying. A man may promiſe himſelf or others to take the Whale, but how or when will he effect it? It is a miſery to lye languiſhing at Hopes Hoſpital, and after all, to be diſappointed; to labour all night, and take nothing &c.

Shall not one be caſt downe even at the fight of him] Surely there is cauſe enough to be caſt down, if he be ſo big and dreadful to bebold as is reported. See the Note on Verſe 1.

Verſe 10. None is ſo fierce that dare ſtir him up] Unleſſe he be ambitious of his own deſtruction: cruel (ſo the word here ſignifieth) to his owne life, which hereby he deſperately caſteth away. Ariſtotle telleth us, That fiſhes do ſleep; and perhaps theſe greater fiſhes take more ſleep. Now who dare awake them ſleeping, or encounter them waking, and rouling in the waters? None ſurely but a mad man.

Who then is able to ſtand before me?] Et eſt qui coram me ſtet? No more ſurely then a man before a Whale, or a glaſs bottle before a Cannon ſhot. Here then we have the accommodation and application of the former Diſcourſe, which we muſt not look upon as cunningly deviſed fables, 2 Pet. 1.16. or read as we do the old ſtories of forragne buſineſſes, but as that wherein our ſelves are nearly intereſted and concerned, that we may give God the glory of his Power, (as here, far beyond that of the Whale or any other creature) and of his Juſtice, as verſe 11, 12.

Verſe 11. Who hath prevented me that I ſhould repay him?] Who can tax me with injuſtice, who am bound to no man, but Owner of all things? If any one can ſay, I am beholding to him, let him prove it, and I ſhall readily requite it: he ſhall have no cauſe at all to complain of me as ungrateful, Rom. 11.34, 35.

Whatſoever is under the whole heavens is mine] The Divel told our Saviour that all was his, and to whomſoever he would, he gave it, Luke 4.6. The Pope alſo, (that firſt born of the Divel) takes upon him, as Lord of all, to diſpoſe of Spirituals or Temporals in all Countries, as Boniface the VIII wrote to Philip King of France, who anſwered him with a Sciat fatuitas tua, &c. And as the Pope that then was, gave our Henry the Eighth's Kingdome, prime occup[illegible: 1 letter] turo, to him that ſhould firſt take it; but he ſlighted him with Os Pupae & culus Diaboli in eodem ſunt praedicamento. It is for God alone to ſay, as Dan. 4.32. I rule in the Kingdome of men, and give it to whomſoever I will. How then can I do any man wrong who am obliged to none, but all are engaged to me for all they have?

Verſe 12 I will not conceal his parts nor his power] That therein, as in a picture of the moſt principal piece of my Workmanſhip, thou maiſt behold how great, and how glorious a God I am. In the year of Grace 1577, July 2. the Ship-men took a Whale not far from Antwerp. the picture whereof was printed and publiſhed to this effect, His hide was without ſcales, and of a leaden colour, he was 85 foot long, and ſixteen ſoot high. From his mouth to his eyes was fifteen foot; from his eyes to his finnes, four foot and three fingers, &c. Such a kind of picture, or character of this Sea-monſter we have here, from the moſt skilful hand of heaven. Pliny obſerveth that pictures of things exact and excellent, are ſeldom drawn but with great diſadvantage. Not ſo this in the text, as will appear in the ſequel.

Nor his comely proportion] Heb. Nor the grace of his diſpoſition. i.e. Dicam quàm egregiè & concinnè membra [illegible: 1 letter]jus compoſita ſint; I will declare how finely and fitly all his parts are proportioned,Vatab. and put together. In the moſt deformed Creatures (as we count them) there is no part ſuperfluous, uſeleſſe, or uncomely. Deus eſt magnus in minimis, nec parnus in maximis.

Verſe 13. Who can diſcover the face of his garment?] That is, ſaith Piſcator, Who can pull him out of the ſea, wherewith he is covered as with a garment? Who can ſlip off his skin whiles he is alive; as men do the Eels-skin, ſay others? Who (as men uſe to do when horſes are to be ſaddled) will take off his cloth, and ſet the ſaddle upon his back? This laſt is Beza's Paraphraſe: and it ſuits beſt with that which followeth.

Or who can come to him with his double bridle?] Let it be never ſo large, or ſtrong, his mouth is too wide, his jawes too ſtrong, to be held in with bit and bridle, leſt he come near unto thee.

Verſe 14. Who can open the doors of his face?] The two-leaved-doors of his jawes, to let in a bridle? Sampſon durſt venture upon a roaring Lion and rend him, as a man would rend a Kid. But never durſt any ſuch thing be done to a Whale.

His teeth are terrible round about] The Whales teeth are ſaid to be 120. each tooth four cubits long.

Verſe 15. His Scales are his pride] They are like ſo many gliſtering ſhields, wherein he puts his confidence, and takes his pride; as thinking them impenetrable.

Shut up together as with a cloſe ſeal] So cloſed and put together, like Paper ſealed with Wax, as that nothing can part them. The Jewes uſe to write upon the back of their ſealed Letters, Nun, Cheth, Shin; that is, Niddui, Cherem, and Shammatha; all ſorts of Excommunication to thoſe that open them.

Verſe 16. One is ſo near to another, that no air, &c.] One ſcale or flake is. This is more proper, ſay ſome, to the Crocodile, than to the Whale: but who can tell the ſeveral kinds of Whales,Vide Cocceium. in locum. ſome whereof are ſaid to have great and thick ſcales cloſely compacted as here? Quòd ſi ſquammae Leviathan ita cohareant, ut earum opere textili denſato, &c. Let the Saints ſtrengthen themſelves by cloſe-ſticking the one to the other, as the primitive Chriſtians did; ſo that the very heathens acknowledged, that no people under Heaven did ſo hold together and love one another; as they; being like that Sacra cohors, holy band of Souldiers in the Theban Army, which conſiſted [non-Latin text not transcribed],Athenaeus. lib. 3. of ſuch only who were joyned together in the bonds of love: and theſe they eſteemed the prime of all their ſtrength in battel.

Verſe 17. They are joyned one to another, &c.] They are lapt over one another, like tiles on a houſe. See the Note on verſ. 16.

Verſe 18.In ſublime nimbos efflat. Plin. lib. 9. c. 6. By his neeſings, a light doth ſhine] When this dreadful Monſter ſneezeth, or ſnorteth, fire breaketh out at his eyes and noſe. By this neezing of the Whale is meant the abundance of white frothy water which he caſteth forth at his noſtrils.

And his eyes are like the eye-lids of the morning] Bright and beamy. Olaus writeth of the Norway Whales, that their eyes ſhine in a dark night like a fire: ſo that Marriners have oft thought, when they have ſeen them, that they ſaw a great fire.

Verſe 19. Out of his mouth go burning lampes] This and thoſe that follow are all hyperbolical expreſſions. Here he is brought in as a ſpit-fire, as the Devil was wont to be in Playes and Pageants. And by this paſſage, ſome conjecture, that not the Whale, but the Sea-dragon is here deſcribed. Let it be what it will, it muſt needs be a great heat within this great Fiſh, that ſendeth forth, as it were, burning lamps, and ſparks of fire; and a ſtrong ſulphurous breath he muſt have like the out-burſts of Aetna, by this deſcription. Ariſtotle ſaith the Whale is of an hot fiery nature; and that he hath Lungs, and breatheth: a pipe or paſſage alſo he hath in his fore-head,Lib. 4. [illegible: 1 word] anim. cap. [illegible: 1 word] whereat he throweth out the water he hath taken in, either by his breathing, or eating. This tranſparent water thus with a force thrown up againſt the Sun-beams, may bear a ſhew of lightning, or burning lamps.

Verſe 20. Out of his noſtrils goeth ſmoke, &c.] Whiles his meat heateth in his ſtomack for concoction;Sufflati. as if fire were put under ſome great reaking pot or Caldron boyling: Heb. blown; for of blowing comes boyling.

Verſe 21. His breath kindleth coals] Or, Would kindle coals (as a Smiths bellows) if there were any to kindle. Such a kindle-coal was Arrius and Hildebrand of old: the Jeſuites at this day, and not a few others, Prov. 26.21. Eſ. 33.10. your breath as fire ſhall devour you. Some mens tongues are like Gun-powder, which touched with the leaſt ſpark, will inſtantly be in the face, Jam. 3.6. A flame goeth out of their mouths, enough to ſet the whole courſe of Nature on fire.

Verſe 22. In his neck remaineth ſtrength] Ariſtotle ſaith, that among Fiſhes,De part [illegible: 1 word] lib. 3. the Dolphin, Whale, and ſuch as breath; have necks proportionable to their bodies. The word rendred remaineth, is in the Hebrew, lodgeth, or abideth all night: ſo ſpoken, ſaith One, becauſe the Whale, as alſo the Dolphin, ſleepeth with his head erected above water.

And ſorrow is turned into joy before him] i.e. He knows no ſorrows, he fears no hurt, but alwayes rejoyceth, bearing himſelf bold upon his ſtrength, God having made him to ſport in the ſea, Pſal. 104.26. Others read it, And before him danceth fear; Pavor & Pallor, (Tullus Hoſtilius his two gods) men dance, or ſtart for fear.

Verſe 23. The flakes of his fleſh are joyned together] Heb. The fallings, Meland Tremell or the refuſe and vileſt parts, as the word is rendred, Am. 8.6. Now if God be ſo punctual in the deſcription of theſe alſo, can any one think that he hath let paſſe any thing in the holy Scriptures, that belong to our Salvation? What need is there then of humane traditions?

They are firm in themſelves] Heb. Moulton. Firm they muſt be, becauſe ſo joyned together. Vis unita fortior; but diſſention is the mother of diſſolution. England is a mighty Animal (ſaith a great Polititian) which can never die, except it kill it ſelf.

They cannot be moved] Or, He cannot be moved. He may ſay, as Terminus of old, Nullicedo, I give place to none, unleſſe I pleaſe.

Verſe 24. His heart is as firm as a ſtone] He is corpore & corde validiſſimus. Of the ſword-fiſh, Plutarch ſaith, that he hath a ſword, but not an heart to uſe it. But the Whale hath courage to his bulk; his heart is as firm as a ſtone, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. as his head (ſaith Scaliger) is as hard as a flint. In the hearts of ſome creatures, ſaith Ariſtotle, is found a bony, or griſly hardneſs; but the Whales heart is all as it were a bone; and this bone as a ſtone.

As a pair of the neather milſtone] Metae, upon which the whole weight lyeth: the Greek call it [non-Latin text not transcribed], Mat. 18.6. the Mill-Aſs; becauſe it is the bigger and harder of the two. The vulgar here for the neather Mill-ſtone, hath the ſmiths-Anvil, which by hammering, is made harder.

Verſe 25. When he raiſeth up himſelf, the mighty are afraid] When he ſhewes himſelf like ſome moving mountain upon the ſurface of the water, the moſt aſſured Pilotes or paſſengers are ſeized with fear of death, and ſeek to make peace with God, as thoſe Marriners did, Jon. 1.5, 6, &c.

By reaſon of breakings] Broughton reads of ſhiverings.

They purifie themſelves] Expiantſe, they beg pardon of ſin, and prepare to die, Others render it aberrant, they are diſpirited; and know not what courſe to take. Others again, they purge downwards. their retentive faculty being weakned with fear, they let go their excrements: as Loper the traytour did, when he was upon his tryal before the Lords of the Council: and as God ſomewhere in Ezekiel threatneth his rebels, that for fear of his diſpleaſure they ſhall not be able to hold their water.

Verſe 26. The ſword of him that layeth at him cannot hold] So cloſe are his ſcales, ſo thick his skin, that there is no wounding of him. There was not of old, it ſeemeth. But now there is a way found of ſhooting and piercing of him, ſo that he dieth with an horrible noiſe, and out-cry.

Nor the Harbergeon] A defenſive weapon will be as uſeleſſe, as thoſe other offenſive: for the Whale will ſoon ſwallow up the armed, as well as the unarmed.

Verſe 27. He eſteemeth iron as ſtraw, and braſſe as rotten wood] He makes nothing of any thing that ſhall be done againſt him. Bears and Lions may be wounded with hunting-weapons: other Fiſhes with Eele-ſpears, and the like: not ſo the Whale, or not ſo eaſily.

Verſe 28. The arrow cannot make him flee] Heb. Sons of the bow, as chap. 5.7. Sparks are called ſons of the coal. Arrows were then as much in uſe as bullets are now.

Sling-ſtones are turned with him into ſtubble] Thoſe ſtones which the ſling caſtes with ſo much force, make as little impreſſion upon his body, as a feſtraw would, which the hand of a child ſhould puſh.

Verſe 29. Darts are counted as ſtubble] When any thing in the Decrees or Decretals likes not the Pope, he ſets Palea, that is, ſtubble upon it; or Hoe non credo: ſo doth this Leviathan upon all kind of weapons; he ſlightes them. The word here rendred darts, is as ſtrange, as the weapon it ſignifieth is to us unknown, lapides balliſtae, an engin, whereby great ſtones were thrown againſt Walles or Towers (as now Cannon-bullets) to make a breath in them. Catapulta, aries vel ſimile aliquod tormentum, Be they what they will, the Whale fears them not, no though they were as terrible to others, as thoſe two great pieces of Ordnance caſt by Alphonſus Duke of Ferrara; the one whereof he called the Earthquake, the other Grandiabolo, the great Devil

Verſe 30.Acumina teſtacea. Sharp ſtones are under him] Heb. Sharp pieces of the potſheard, which prick him no more than if he lay upon the ſofteſt couch[illegible: 1 letter]; ſo hard is his belly.

He ſpreadeth ſharp-pointed things upon the mine] When he might lye ſofter, he ſcorns it: as our hardy forefathers ſome two or three hundred years agoe. who ordinarily lay upon ſtraw-pallets covered with canvas, and around log under their heads inſtead of a bolſter.Hollinſhed. As for pillows, they ſaid they were fit only for women in childbed, &c.

Verſe 31.Plin. lib. 9. c. 3. & 6. He maketh the deep to boyl like a pot] He troubleth the whole Ocean: he maketh a mighty commotion in the ſea, when he rouls himſelf therein upward and downward, and caſts up water on high thorow a certain conveyance, that he hath in his head.

He maketh the ſea like a pot of oyntment] Turning it into a foam, like the ſcum of a boyling pot. Beza rendreth it thus, He maketh the ſea like a Mortar, wherein colours are beaten: that is, the whirling of the water is like unto a quern that is turned round of the painter, to temper his colours.

Verſe 32. He maketh a path to ſhine after him] A Ship doth ſo, much more a whale.

One would think the deep to be h[illegible: 1 letter]ary] By reaſon of the white ſhining foam left behind him.

Verſe 33. Ʋpon earth there is not his like] Heb. There is no compariſon of him: Much was ſaid before of Behemoth, but Leviathan is far beyond him for hugeneſſe and ſtrength: which yet Mercer noteth to be the work of God, and not of Nature, quòd humor ſolvat & infirmet; and therefore in reaſon earthly creatures would be harder and ſtronger, than thoſe in the ſea.

Who is made without fear] He ſeems not to come into the world but to fear nothing, and to defie all things. No creature carrieth it ſelf ſo ſtately or ſtoutly as the whale.

Verſe 34. He beholdeth all high things] As far below him (be they never ſo excellent) both for bulk of body, and ſtoutneſſe of minde.

He is a king over all the children of Pride] Or, Over all the wild creatures (ſo Tremellius and Buxtorf interpret it) which are proud and do domineer over the tame ones, no leſſe then Leviathan if he were amongſt them, would do over them.