None is so bold as to stir him up; and who is he that will stand before me?
God's questions to Job end with a creature no one would dare to wake. The point is not the animal. It is the One who made it. If a man will not face leviathan, how could he face leviathan's Maker?
The chapter argues by comparison, from the hook and the reed up to the closing question:
Most identify leviathan with the crocodile. Like behemoth, leviathan is a strong and untamable beast. Jehovah asks: Can you draw out leviathan with a hook? Can you pierce his jaw with a reed? Will you take him for a servant forever? Then He declares that he is fierce, and even the sight of him casts a man down. And if a creature is so mighty and strong, what must the One be who called this creature into existence? Verses 10 and 11 should read: "Who then is able to stand before Me (the Creator)? Who gave to Me first, that I should repay him? Since all beneath the heavens is Mine."
The chapter runs through every use a man might make of leviathan. Each one is absurd. And that is nothing next to the real subject.
Can you play with him like a bird or a deer, a toy for girls? He is no commodity for traders, no game for the hunter, no safe opponent in battle. The very sight of him might knock you flat, and the man who would provoke him is a fool. Yet what is that compared with making a stand before God?
The second half of the verse turns from the beast to God. The next verse says why: no one has ever put God in their debt.
If this is true of a mere creature, who can stand before the Creator? (This is how verse 10 should read. It leads up to verse 11, "Who will stand before Me?") Who has ever given to Jehovah first, so that he can demand it back? Or, as the apostle asks, "Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" (Romans 11:35).
Commentators differ on what leviathan pictures. Some see a power for evil, and behind it Satan himself:
This describes not only a mighty power, but a power for evil. Scripture calls Satan the dragon (Revelation 20:2). As ruler of the earth, working through his instrument the ruler of Egypt, he is the one spoken of here: "In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isaiah 27:1).
Others link the same creature to the beast of Revelation, whom no one will dare to fight:
No human is so fierce that he would dare to stir up such a creature (v.10). But let us remember it is God who made this beast. Who then could stand against God?… Of him people will say, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" (Revelation 13:4). No man can stand before the beast and the Antichrist. Yet the Lord will bring them down to a humiliating defeat.
So why did God describe such an enemy to Job at all?
Under the figure of leviathan, God now shows Job that the power of Satan is too great for him. … But what could be God's purpose in describing the power of the enemy? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Him. "I know," says Job, "that you can do all things." … It was independence of God that opened the door to Satan at first, and simple dependence on God alone can shut it.
God did not put these creatures before Job as a subject to study. He put them there to bow Job before Himself.
God brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He who made them, and what is man if he dares to judge such a God?… "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you." It was nothing external now, no distant rumour… "Therefore I despise myself." Do you think that studying the build or habits of behemoth and leviathan would have led to anything like that? Certainly not. He was dealing with God Himself. God used those creatures for that very purpose, and through them turned Job away from everything else to Himself.
- Stand: the creature. No one dares wake leviathan. No hook holds him, no trader wants him, no one tames him.
- Stand: the Creator. The verse turns on a comparison — if a made thing is beyond you, the One who made it is further beyond you still.
- Stand: no claim. Verse 10 leads into verse 11. No one can stand before God, and no one has ever given Him anything He must repay.
- Stand: the evil power. Commentators differ here. Some see Satan the dragon. Others see the coming beast people call unbeatable. Both say God will bring it down.
- Stand: Job's collapse. God's aim was dependence, not zoology. Job stopped defending himself when his eye saw God.
Who hath first given to me, that I should repay [him]? [Whatsoever is] under the whole heaven is mine.
God's speech from the whirlwind ends with leviathan, a creature no one can hook, tame, or fight. If no one dares face that beast, who can face its Maker — and what could anyone ever hand God that was not already His?
The whole leviathan description builds to this verse. One writer reads verse 10 as the lead-in, so the challenge shifts from the animal to God Himself.
If this is true of a mere creature, who can stand before the Creator? (For this is how verse 10 should be rendered — "Who will stand before Me?" — leading up to verse 11.) Who has first given to Jehovah, that he can demand it back again? Or, as the apostle asks, "Who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him again?" (Rom. 11:35).
Another writer lists what nobody can do with this creature, then asks what facing God would be like.
He is no commodity for traders, no game for the hunter, no safe opponent for battle. The very sight of him might knock a man flat, and the man who provokes him is reckless. Yet what is that compared to making a stand before God? And who ever gave to Him that He should repay, since all under heaven is His?
The creature no one can tame has a human counterpart. One writer traces the same refusal to be mastered in the will of man.
The principle — independence of God, seeking to make a name for itself — has been visible since the days of Cain, who built a city, and of Nimrod, who founded the first great world-empire (Gen. 10:8-10). This is not limited to national greatness. The same spirit of strong self-will, which puts up with no contradiction, shows up in the individual too — an untamable refusal to be under authority. Who has ever bound and held the proud will of man?
The first half of the verse rules out a whole way of relating to God. Man keeps trying to reverse the roles, and Scripture keeps refusing.
Man would gladly make God a receiver instead of a giver. But this cannot be. "It is more blessed to give than to receive," and God must have the more blessed place. God can accept the smallest gift from a heart that has learned the deep truth in those words, "Of your own have we given you." But the moment a man dares to take the place of the first giver, God's reply is, "If I were hungry, I would not tell you." For "He is not served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life and breath and everything." Praise is all that we can offer to God. But we can only offer it when we know clearly that our sins are all put away, and that comes only through faith in the accomplished atonement.
Another writer turns the question on people who treat their own good works as a claim on God.
We have neither known His mind, nor had anything to do with His counsel. Still less have we given to Him first, so that He should be in debt to repay us. This has been Israel's folly, and the folly of many more. They would gladly make themselves creditors of God, as though their good works and assumed righteousness were a claim upon Him! Elihu rightly demanded of Job, "If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?" (Job 35:7).
The second half of the verse gives the ground for the first: since all is His already, no gift of ours can be first. One writer notes how easily talk of rights leaves God out.
How seldom those who talk of rights seem to think that God has any! They are absorbed in themselves, in man; God is in none of their thoughts. Yet if any rights are to be respected at all, His must come first — the One whose sovereign will gave us being and everything else. If we think ourselves entitled to do what we like with what is ours, what shall we say of Him? We ourselves and all that we have belong to Him.
All of this aimed at one man: Job, who had been judging God's ways.
If such is the strength of mere animals, made by God's creative will, what folly to resist, criticise, or even judge His ways!
- Creature, then Creator. No one dares provoke leviathan. So no one can make a stand before the One who made him.
- Nothing given first. No one has ever put God under obligation. The same question turns up again in Romans 11:35.
- Because all is His. Since everything under heaven already belongs to God, no gift can be original — "of your own have we given you."
- The reversed roles. Man keeps trying to make God a receiver and himself a creditor, treating good works as a claim. But God gives to all life and breath and everything.
- The result in Job. If mere animals are beyond him, it is folly to resist, criticise, or judge God's ways.
I will not be silent as to his parts, the story of his power, and the beauty of his structure.
At verse 12 God promises to hold nothing back about leviathan — its limbs, its strength, its frame. Why spend so many words on a monster no one can catch, and what was Job meant to learn from it?
God begins by refusing to stay quiet about the creature. That refusal says as much about God as about leviathan:
But the Lord says of Leviathan, "I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame" (v.12). The Lord would not hesitate to describe him exactly as he is. He describes him so we would know that He knew him perfectly and took full account of his strength.
This verse opens the door to the rest of the chapter, where even the creature's shields carry a kind of majesty:
Details are then given, from verse 12 to the end. … Then what majesty the curved shields have! They close as tight as a seal, so no breath can get in, and every part holds together and cannot be pulled apart.
Another writer runs through the creature's parts and lands on its pride:
A more detailed description of the leviathan follows. His frame is strong; his outer garment is so invulnerable — who can strip it off? His teeth are terrible; who can open the doors of his face, that is, his mouth? His scales, his armour, are his pride.
God is not giving Job a nature lesson. The greatness of the work points to the greatness of the One who made it:
Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our thoughts and bow us to Himself; for if the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that did the work, and what is man if he dares to judge such a God?
Yet greatness is not the whole lesson. The creature also stands for something evil:
In all this first part of the description, we have the fierce, unapproachable, untamable character of this creature. The conclusion is clear, as already shown: if the creature is so mighty, what must the Creator be? But, as we said, we should expect something more than this declaration of God's greatness and power. This is not only a mighty power; it is a power for evil.
Commentators differ on what leviathan pictures. One writer pairs leviathan with behemoth and reads both as figures of the same enemy:
Both beasts typify power and pride. So we must admit that Wordsworth's comment does not seem entirely far-fetched: "It seems probable that behemoth represents the Evil One acting in the animal and fleshly parts of man's own makeup. Leviathan symbolises the Evil One working as his enemy from outside. Behemoth is the enemy within us; leviathan is the enemy outside us."
Another writer turns the creature's title on Job himself:
He is king over all the sons of pride. … And now the conclusion which Job could easily draw. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out its depths. He had cherished pride, the Devil's crime.
Learning how strong his enemy is leaves Job one place to go:
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. … But what could God's object be in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
- Speaks — God refuses to keep silent about leviathan. He names the enemy's power out loud.
- Measures — God lists the limbs, the strength, the frame. He knows this creature perfectly and has taken full account of what it can do.
- Outmatches — If the creature is this mighty, what must the Creator be?
- Exposes — Leviathan's armour is his pride, and he is king over the sons of pride. A proud person belongs to that king.
- Bends — The whole description moves Job off himself and onto God, who can do all things.
Who can uncover the surface of his garment? who can come within his double jaws?
God speaks to Job out of the storm and points him to one creature: who could handle it? The questions about stripping its hide and bridling it are not lessons in zoology — they take aim at a man who had been arguing with God.
Commentators take leviathan to be the crocodile. They read the pictures in this verse as plain descriptions of its body. One writer ties each question to a part of the animal:
A more detailed description of the leviathan follows. His body is strong. His outer garment cannot be pierced — who can strip it off? His teeth are terrible — who can open the doors of his face (his mouth)? His scales, his armour, are his pride. This is a good description of the crocodile's hide.
Others have argued for the dolphin or the whale. One commentator notes that most settled on the crocodile once they studied the question closely, and that no description could be more vivid, or the lesson for Job more forceful.
Just before this verse, God says He will not hide the creature's limbs or strength. Holding nothing back is part of the argument:
The Lord would not hesitate to describe him exactly as he is. He wanted us to know that He knew this creature through and through, and took full account of his strength… Men have caught crocodiles and kept them in large pools of water. But who would dare get into the same pool, as some people do with dolphins?
The "outer garment" is the creature's hide, and no one can peel it off. One writer reads that seamless armour as a picture of something in the heart:
The scales on his head and body are an armour nothing can get through, and so is pride — each scale linked to the next, with no gap in the armour where an arrow could pierce.
A bridle goes on an animal someone has already tamed, and older translations read this second question as coming within the creature's double jaws. Either way, no one gets that close. The same writer takes the question past the riverbank, first to a nation and then to a single person:
The principle (independence from God), trying to make a name for itself, has been on show since the days of Cain, who built a city, and of Nimrod, who founded the first great world empire (Gen. 10:8-10). It is not limited to nations that want to be first. The same spirit of strong self-will, which allows no contradiction, shows up in the individual as well — a refusal to bow to authority that no one can tame. Who has ever tied down and held the proud will of man?
Commentators differ on what the creature stands for. Some read him as a picture of world power. Another sees in him the strength of the enemy:
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him… Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself.
The danger is to stop at the animal and admire it. God's aim runs in the opposite direction:
People talk as if God's aim was just to keep us busy with His works. God does the opposite. He brings His works forward to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us before Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He who made them? And what is man, if he dares to judge such a God?
God's questions press hard on a broken man. One writer calls that pressure mercy:
Is it cruel of the Lord to treat a poor, broken-hearted man like this? Ask instead: would it have been kind to leave him wrapped in his pride like a garment, shouting against the Almighty? Pride can only be brought low one way — by standing face to face with its own nothingness before the majesty and boundless goodness of God.
- Garment — the "outer garment" is the crocodile's hide. No one can strip it off. The picture starts with a real animal, not a symbol.
- Bridle — you bridle an animal you have already tamed, and no one has tamed this one. Its scales are its pride, sealed so tight no arrow finds a gap.
- Will — the same untamed will runs through empires since Nimrod and through one stubborn heart. That is why the picture lands on Job.
- Purpose — God shows His works to turn us from our own thoughts and bow us before Himself. He is not making us students of wildlife.
- Kindness — leaving Job wrapped in his pride would not have been mercy. Pride only bows when it stands face to face with God.
Who can open the doors of his face? Round about his teeth is terror.
God's final questions to Job move from the whole creature to its head — and stop at the one place no one would ever put a hand. Why does God spend so many verses on a mouth, and what is a broken man meant to learn from it?
One writer works through the description and explains the phrase in the verse:
A more detailed description of the leviathan follows. His body is strong. His outer covering cannot be pierced — who can strip it off? His teeth are terrible. Who can open the doors of his face (his mouth)? His scales, his armour, are his pride.
Another renders the Hebrew line by line, and the word order itself carries the menace — the jaws come first, and terror is what surrounds the teeth:
Who has uncovered the face of his garment? Into his double jaws who enters in? The doors of his face, who has opened? Round about his teeth is terror.
God does not ask whether anyone can catch the creature. He asks who would go near its face. Commentators identify leviathan with the crocodile:
Men have captured crocodiles and put them in large pools of water. But who would dare to get into the same pool, as some do with dolphins?
These chapters are often read as nature writing. One writer insists that misses the whole point of them:
Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God does the opposite. He brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made them? And what is man, if he dares to judge such a God? ... Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
Commentators see more than an animal here. One gives the reason:
It is not only a mighty power that is described, but a power for evil. So Satan is spoken of as the dragon (Revelation 20:2). And as ruler of the earth, through his instrument the ruler of Egypt, it is said of him, "In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isaiah 27:1).
The title at the close of the chapter then turns on Job himself:
Both the behemoth and the leviathan typify Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride... And now the deduction which Job could easily make. If he is proud then he belongs to leviathan the king who rules over the sons of pride. The LORD has touched the secret in Job's heart.
The armoured jaw that will not be opened has a counterpart nearer home. One writer turns the untameable creature into a mirror:
Applied to each person, this "crooked serpent" is a picture of the perverted will of man. All sin has its roots in disobedience. Men may smile at it, but what more terrible thing is there than this self-will — the carnal mind... What use is the effort to reform the world, to tame the crocodile? Men may dream and plan, and try to drive misery off the earth. But even while it groans, creation mocks at human efforts to subdue its own perverted will.
Why describe an enemy Job could never beat? One writer gives the purpose:
God now shows to Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him... But what could be God's object in describing the power of the adversary in this way? Surely it was to lead Job into entire dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that you can do all things."
The chapter asks who can open those doors. One writer sets that question beside victories no human sword could win:
Could Joshua's or David's sword have won such victories as these? Would the principalities of darkness have yielded to them? Would death and hell have submitted themselves? "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?" But "He who made him can bring near His sword."
- Terror. The doors of the face are the beast's mouth, ringed with teeth. No one would dare open it.
- Turn. The works are not the destination; God displays them to draw a man off his own reasoning and bow him before the Maker.
- Pride. Behind the crocodile stands a power for evil. The chapter calls him king over all the sons of pride — so every proud heart sits under his rule.
- Powerless. The untameable jaw pictures the self-will in man that no reform or effort can subdue.
- Dependence. Shown an enemy too strong for him, Job is left with only one refuge: the One who made leviathan can bring His sword near.
The rows of his shields are a pride, shut up together [as with] a close seal.
God is still speaking out of the storm, describing leviathan — a creature no man can catch or tame. Here He points to its back, and the question is why such armour should matter to a suffering man.
One writer reads the verse first of all as a description of a real animal:
His frame is strong. His outer garment cannot be pierced — who can strip it off? His scales, his armour, are his pride. Here is a good description of the crocodile's hide. The scales are so close to each other that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another and stick together, so that they cannot be pulled apart.
Older translations read the first line as "his scales are his pride." One writer points to what lies behind that pride:
"His scales are his pride." It is not only his enormous strength, and the fact that no ordinary weapon can pierce him. He is also so confident in that armour himself.
The Bible uses a seal in more than one sense. One of them shapes the picture in this verse:
A second idea connected with it is the closing up for safety of something important and vital... Job 41:15-17 gives a remarkable illustration: the scales of "leviathan" are like a close seal, and not even air can get through them.
The scales do more than describe a body. One writer sees in them the way pride guards a person:
The scales on his head and body are, like pride, an armour nothing can get through — each scale linked to the next, with no gap in the armour where an arrow could pierce.
If the creature cannot be tamed, neither can the thing it pictures in man:
Coming to how this applies to each person, we see in this "crooked serpent" a picture of the twisted will of man. All sin has its roots in disobedience. Men may smile at it, but what is more terrible than this self-will — the mind of the flesh... What use is the effort to reform the world, to tame the crocodile? Men may dream and plan, and try to drive misery off the earth. But even while it groans, creation mocks at human efforts to subdue its own twisted will.
Commentators differ on what the creature stands for. Some see Satan behind leviathan and behemoth, the other great creature God has just described. They read the scales as a mirror held up to Job's own heart:
Both the behemoth and the leviathan picture Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride... And now comes the conclusion Job could easily draw. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. God has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out its depths. Job has cherished pride, the Devil's own sin.
Others take it as a portrait of a coming world ruler who guards himself the same way:
These rows of scales are shut up tightly as with a seal, so that he is protected as by a coat of armour. The Roman Beast too will use every means of protecting himself against the attacks of any enemy.
The chapter is not a nature lesson. Its aim is to move Job off his own ground:
Men talk as if God's aim was only to occupy us with His works. God does the opposite. He brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. For if the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made them? And what is man, if he dares to judge such a God?... Do you think that after this Job was taken up with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God. That was the design of it all.
- Sealed — the rows of shields fit so tightly that not even air passes between them. A seal here means a closing up that nothing can enter.
- Proud — the same armour that keeps the creature safe makes it sure of itself. Strength it can trust in becomes pride.
- Impervious — pride works the same way in a person: linked scale to scale, with no gap where an arrow could reach.
- Untameable — writers differ on what leviathan pictures: Satan, or a coming world ruler. Either way, no human effort can tame it.
- Bowed — God does not show the creature for us to study. He shows it so Job stops judging Him and trusts Him instead.
One is so near to another that no air can come between them;
God answers Job with a whole chapter about one creature, and here He lingers on its skin: scale locked to scale, with no gap anywhere. Why would God settle a suffering man's questions by describing an animal's armour?
One writer sums up the chapter, moving from the sealed shields to the weapons that fail against them.
Then what majesty (or pride) in those curved shields! They close like a seal, so that breath cannot enter, and every part holds to the next so that nothing can pull them apart. ... No wonder the mightiest tremble when he rises. They miss their mark through fear. If one of them does reach him, the sword does not hold, nor spear, mace, nor lance, for he counts iron as straw and copper as rotten wood.
The tight fit is not only a fact about the animal. One writer reads that gap-free covering as a picture of pride.
The scales on his head and body are, like pride, an armour nothing can get through — each scale linked to the next, and no joint in the armour where an arrow could pierce.
Commentators agree the language fits a real animal, and they differ on what it stands for. One reads the verse as an exact account of a crocodile's hide, and reasons from the creature back to its Maker:
If a creature is so mighty and strong, what must the One be who called this creature into existence? ... Here is a good description of the crocodile's hide. The scales are so near each other that no air can come between them; they are joined one to another, they stick together, so that they cannot be pulled apart. ... The final statement about leviathan is that he is king over all the sons of pride.
Another sees in the sealed plating a picture of the last world ruler, who will make himself untouchable:
So he is protected as if by a coat of armour. The Roman Beast too will use every means to protect himself against the attacks of any enemy.
The chapter is not there to turn us into students of the animal.
Men talk as if God's object was only to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our thoughts and bow us to Himself. For if the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that did the work? And what is man, if he dares to judge such a God? ... Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
Another writer reaches the same point from Job's side. A power too great for Job drove him to lean on God.
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. ... But what could be God's object in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
The same picture works the other way round. One writer lists what sealing means in Scripture, and this verse gives him his sharpest example:
A second idea connected with sealing is the closing up for safety of something important and vital... Job 41:15-17 gives a remarkable illustration: there the scales of "leviathan" are like a close seal, so tight that not even air can pass through.
One writer starts from the two marks of a fish that Israel was allowed to eat:
Long ago there were creatures the people of Israel were not allowed to eat, because they were unclean; others were clean. A clean fish was known by two marks: it had to have both fins and scales. The fins let it swim against the stream... There are times when a fish must swim through filthy water, and to protect it God has given it scales... Fitted with this armour, the fish can pass safely through the filth. So God has provided a way for His own to pass unharmed through all the filth around us, as well as the power to go against the stream.
- Sealed shut. Scale locks to scale like a seal. Not even breath gets in — no seam, no gap, no place for a weapon.
- Sealed by pride. One writer reads that gap-free armour as a picture of pride: no joint anywhere for an arrow to pierce.
- Sealed enemy. Writers differ on what the creature pictures. Some see the power of Satan; another sees the last world ruler. Both read the armour as self-protection.
- Sealed lips. God's aim is not to make Job study the animal but to leave him with nothing to say against God. He brings forward His works to turn us from our own thoughts to Himself.
- Sealed safe. The same picture turns kind. A seal can also mean closing something precious up for safety. God gives His own an armour for the filth around them and power to swim against the stream.
They are joined each to its fellow; they stick together, and cannot be sundered.
The verse sits inside God's long description of leviathan, the creature Job could never catch or tame. One writer identifies the animal and explains why the detail about the scales matters so much:
Commentators have generally identified the leviathan with the crocodile. Like the behemoth, the leviathan is a strong and untameable beast... And if a creature is so mighty and strong, what must the One be who called this creature into existence? Verses 10 and 11 should read: "Who then is able to stand before Me (the Creator)? Who gave to Me first, that I should repay him? Since all beneath the heavens is Mine."
Verse 15 compares the rows of scales to a seal. One writer picks up that image to show what sealing means in Scripture:
One of the meanings of sealing in Scripture is the closing up for safety of something important and vital. Job 41:15-17 gives a remarkable illustration: it compares the scales of "leviathan" to a close seal and describes them as so tight that not even air can get through.
The chapter itself names what the scales stand for. In the older translation this writer uses, verse 15 reads, "His scales are his pride."
"His scales are his pride." It is not only his enormous strength, and the fact that no ordinary weapon can pierce him. He is also completely confident in that strength himself.
Another writer goes over the creature piece by piece. He finds the same sealed hardness in every part:
The scales on his head and body are, like pride, an armour nothing can get through — each scale linked to the next, with no gap in the armour where an arrow could pierce... In most animals the flanks are a weak spot, since the ribs do not cover them; his flanks are solid and cannot be pierced. Within is a heart like stone, indifferent to all fear.
Commentators differ on how far the picture reaches. Some read the chapter as the portrait of a real animal. Others see a figure behind it, and point to the chapter's closing line, that leviathan is king over all the sons of pride:
In Isaiah 27:1 we read: "In that day the LORD ... will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea." Here leviathan stands for the power of darkness... And now the deduction which Job could easily make. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart.
Others carry the picture forward to a coming world ruler, and read the sealed scales as his defences:
So he is protected as if by a coat of armour. The Roman Beast too will use every means to protect himself against the attacks of any enemy.
The point of the whole speech was never the creatures themselves.
So God's purpose in describing them in such grand language is not at all to make us stop there, turning them into a study that fills our minds and holds our souls. His purpose is the opposite. He would turn us away from ourselves to trust in Himself. Do you think Job spent his time on behemoth or leviathan after this? Not at all — his thoughts were on God, and that was the design of it all.
Another writer draws the same conclusion, and names the enemy he sees behind the picture:
God now shows to Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him... But what could be God's object in thus describing the power of the adversary? Surely it was to lead Job into entire dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
- Sealed. The scales lock so tightly that not even air passes between them — a seal closed for safety, with no gap an arrow could find.
- Pride. The chapter calls that seamless armour the creature's pride: strength, safety from every weapon, and self-confidence in one covering.
- Stone. The same hardness runs inward — compact flanks, a heart like stone, indifferent to all fear. Pride armours the outside and deadens the inside.
- King. Commentators differ on the figure. Those who look past the crocodile see the power of darkness, or a coming world ruler, who shields himself the same way. The chapter calls him king over all the sons of pride, and Isaiah says the LORD's sword will slay him.
- Dependence. God showed Job an enemy he could not scratch. The aim was not to fascinate him with nature but to turn him from himself. Job ended by saying that God can do all things.
His sneezings flash light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
God speaks last in the book of Job, and He answers a suffering man by describing His own creation. That answer ends with leviathan, and verse 18 puts one question to Job: if you cannot face this creature, how will you argue with the One who made it?
God does not take Job through all of nature. He shows him just enough.
In the last two chapters of Jehovah's answer (Job 40, Job 41), which I must cover very briefly, God surveys not the whole realm of nature, but quite enough — more than enough — to prove Job ignorant and unable to speak before God. Job needed to learn this, so that he would distrust himself and trust God.
The description of leviathan falls into three parts. Verse 18 belongs to the middle one.
Most interpreters agree that the "leviathan" here is the crocodile of Egypt, and it is described in great detail… There seem to be three parts: (1) His fierceness that nothing can tame (verses 1-11). (2) An analysis of his various parts (verses 12-24). (3) His outstanding strength (verses 25-34).
Older English Bibles print "neesings" here, which the reference works simply translate:
"Sneezings." Job 41:18.
The second half of the verse draws on something ancient readers would have recognised at once.
His scales, his armour, are his pride. This is a good description of the crocodile's hide. The scales sit so close together that no air can get between them. They are joined to one another and stick together, so that they cannot be pulled apart. His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. You can see a crocodile's eyes from quite a distance under water. So the Egyptians used the crocodile's eyes in their picture-writing as the sign for daybreak.
The sneeze and the eyes are not stray details. They belong to a survey of the creature part by part.
Coming to the details, Jehovah shows that the beast is not only irresistible when you look at him as a whole. Each of his parts declares the same all-conquering power… The very sneezing of such a creature is like a flash of burning sulphur from hidden fires inside him (verses 18-21); his eyes flash out like rays of the rising sun.
The beast's own attitude belongs to the picture too.
"His scales are his pride." He has enormous strength, and no ordinary weapon can pierce him. More than that, he is sure of it himself.
Commentators differ on how far the picture reaches. Some read leviathan simply as one of God's creatures. Others hear a warning in the flash of light about a ruler still to come.
Of course this is figurative language. It speaks of the vicious words that come out of the mouth of the Beast, as Revelation 13:5-6 tells us about him… But the appearance of light, as though the beast brought light and wisdom with him, is a false show. Leviathan pictures this man's boastful pride and his frightening threats.
The picture of the creature is an argument about the Creator.
Nothing could be more vivid than the account of each creature, and nothing could press the conclusion home more forcefully for Job, or for anyone else. If mere animals have such might, and they are only the result of God's creative will, how foolish it is to resist God's ways, to find fault with them, or even to judge them!
And all of this was still about things we can see.
And, after all, what was God speaking about? Earthly things. Every one of these things belongs to the natural world, and has to do with what we can see, with what is visible and temporary… still, if that is true of earthly things, what about the heavenly things? What about the eternal things? There we depend on God completely.
- Creature. Most interpreters take leviathan to be the crocodile of Egypt. In Egypt, crocodile eyes stood for the dawn.
- Detail. God goes over the beast part by part in verses 12-24. Scales, sneeze, eyes — each one declares the same unbeatable power.
- Pride. His armour is also his pride. No ordinary weapon can pierce him, and he is sure of it himself.
- Shadow. Some readers see in the flashing light a picture of a coming ruler, whose light and wisdom are only a false show.
- Surrender. If one animal leaves Job speechless, it is folly to judge the ways of the God who made it. In eternal things we depend on God completely.
Out of his mouth go forth flames; sparks of fire leap out
God's speech from the storm ends with a long portrait of leviathan, and verse 19 sits at its heart — a mouth that seems to throw out fire. The chapter is not really asking about an animal: if a creature is like this, what is the Creator like, and who is man to judge His ways?
Verse 19 sits inside a run of images (verses 18-21) where God takes the creature apart limb by limb. One writer shows how each part says the same thing about its power.
Coming to details, Jehovah shows that the beast is not only irresistible as a whole; each of its parts declares the same all-conquering power. The Lord starts with its dreadful mouth, ringed with sharp, cruel teeth, and points out that everything about the beast has the same character. The very sneezing of such a creature is like sulphurous light from hidden fires within (verses 18-21); his eyes flash out like rays of the rising sun.
Most writers here identify leviathan with the crocodile. One draws out the lesson the whole description is meant to teach.
Again, the leviathan described here (Job 41) seems to be beyond doubt, not the dolphin or the whale, as some learned men have argued, but the crocodile. Nothing could be more vivid than these descriptions, and nothing more forceful than the lesson they press on Job or on anyone else. If mere animals have such might, and they exist only because God willed to create them, what folly it is to resist, criticise, or even judge His ways!
Another writer asks it as a plain question: "if a creature is so mighty and strong, what must the One be who called this creature into existence?" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein).
One writer takes the flaming torches of verse 19 as a picture of words — the words of the Beast, a man described in Revelation — and says the light he seems to bring is not real.
Of course this is figurative language, and speaks of the vicious words that come out of the mouth of the Beast, as Revelation 13:5-6 tells us about him. But the appearance of light, as though the beast brought light and wisdom with him, is a false show. Leviathan's character gives a vivid picture of this man's boastful pride and his frightening threats.
Commentators differ on how far the picture reaches. Some keep to the animals themselves. Leviathan and behemoth "had brute strength but no human intelligence", and "it would be easier to subdue them than to bring down proud man" (F. B. Hole). Others see something darker behind the description, and point to another place where the same name appears.
This is not only a mighty power; it is a power for evil. So Satan is called the dragon (Revelation 20:2). And as ruler of the earth, working through his instrument the ruler of Egypt, he is the one described here: "In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isaiah 27:1). How remarkable that the world-ruler should be spoken of in this way.
Read that way, each creature stands for a different enemy: "Behemoth is the enemy within us; leviathan is the enemy outside us" (Samuel Ridout).
God had a reason for showing Job a power he could never handle.
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. What a terrible one he is, this king over all the children of pride! This world has rejected the King of Righteousness and chosen the horrible slavery of Satan instead. But why would God describe the enemy's power like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that you can do all things."
One writer sees design in the choice of these two creatures.
There was clearly divine design in the detailed description of the hippopotamus on one side, and in the still more detailed picture of the crocodile on the other. To an upright mind like Job's, they were fitted to overwhelm him with one thought. He who could do everything stooped to make man the object of His ways on earth. He ordered all things to bring man's heart into submission to Himself... So Job should be ashamed of his self-sufficiency.
- Creature — Most writers take leviathan as the crocodile. The flaming mouth is one detail in a limb-by-limb portrait of a beast no weapon can open.
- Creator — The argument runs upward. If the creature is this mighty, what must its Maker be? To judge His ways is folly.
- Counterfeit — The fire looks like light, but it is a false show. The mouth stands for vicious, boastful, threatening words.
- Contest — Commentators differ. Some stay with the animal. Others see a power for evil behind it: the dragon of Isaiah 27:1 and Revelation 20:2, an enemy outside Job that he cannot fight.
- Conclusion — God shows Job a power too great for him. The aim is to shame his self-sufficiency and lead him into full dependence on the God who can do all things.
Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a boiling pot and cauldron.
Job 41 closes God's answer to Job, and the whole chapter describes one creature: leviathan. The smoke from its nostrils is a small part of a portrait built to raise one question — what did God want Job to learn?
The verse sits in a run of lines about the creature's head — its sneezing, eyes, mouth and nostrils. Where the ESV reads "a boiling pot and burning rushes," the older translation these writers used has "a cauldron":
What light in his sneezing! Eyes and mouth give off brightness, or sparks of fire, and smoke out of his nostrils as from a cauldron.
Most commentators settle on the crocodile, though not all with the same confidence. One writer names it and then draws out what it means for Job:
The leviathan described here seems beyond doubt to be the crocodile, not the dolphin or the whale, as some learned men have argued… Nothing could be more graphic than these descriptions. Nothing could be more forceful than the conclusion for Job, or for anyone else. Mere animals have such might, and they are the effect of God's creative will. What folly, then, to resist, criticise, or even judge His ways!
Another leaves room for doubt, calling leviathan "the most fearsome of all water beasts, unless it was another similar animal, now extinct."
The chapter is not a nature lesson. God aimed the description at the man listening. A reader can admire the writing and still miss the point:
Men talk as if God's object was simply to occupy us with His works. God does the opposite. He brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made them? And what is man if he dares to judge such a God?… Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God. This was the design of it all.
Several writers see more than an animal here. They read the fire and smoke as a picture of a coming world ruler. One traces that fire through each part of the creature's head:
The very sneezing of such a creature is like sulphurous light from hidden fires within (vv. 18-21). His eyes flash out like rays of the rising sun. Like the horses of the sixth trumpet, his mouth belches out "fire and smoke and sulfur" (Revelation 9:17). His neck is strength itself. It makes despair, not joy, dance before him — he is the herald of misery.
Another reads the same lines as speech, not breath:
Of course this is figurative language. It speaks of the vicious words that come out of the mouth of the Beast, as we are told of him in Revelation 13:5-6… But the appearance of light, as though the beast brought light and wisdom with him, is a false show. Leviathan's character is a striking picture of this man's boastful pride and his ominous threats.
Commentators differ here. Some point to Satan himself, others to a human ruler.
The chapter ends by calling leviathan king over all the sons of pride. That title turns the whole description back on Job:
Both the behemoth and the leviathan represent Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride… And now the conclusion which Job could easily draw. If he is proud then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out its depths. Pride, the Devil's sin, has been cherished by him.
Another writer asks why God would show Job such power at all:
What could God's purpose be in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that you can do all things."… Looked at in himself, the believer has no power to overcome Satan. Independence of God opened the door to Satan at first. Simple dependence on God alone can shut it.
- Smoke. Fire, light and smoke pour from leviathan's eyes, mouth and nostrils, as from a boiling pot — a head no one dares face.
- Creature. Most writers identify leviathan as the crocodile. One allows it may be a similar animal, now extinct.
- Figure. Writers read the flame and smoke as the blasphemous words and threats of a coming ruler. His show of light is counterfeit.
- Pride. Leviathan is king over the sons of pride — the title that exposed the pride hidden in Job's own heart.
- Purpose. God shows a power Job cannot touch. Job stops studying the creature and starts depending on the Creator.
His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
God is speaking to Job, and He ends with a long description of a creature no man can catch. The picture peaks here: breath that sets coals alight, and flame shooting out of an open mouth. The point is not the animal. If a creature is this far beyond Job, what is the God who made it?
This verse sits inside a run of images that moves from sneezing to smoke to fire. One writer walks through the creature from head to heart:
What light flashes when he sneezes! His eyes and mouth give off brightness, or sparks of fire, and smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot. Strength lives in his neck, and dread marks everything in front of him. The rest of him is firm and cannot be moved, his heart as solid as stone, as hard as the lower millstone. No wonder the strongest men tremble when he rises up. If one of them does reach him, the sword does not hold, nor spear, club, or lance; for he counts iron as straw and copper as rotten wood.
One writer names the animal behind the description:
Now, in Job 41, comes a still longer description of "leviathan," and I understand that to be the crocodile. The crocodile is a very dangerous beast. It is not shy of people; on the contrary, it preys on men, women, and children, if it can get hold of them.
Another writer reads the flame as picture language, and links the open mouth with the words that come out of it:
Of course this is figurative language. It speaks of the vicious words that come out of the mouth of the Beast. Revelation 13:5-6 tells us of him: "The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words… It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven." But the appearance of light, as though the beast brought light and wisdom with him, is a false show.
One writer compares leviathan with behemoth, the beast described just before him, and sees both as pictures of something bigger:
Some have thought this creature must picture Satan, as the chief of God's creatures (Ezek. 28), standing out in strength and pride. The same would be true of leviathan, in the next chapter. Both beasts picture power and pride. So it does not seem far-fetched to say with Wordsworth, "It seems probable that behemoth stands for the Evil One at work in the animal and fleshly parts of man's own make-up, and that leviathan pictures the Evil One at work as man's enemy from outside. Behemoth is the enemy within us; leviathan is the enemy outside us." But we may think of these creatures as pictures of evil men driven and controlled by Satan, rather than Satan himself.
The chapter calls this creature king over all the sons of pride, and that title lands on Job:
If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret Job kept hidden inside. He has searched out the depths of his heart. Job has cherished pride, the Devil's own crime.
The same root runs through every reader, not only Job:
Turning to what this means for each of us, we see in this "crooked serpent" a picture of the twisted will of man. All sin has its roots in disobedience. People may smile at it, but what is more terrible than this self-will — the mind set on the flesh? The mind of the flesh "is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot" (Rom. 8:7). What use is the effort to reform the world, to tame the crocodile?
Some read these chapters as nature writing and stop there. That misses the point:
Men talk as if God's aim was only to occupy us with His works. God does the opposite. He brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made them, and what is man if he dares to judge such a God?… Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
- Fire — breath that lights coals tops a picture of eyes, mouth and nostrils pouring out light, smoke and sparks. Under it all sits a heart as hard as a millstone.
- False light — one writer reads the flame as speech: boastful, blasphemous words dressed up to look like wisdom. The brightness is only a show.
- Two enemies — these beasts picture power and pride twice over: the evil one at work inside man's own nature, and the evil one attacking him from outside.
- One king — leviathan rules as king over the sons of pride. Pride puts a man under that king, and Job had to face it.
- One aim — the whole description pulls Job off himself. He ends up occupied not with the monster, but with God.
In his neck lodgeth strength, and terror danceth before him.
Job 41 is God's long description of one creature, spoken to a man who had been questioning His ways. Verse 22 fixes on the neck, where the creature's strength sits, and on what runs ahead of it wherever it goes.
Commentators name the animal behind the picture, then draw a lesson from its sheer power.
The Leviathan described here seems beyond doubt to be the crocodile, not the dolphin or the whale, as some learned men have argued... Nothing could be more vivid than these accounts, and nothing more forcible than the conclusion for Job or anyone else. If such is the might of mere animals, the effect of God's creative will, what folly it is to resist, criticise, or even judge His ways!
One writer pairs the strength with the dread, and adds what the rest of the body is like:
Strength lodges in his neck, and terror marks everything in front of him. The rest of him is firm and immovable, his heart solid as stone, hard as the lower millstone.
Another writer hears rebellion in that stiff neck. He works from an older translation that reads "sorrow dances before him" where the ESV has "terror":
"Strength dwells in his neck" (v.22), for his neck is stiffened in rebellion against God. "And sorrow dances before him" — as though sorrow was trying to dress itself in false joy, but it only brings misery and wretchedness.
The second half of the verse takes the language of dancing and fills it with the opposite of joy.
His neck is the embodiment of strength, causing despair, not joy, to dance before him — he is the herald of misery. Within is a heart like stone, indifferent to all fear.
The chapter's closing line calls leviathan king over all the sons of pride. One writer traces that title past the animal itself:
In Isaiah 27:1 we read: "In that day the LORD with His hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent... and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea." Here leviathan typifies the power of darkness... And now the deduction which Job could easily make. If he is proud then he belongs to leviathan the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out the depths of it. Pride, the Devil's crime, had been cherished by him.
Commentators differ on how far to press the picture. Some read the stiff neck and the dancing misery as a ruler yet to come:
What an unbroken stiffness of neck! It makes everyone bend before it, and it fills the earth with ruin and men's hearts with grief. A riot of misery, a carnival of despair dances before him with glee — sword and plague and death, the unavoidable companions of absolute, Satanic power. The Beast will have no weak side, and he will know no pity. From his unyielding heart come hatred, scorn, death.
The description is not offered as nature study. One writer states what God is aiming at:
Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made them? And what is man if he dares to judge such a God?... Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
Another writer reads the same chapter as God showing Job an enemy he cannot handle:
God now shows to Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him... But what could be God's object in thus describing the power of the adversary? Surely it was to lead Job into entire dependence on Himself.
- Strength located. The verse puts the creature's force in its neck, and terror runs ahead of it.
- Strength stiffened. A neck that will not bend is rebellion made visible.
- Strength parodied. What dances ahead of him looks like joy and brings misery.
- Strength crowned. The chapter names him king over the sons of pride. Writers hear behind that the power of darkness, and a ruler yet to come.
- Strength answered. God shows Job a power he cannot master, so he will stop judging God's ways and depend entirely on the One who made it.
The flakes of his flesh are joined together they are fused upon him, they cannot be moved.
God is answering Job, and instead of arguing He describes a creature — leviathan, whose body has none of the soft places other animals have. Why answer a suffering man's complaint with a close look at a monster's hide?
Commentators note that the long, close description is deliberate. He is aiming at something in Job.
No one can doubt that there was divine design in the detailed description of the river-horse (or ox), and in the even finer details of the crocodile. To an upright mind like Job's, these details struck straight home. They were suited to overwhelm him with one thought. He who could do everything chose to make man the object of His ways on earth. He ordered all things to shape man's heart into submission to Himself. … Job therefore should be deeply ashamed of his self-sufficiency.
The "folds of his flesh" are his flanks. Kelly names the creature as the crocodile, and Ridout walks through its body part by part.
Jehovah now comes to the details. The beast is irresistible as a whole, and each of its parts declares the same all-conquering power. … The scales on his head and body are an armour nothing can pierce, like pride — each scale linked to the next, with no gap where an arrow could get through. … His flanks are usually a weak spot in animals, since the ribs do not cover them. Here they are compact and impossible to pierce. Within is a heart like stone that knows no fear.
So the verse is not about size. It says there is no place on him to strike.
Commentators differ on how far to press leviathan. Some keep to the creature itself. Others see a picture of an evil power behind it, and read verse 23 that way.
"The folds of his flesh" are so joined as to make him invulnerable to attack (v.23), and underneath his heart is as hard as a stone. What a picture of the great champion of unbelief! He will arise because the world has rejected the faithful, gracious Lord of glory, and he will think of himself as the saviour of the world.
Some who take this reading also draw a distinction between behemoth and leviathan:
It seems probable that behemoth represents the Evil One at work in the animal and fleshly parts of man's own nature. Leviathan then pictures the Evil One at work as man's enemy from outside. Behemoth is the enemy within us; leviathan is the enemy without us.
One title given to leviathan gathers up the whole portrait, including the unbreakable body of this verse.
He is king over all the sons of pride. … And now the deduction which Job could easily make. If he is proud then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out the depths of that heart. Job has cherished pride, the Devil's crime.
A body with no weak place and a heart like stone also describes a man who cannot be reached.
And will Job harbour in his heart even the seed of all this horror? Shall independence, self-will and pride find a home in him, and hatch out such offspring of hell? Such is self-will in its essence, and such is its full development. … Beneath the fair exterior of man such possibilities lie hidden. Even in a child of God there lurks a nature with these features.
Some read the chapter as a nature study. Writers warn that this misses God's purpose in it.
God brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made them? And what is man if he dares to judge such a God? … Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
- Design — The close detail is not decoration. It was suited to overwhelm Job with a God who can do everything, and to shame his self-sufficiency.
- Armour — The flanks are the soft spot on most animals. On leviathan they are compact and impossible to pierce, and inside is a heart like stone.
- Evil — Read as a picture, that unbroken armour shows a coming champion of unbelief whom no attack can touch. Commentators differ on how far to press it.
- Pride — Leviathan is king over the sons of pride. Job must draw the conclusion himself: if he is proud, this is his king.
- Heart — The point lands inside. The same self-will hides under a fair exterior, even in a believer. The cure is not to study the creature but to turn from ourselves to God.
His heart is firm as a stone, yea, firm as the nether [millstone].
God's last speech to Job describes leviathan piece by piece — teeth, scales, neck, folds of flesh. It ends inside the beast, at a heart harder than all that armour — and leaves Job to ask what he is meant to see there.
One writer walks through the armour piece by piece. The last piece is the heart.
The scales on his head and body are, like pride, an armour nothing can get through. Each scale is linked to the next, and there is no "joint of the harness" where an arrow could pierce... In most animals the flanks are a weak point, since the ribs do not cover them. His flanks are compact and impenetrable. Within is a heart like stone, indifferent to all fear.
Commentators differ on how far the picture reaches. Some read it as a real animal Job could have seen.
Now in Job 41 comes a still longer description of "leviathan," and I understand that to be the crocodile. The crocodile is a very formidable beast. It is not so shy of humans; on the contrary, it preys on men, women and children, if it can get hold of them.
Others read the same details as a picture of a coming world ruler.
"The folds of his flesh" are so joined as to make him invulnerable to attack (v.23), and underneath his heart is as hard as a stone. What a picture of the great champion of unbelief! He will arise because the world has rejected the faithful, gracious Lord of glory — and this beast will think of himself as the saviour of the world!
A heart of stone feels no fear. It also feels nothing for anyone else.
"The Beast" will have no weak "flanks" to be turned, as an army's flanks are turned. He will not know pity. From his stone-hard heart come hatred, scorn, death. Some have refused the tender pleading of the Heart of Love — of Him who said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." They will be crushed by the hard heart of the world-conqueror, who knows neither love nor pity.
The lower millstone is the fixed, unmoving stone at the base of a mill. One writer uses it for the conscience of Cain, who brought God his crops as an offering.
What would you think of a man hoping to get into heaven by offering his corn and his wine to God? He supposes, like Simon Magus in Acts 8, that the gift of God can be bought. It would show that his conscience was as hard as the lower millstone. He would be completely insensible to the condition he was in, and to the character of God. The very worship of Cain proved the desperate, utter insensibility of his heart to the judgment of God against sin...
Job is not just a spectator here. The writer turns the picture on him.
And will Job keep in his own heart even the seed of all this horror? Shall independence, self-will and pride find a resting place in him, to hatch out such offspring of hell?... Beneath the fair exterior of man such possibilities lie hidden. Even in the child of God a nature lurks which has these features.
God has a purpose in showing him this. Job's own answer shows what it was.
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him... But what could be God's purpose in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that you can do all things."
No argument can soften a heart of stone. It has to be replaced, and God does the replacing.
For this, the heart of stone must be taken out of the flesh, so that they may have a heart of flesh — a truly feeling and tender heart. To this is added the blessed assurance: "I will put my Spirit within you."
- Stone outside. Every part of leviathan resists attack; the scales are an armour with no gap where a weapon could enter.
- Stone inside. The heart is the last place searched and the hardest of all — a heart indifferent to fear.
- Stone enthroned. Some read the beast as a picture of the coming world ruler. From his stone heart come hatred, scorn and death.
- Stone in you. The seeds of the same self-will and pride lie hidden under a respectable exterior, even in a believer.
- Stone removed. Job's lesson is complete dependence on God. Only God takes out the heart of stone and gives a tender heart in its place.
When he raiseth himself up, the mighty are afraid they are beside themselves with consternation.
God's answer to Job out of the whirlwind ends with one creature: leviathan, described piece by piece until no one could picture facing it. The point is personal: if Job cannot stand before a thing God made, why was he arguing with God?
The line sits inside a run of verses about weapons that fail. One writer renders it literally and shows how the fear works. It does not just frighten men; it spoils their aim:
Going back in part to the style of the first section, Jehovah dwells on how this beast cannot be wounded. Strong men are afraid of him. Terror and wounds make their hand tremble, so it misses its aim (verse 25, literally). Even if a sword should touch him, it fails to wound. No weapon can reach a vital spot, thrown from a distance or used close at hand. Iron is trampled down as straw, brass as rotten wood.
The ESV puts the second half of the verse differently: at the crashing they are beside themselves. Either way, the bravest men lose control.
The size of the creature is only a measuring stick:
Like the behemoth, the leviathan is a strong and untamable beast... Then He declares that he is fierce, and even at the sight of him one is cast down. And if a creature is so mighty and strong, what must the One be who called this creature into existence? Verses 10 and 11 should be read: "Who then is he who can stand before Me (the Creator)? Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine."
It would be easy to read these chapters as a celebration of nature. One writer says that misses the point. The works are a doorway, not a destination:
Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that did the work? And what is man, if he dares to judge such a God?... Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
Commentators differ on what leviathan pictures. Some read him as a picture of Satan, and find there the reason for the whole speech:
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. What a terrible one this king over all the sons of pride is... But what could be God's object in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
Others see a human ruler still to come. They read this verse as the moment he asserts himself:
The mighty men of earth will be afraid when this man asserts himself (v.25). Neither the sword, spear, dart nor javelin can penetrate Leviathan's armour (v.26), and all men's efforts to defeat the Beast will be to no avail.
Yet the same writer adds that this apparent invincibility has a limit: "While no man can stand before them, however, the Lord will bring them down to a defeat of abject humiliation."
The chapter ends by calling leviathan king over the sons of pride. That title is the hook — the creature was never the real subject:
Now for the conclusion Job could easily draw: if he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out the depths of it. He had cherished pride, the Devil's crime.
Ridout presses the same question at the reader: "Beneath the fair exterior of man such possibilities lie hidden. Even in the child of God a nature lurks which has these features."
- Terror — When leviathan rears up, the bravest men shake and their aim fails. No sword, spear or arrow finds a vital spot.
- Creator — The terror is an argument, not a nature study: if the creature is this great, what must the One who made him be?
- Purpose — God is not calling Job to admire an animal. He is calling him to stop judging God and start depending on Him.
- Enemy — Commentators differ. Some see Satan's power, too great for Job. Others see a coming world ruler whom no weapon can defeat — until God brings him down.
- Pride — The last title, king over all the sons of pride, turns the light inward. The same self-will lies in every heart, including Job's.
If any reach him with a sword, it cannot hold; neither spear, nor dart, nor harpoon.
God's final speech to Job ends with a long portrait of leviathan. Here He names the weapons a man would bring against it, and dismisses them all at once. Two questions follow. Why does God spend so long on a creature's armour, and what should Job do with the answer?
The temptation is to read these chapters as a study in wildlife. Commentators warn that this misses what God is doing:
Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our thoughts and bow us to Himself; for if the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made the work, and what is man if he dares to judge such a God? ... Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
The list is not vague. Each term is a real piece of ancient equipment. One word used here is close to the word for a coat of mail:
Saul put a coat of mail, shiryon, on David (1 Samuel 17:5, 38). This word is translated "habergeon" in 2 Chronicles 26:14 and Nehemiah 4:16, which also means "coat of mail," and there is a similar word in Job 41:26. It was made of brass scales fastened together.
The point of the verse is not that the weapons miss, but that they land and still achieve nothing. One writer works through the lines around it:
Strong men are afraid of him; through terror and wounds their trembling hand misses its aim. Even if a sword should touch him, it fails to wound. No weapon, from far off or close at hand, can reach a vital spot. Iron is trampled down like straw, brass like rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee. The flying sling-stone is like harmless chaff, and he mocks darts and spears.
The harder question is not about leviathan but about the One who made him:
If this is so with a mere creature, who can stand before the Creator? (Verse 10 should be rendered that way, leading up to verse 11: "Who will stand before Me?") Who has first given to Jehovah, that he can demand it back again?
Many writers find more here than an animal. Some read leviathan as a figure of the coming Gentile world power of Revelation:
...this reminds us of the first beast of Revelation 13, the beast who rises out of the sea. Leviathan lives in water, so he clearly stands for the Gentile power that will rise during the Tribulation... Of him people will say, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" ... While no man can stand before them, however, the Lord will bring them down to a defeat of abject humiliation.
Commentators differ on the exact figure. Others read the two beasts of chapters 40 and 41 as two forms of one enemy:
So we have to admit that it does not seem far-fetched to agree with Wordsworth: "It seems likely that behemoth stands for the Evil One at work in the animal and fleshly side of man's own make-up. Leviathan stands for the Evil One working as his enemy from outside. Behemoth is the enemy within us; leviathan is the enemy without us."
No human blade can hold. But one sword does reach him, and the point comes home to Job:
The final statement about leviathan is "he is king over all the sons of pride." That last word is significant, and it has a deeper meaning. In Isaiah 27:1 we read: "In that day the LORD with His hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea." Here leviathan represents the power of darkness... And now the conclusion Job could easily draw. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart.
Job has seen a power he cannot touch. The result is not despair but reliance:
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him... But what could be God's object in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
- Sword named — The verse lists real weapons: sword, spear, dart and javelin. One of its words is close to the term for a coat of brass scales.
- Sword fails — The blade touches him and still cannot wound. Iron is straw, brass is rotten wood, arrows and sling-stones are mocked.
- Sword outmatched — No man can stand before this creature. So the real question behind the speech is God's own: "Who will stand before Me?"
- Sword mirrored — Writers see in leviathan the power of darkness and the beast of Revelation. The "king over all the sons of pride" exposes the pride hidden in Job himself.
- Sword surrendered — God's aim is not to make Job study the monster. It is to turn him from himself to complete dependence on the One who made it.
He esteemeth iron as straw, bronze as rotten wood.
God's answer from the whirlwind ends with a long portrait of leviathan, weighed here against the best weapons a man can forge. Why does God spend so many verses on one animal, and what is Job meant to conclude?
The verse belongs to a run of lines that dismisses, one by one, every tool an attacker might bring. One commentator gathers the whole sweep of failed weapons. He calls the second metal copper:
No wonder the mightiest tremble when he rises up, and miss their mark through fear. If one does overtake him, the sword does not hold, and neither does spear, mace, or lance. He counts iron as straw and copper as rotten wood, and he pays no heed to arrows, sling-stones, clubs, or javelins.
Another writer explains why. There is no soft place on him to aim at:
Even if a sword should touch him, it fails to wound — no weapon, whether from a distance or close at hand, can reach a vital spot. Iron is trampled down as straw, brass as rotten wood.
One writer takes leviathan to be the crocodile. His skin turns away far more than ancient weapons, and he knows it:
Spears or arrows are nothing to him, and even a musket ball has no power to pierce the skin of a crocodile. "His scales are his pride" — not only because of his enormous strength, and because no ordinary weapon can wound him, but because he is so confident in it himself.
The writer is quoting an older translation of verse 15 there.
It would be easy to read these chapters as a call to admire nature. One writer says that misses God's purpose in both leviathan and behemoth, the other great creature God describes here:
God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our thoughts and bow us before Himself. If God's works are so wonderful, who is He who made them? And what is man, if he dares to judge such a God? … Do you think that after this Job's mind was on behemoth or leviathan? Not at all — it was on God. This was the design of it all.
Beyond the natural picture, several writers find a further meaning. One of them points to where else the Bible uses this name:
This describes not only a mighty power, but a power for evil. So Scripture speaks of Satan as the dragon (Revelation 20:2). As ruler of the earth, working through his instrument the ruler of Egypt, Isaiah says of him, "In that day the Lord with His hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isaiah 27:1).
That same reading turns the closing title of the chapter into a question aimed straight at Job's heart:
And now comes the conclusion Job could easily draw. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's bosom. He has searched out the depths of his heart. He has cherished pride, the Devil's crime.
The same writer carries the picture forward to the world ruler of Revelation: "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" (Samuel Ridout).
If iron is straw to this creature, then a man attacking him with his own resources has already lost. One writer draws out why God would tell us so:
The believer looked at in himself has no power to overcome Satan. Man failed before him even when he was innocent. Now that man is fallen, he is even less able to stand. Independence from God opened the door to Satan at first. Only simple dependence on God can shut it. … It is very gracious of God to tell us how strong the enemy is. Then we know that our only resource is a firm trust in Himself.
- Iron — the verse rates the hardest metal men can forge as straw. Sword, spear, arrow, sling-stone and club are all dismissed. No weapon reaches a vital spot.
- Armour — one writer reads the crocodile's scales as his pride. Nothing can wound him, so he fears nothing.
- Aim — God is not inviting Job to study wildlife. He holds up a creature so that Job stops weighing God and starts bowing to Him.
- Mirror — writers differ on how far to press this. Several see the "king over all the sons of pride" as a picture of the enemy, and as a probe into Job's own pride.
- Answer — if the enemy laughs at iron, self-confidence is useless. God tells us the strength of the foe so that our one resource becomes trust in Him.
The arrow will not make him flee; slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
God ends His answer to Job with a long picture of leviathan, a creature no man can catch, tame, or wound. Verse 28 is where human weapons give up: if Job cannot reach this animal with an arrow, how can he argue his case with the God who made it?
The verse sits in a run of lines where one weapon after another fails.
Here Jehovah dwells on how impossible this beast is to wound. Strong men are afraid of him; through terror and wounds their trembling hand misses its aim. Even if a sword should touch him, it fails to wound. No weapon can reach a vital spot, whether thrown from a distance or used close at hand. He tramples iron down like straw, bronze like rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee. The hurtling sling-stone is like harmless chaff. He mocks darts and spears.
The sling-stone is worth pausing on. A stone from a sling once brought down a giant; here it lands like chaff. Another writer lists the same failed arsenal and adds that the creature does not even bother to react.
No wonder the mightiest tremble when he rises up — that they miss their mark through fear — that, if one does reach him, the sword does not hold, nor spear, mace, nor lance; for he counts iron as straw, copper as rotten wood, and pays no attention to arrows, sling-stones, clubs, or javelins.
It would be easy to read these chapters as a nature documentary. That misses God's purpose.
Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. For if the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made them? And what is man if he dares to judge such a God? ... Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
The argument runs from the smaller thing to the greater. Job had been pressing his case against God's dealings with him; God asks him to handle one animal first.
Job, however, could not tackle leviathan or behemoth, nor could he subdue proud man. How then could he contend with God? This was powerfully driven home into his heart.
Commentators differ over what leviathan stands for beyond the animal itself. One writer sees in leviathan an enemy Job could never have fought on his own.
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. What a terrible one he is — this king over all the sons of pride. This world has rejected the King of righteousness and preferred the horrible slavery of Satan. But what could be God's object in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Him. "I know," says Job, "that you can do all things." ... It was independence of God that opened the door for Satan at first, and it is simple dependence on God alone that can shut it.
Others see the same armour on a coming world ruler.
This is God's own picture of the creature. Can we doubt that He would also draw from it the more dreadful description of "the Beast," and of the self-will that makes him what he is? "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" (Rev. 13:4). The deadly wound that has been healed is only a fresh declaration that he cannot be harmed. ... As the crocodile is king over all proud beasts, so this beast is king over all the sons of pride.
An unwoundable enemy is only unwoundable by human weapons. The arrows and stones of verse 28 fail; something else does not.
When the Beast arises, the Antichrist will join him and set up an image to be worshipped in the temple area in Jerusalem, in honour of the Beast (Rev. 13:14-15). This will be the ultimate peak of man's pride, an arrogant challenge against God. Then the Lord Jesus will meet this challenge in awesome power. Both of these enemies of God will be "thrown alive into the lake of fire" (Rev. 19:19-20). Such will be the fearful end of him who "is king over all the sons of pride." What a lesson for us — to learn now to judge our own pride!
The same writer who sees a monster in the water also finds its seed in man.
And will Job keep in his heart even the seed of all this horror? Will independence, self-will and pride find a resting place in him, to hatch out such offspring of hell? ... Beneath the fine outward look of man such possibilities lie hidden. Even in the child of God a nature lurks that has these features.
- Arrows — no weapon reaches a vital spot. The sling-stone lands on him like harmless chaff.
- Aim — God is not teaching natural history. He brings His works forward to turn us from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself.
- Argument — if Job cannot tackle one creature, he cannot contend with the God who made it.
- Adversary — writers differ on what leviathan pictures. Some see the power of Satan, too great for Job. Others see the coming Beast, whose deadly wound heals.
- Answer — human weapons fail, but the Lord Jesus meets this pride in power. So judge that pride in yourself now.
Clubs are counted as stubble; he laugheth at the shaking of a javelin.
God's questioning of Job ends with a long portrait of leviathan. Every human weapon bounces off this creature. Verse 29 is where the mockery peaks: clubs and javelins become a joke. Why does God describe a monster at such length to a man who is suffering?
One writer walks through the list, naming one weapon after another and dismissing each.
Strong men are afraid of him; through terror and wounds their trembling hand misses its aim. Even if a sword touches him, it fails to wound. No weapon can reach a vital spot, whether thrown from far off or used close at hand. He tramples iron down like straw, and brass like rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee. The flying sling-stone is like harmless chaff, and he mocks darts and spears.
Another writer adds that the creature knows what it is wearing.
Spears or arrows are nothing to him, and even a musket ball has no power to pierce the skin of a crocodile. "His scales are his pride." That is not only because of his enormous strength, and because no ordinary weapon can really hurt him. He is also so confident in it himself.
A Bible dictionary lists this verse under one weapon word, and gives the three things that word can mean.
Arrow, short spear, javelin. 2 Samuel 18:14; 2 Chronicles 32:5; Job 41:26, 29; Proverbs 7:23.
These chapters are often read as nature poetry. One commentator argues that this misses what God is doing with them.
Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. For if the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that made them, and what is man if he dares to judge such a God? … He would turn us away from ourselves to trust in Himself. … Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
Commentators read leviathan as more than an animal, and they differ over what he stands for. One writer sees Satan's power here, and asks why God would describe it to a suffering man at all.
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. What a terrible one this king over all the children of pride is. … But what could be God's object in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into entire dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
Others link the same armour to the beast of Revelation.
This is the divine picture of the creature. Can we doubt that He would also draw from it the more dreadful description of "the beast," and of the self-will that makes him what he is? "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" (Revelation 13:4). The healed "deadly wound" is just one more announcement that nothing can wound him.
The creature's laughter leads to the closing title of the chapter: king over the sons of pride. One writer shows how that title reached Job's own heart.
He is king over all the sons of pride. … And now comes the conclusion Job could easily draw. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out its depths. He has cherished pride, the devil's crime.
No club or javelin can touch this creature. One writer points to the one sword that can.
Is such a sword not alone in its glory? Could Joshua's or David's have won conquests like these? Would the principalities of darkness have yielded to them? Would death and hell have submitted themselves? "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?" But He who made him can bring His sword near to him.
(That last line follows an older rendering of Job 40:19; the ESV reads, "let him who made him bring near his sword!")
- Pride armoured. Clubs and javelins are a joke to this creature. Its scales are its pride: strength and self-confidence in one.
- Pride personified. Commentators differ on the figure. Some read leviathan as Satan's power. Others read it as the coming beast, whose healed wound shows that nothing can touch him.
- Pride exposed. The title "king over the sons of pride" pointed at Job himself. If he is proud, he belongs to that king.
- Pride redirected. God does not display His works to make us students of nature. He displays them to turn us from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself.
- Pride broken. No human weapon reaches leviathan. Only the One who made him can bring His sword near. So the picture ends in dependence, not despair.
His under parts are sharp potsherds he spreadeth a threshing-sledge upon the mire.
In His final answer to Job, God describes one creature Job cannot touch. Verse 30 turns to the animal's belly — the place a hunter would look for a weak spot — and finds another layer of armour.
What kind of creature is leviathan? One writer names the crocodile, but leaves room for an animal we no longer see:
Leviathan was a water creature. He appears to be the crocodile, the most fearsome of all water animals — unless it was another similar animal, now extinct.
Verse 30 sets two pictures side by side: broken pottery, and a sledge dragged over soft ground. One writer notes how few words the description needs:
No account could be shorter or more expressive than the one of his lower parts. The underside is like the sharpest broken pottery, as he rolls it like a sledge over the rivers.
The verses just before name one weapon after another and dismiss each one. Verse 30 finishes the list: there is nowhere left to strike.
Even if a sword should touch him, it fails to wound. No weapon, from a distance or close at hand, can reach a vital spot. He tramples iron down like straw, brass like rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee, and the flying sling-stone is like harmless chaff. He mocks darts and spears. His under parts, lying flat on the earth, are not weak, but like strong pieces of broken pottery.
One writer sees behind the crocodile a ruler with a kingdom of his own. On that reading the mud is not a weakness either:
This is God's picture of the creature. Can we doubt that He would also draw from it the more dreadful description of "the Beast," and of the self-will that makes him what he is? "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" (Revelation 13:4)... The very "mire" of the people, for the time at least, protects him. The turmoil he creates in the earth, marking it with ruin, shows his pathway. He has no equal upon earth. As the crocodile is king over all proud beasts, so this beast is king over all the children of pride. Shall Job, shall we, do him reverence and help on his kingdom?
Another writer applies the same section of the chapter to human resistance against that power, and reads verse 30 as the last door closed:
Iron and bronze weapons, arrows, darts, slingstones and javelins are useless against him (vv.27-29). Underneath too he is equipped to resist attack (v.30).
Commentators differ on how far the picture reaches. Some stay with the animal. Others see Satan behind it, and read the description as a mirror held up to Job:
Here leviathan typifies the power of darkness. Both the behemoth and the leviathan typify Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride... And here is the conclusion Job could easily draw. If he is proud then he belongs to leviathan the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out its depths. Job has cherished pride, the Devil's crime.
The same writer turns the picture inward:
Coming to the individual application, we see in this "crooked serpent" a figure of the perverted will of man. All sin has its roots in disobedience... What good is the effort to reform the world, to tame the crocodile? Men may dream and plan, and try to drive misery off the earth. But creation, groaning as it is, mocks human efforts to subdue its own perverted will.
Why give Job a whole chapter on an animal? One writer answers:
People talk as if God's aim was only to occupy us with His works. God does the opposite. He brings forward His works to turn us away from our own thoughts and bow us to Himself. If the works of God are so wonderful, who is the One who made them? And what is man, if he dares to judge such a God?... Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
- Armoured. The belly, where you would expect a soft spot, is like the sharpest broken pottery. The creature has no weak side.
- Unarmed. Sword, arrow, sling-stone and spear have already failed. Verse 30 shuts the last door on human attack.
- Protected. Even the mud he lies in works for him. One writer sees here the Beast, whom no one can fight against.
- Proud. Behind the animal stands pride — the Devil's crime, and the secret God uncovered in Job's own heart.
- Bowed. The point is not the creature but the Creator. Job ends up occupied with God, not with leviathan.
He maketh the deep to boil like a pot; he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment;
Job 41 closes God's long answer out of the storm, and the last picture He paints is a creature no man can handle. Why does God end His case against Job's complaints with a boiling sea?
Commentators read the description as that of a real animal. God pairs it with another beast, and sets both against man.
From verse 15 to the end of Job 41, the Lord makes further reference to the wonders of His creation. He called Job's attention to behemoth and to leviathan — probably the hippopotamus and the crocodile. They had brute strength but no human intelligence. It would be easier to subdue them than to bring down proud man.
The words themselves are vivid. One rendering has him spreading a threshing-roller on the mire, making the deep boil as a pot, and leaving a shining path behind him.
His under parts are the sharpest of shards; He spreads a threshing-roller on the mire, He makes the deep boil as a pot, He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
Several writers take the churned water as a picture of nations thrown into confusion by a coming world ruler.
As Leviathan stirs up the water, so the Roman Beast will stir up the nations (the sea) in tumultuous trouble. The "shining wake" he leaves behind him tells us that there will be marked results from the Beast's activity.
Commentators differ here. Another writer holds that God is displaying His own greatness through the created world, and that this alone answers Job:
I have already said that nothing the Lord says there lies outside the life of men and animals and the creation as we know it. Some see a hidden picture in these creatures, but I do not believe there is the slightest justification for this... He was displaying the immense greatness of God. If one of God's creatures terrifies the man who looks at him, how wrong it was of Job to keep on questioning God.
Writers who read the chapter as a picture point to Isaiah, where the same name belongs to a power God Himself will judge.
Isaiah 27:1 says that in that day the LORD will punish leviathan the piercing serpent with His fierce and strong sword. He will punish leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the dragon in the sea. Here leviathan is a picture of the power of darkness. Both behemoth and leviathan picture Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride. And now the conclusion Job could easily draw: if he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride.
The boiling deep, on this reading, is destruction left in a wake. One writer describes the effect on the earth: "The turmoil he creates in the earth, marking it with ruin, shows his pathway."
God had an aim in showing Job all this.
God now shows to Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him... But why would God describe the enemy's power like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do everything."
The picture also comes close to home. No one can tame the crocodile, and no one can reform the will it pictures.
Applied to each person, we see in this "crooked serpent" a picture of the perverted will of man. All sin has its roots in disobedience... What use is the effort to reform the world, to tame the crocodile? Men may dream and plan, and try to drive misery off the earth. But even while it groans, creation mocks human efforts to subdue its own perverted will.
There is relief hidden in all this. God tells us how strong the enemy is so that we stop trying to fight him alone.
The believer looked at in himself has no power to overcome Satan... It was independence of God that opened the door to Satan at the start, and simple dependence on God alone can shut it. It is very gracious of God to tell us how strong the enemy is, so that we may know that our only resource is a firm trust in Himself.
- Creature — Leviathan is most likely a real animal, probably the crocodile: brute strength with no human intelligence. Proud man is harder to bring down than either.
- Churning — The boiling sea pictures a force that leaves everything behind it in turmoil. Several writers apply this to nations stirred up by a coming world ruler. Others read the chapter as plain nature, not a picture.
- Character — Read as a picture, leviathan stands for the power of darkness. Isaiah says the Lord will punish that serpent with His own sword.
- Confrontation — The point lands on Job. If one creature of God's terrifies a man, how could Job keep questioning God?
- Consequence — God shows us the enemy's strength so we stop trusting ourselves. The picture ends in complete dependence on Him.
He maketh the path to shine after him one would think the deep to be hoary.
God is still describing Leviathan, the creature no man can capture, and verse 32 watches him swim off through churning water. The chapter's question is not what the animal is, but what a man should think of himself after watching it.
Leviathan is even more at ease in water than on land. The foam he leaves is so thick that the deep looks white-haired. One commentator measures that trail against the plainest example anyone could name:
He is still more at ease in the water, making the deep boil like a pot, and the sea like a mixture of ointment. A ship does not more clearly make its path shine after it with its white, foaming wake.
God did not pile up this detail so that Job could admire nature. He gave it to move Job off his own ground:
Men talk as if God's object was merely to occupy us with His works. God, on the contrary, brings forward His works to turn us away from our thoughts and bow us to Himself. For if the works of God are so wonderful, who is He that did the work, and what is man if he dares to judge such a God? … Do you think that after this Job was occupied with behemoth or with leviathan? Not at all, but with God; and this was the design of it all.
No one would dare provoke this beast. The same writer calls that the smaller danger:
He is no commodity for traders, no game for the hunter, no safe opponent in battle. The very sight of him might knock a man flat. Only a reckless man would provoke him. Yet what is that compared with making a stand before God? And who ever gave to Him, that He should repay, since everything under heaven is His?
Commentators differ on how far the chapter reaches. Some take Leviathan as a crocodile and stop there. Others see a coming world ruler in him. For them the churned, shining water is the mark he leaves on history:
"He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment" (v. 31). As Leviathan stirs up the water, so the Roman Beast will stir up the nations (the sea) into violent turmoil. The "shining wake" he leaves behind him tells us that there will be clear results from the Beast's activity.
Another writer traces that same trail of ruin, then puts a question to Job and to us:
The turmoil he creates in the earth, marking it with ruin, shows his pathway. He has no equal upon earth. As the crocodile is king over all proud beasts, so this beast is king over all the children of pride. Shall Job, shall we, do him reverence and help on his kingdom?
If Leviathan stands for more than an animal, Job is looking at a power he could never match:
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. What a terrible king he is over all the children of pride! … But what could be God's object in describing the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
The chapter closes by calling Leviathan king over the sons of pride. That title is what catches Job:
Now comes the conclusion that Job could easily draw. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out its depths. Pride, the Devil's crime, has been cherished by him. And now, with the heart laid bare by Jehovah's dealing, we shall hear Job's voice once more.
- Follow the wake. Leviathan leaves the sea boiling and shining behind him. No ship marks its path more clearly.
- Follow it to the Creator. The description is not meant to make us study the beast. It is meant to bow us before the God who made it. A man who cannot face this creature cannot judge God's ways.
- Follow it through history. Some read the churned sea as the nations, stirred into turmoil by a coming world power. His work leaves clear marks behind it. Commentators differ on how far the symbolism goes.
- Follow it into your own heart. Leviathan is king over the sons of pride. So ask whether you cherish pride, and whether you will help on his kingdom.
- Follow it to dependence. This power is far greater than Job. That is why it drives him to lean wholly on God. His next words are a confession, not a defence.
Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
God's answer to Job ends with a long portrait of leviathan — an animal nothing on earth can match or frighten. Why does God close His case against a suffering, arguing man by describing a creature no one can catch?
Writers have argued over which creature is meant. One of them names it, then draws the lesson.
The leviathan described here seems beyond doubt to be the crocodile, not the dolphin or the whale, as some learned men have argued… Nothing could be more vivid than these accounts. Nothing could be more forceful than the lesson for Job or anyone else. If such is the might of mere brutes, the product of God's creative will, what folly to resist, criticise, or even judge His ways!
The verse calls him "a creature without fear," or as older translations put it, "made without fear." He has nothing to fear because nothing can reach him.
Strong men are afraid of him; through terror and wounds their trembling hand misses its aim. Even if a sword should touch him, it fails to wound. No weapon can reach a vital spot, whether from a distance or close at hand. Iron is trampled down like straw, brass like rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee. The hurtling sling-stone is like harmless chaff. He mocks darts and spears… "Upon the earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholds all high things; he is a king over all the children of pride."
One writer sets the beast beside a proud human being, and finds the beast the easier of the two to handle.
He called Job's attention to behemoth and to leviathan — probably the hippopotamus and the crocodile. They had brute strength but no human intelligence. It would be easier to subdue them than to bring down proud man. In Job's day human inventions had hardly begun. So this was probably not as obvious then as it is now, when people subdue these mighty creatures with ease — but not so, proud man!
The picture is also a mirror. The man listening belongs somewhere in the scene.
Here the lesson is His control of creatures whose strength defies man. In that way they picture pride and unstoppable strength. They stand at the highest point of creature power. Can Job subdue or control these? No — does he not find himself morally in their company, since he has lifted himself up against God?
Commentators differ on what the creature stands for. Some keep it as an animal that shames human pride. One writer sees in it a picture of Satan, and turns the title "king over all the sons of pride" back on Job himself.
Both the behemoth and the leviathan picture Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride… And now the conclusion which Job could easily draw. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out its depths. He had cherished pride, the Devil's crime.
Another writer follows the same title forward to where that pride ends.
Man's pride will reach its ultimate peak in an arrogant challenge against God. Then the Lord Jesus will meet this challenge in awesome power… This will be the fearful end of the one who "is king over all the children of pride." What a lesson for us to learn now to judge our own pride!
Why paint an enemy's power so large? One writer answers from God's purpose in it.
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him… But why would God describe the power of the adversary like this? Surely it was to lead Job into entire dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
- Unmatched. The creature is most likely the crocodile, and no weapon touches him. Iron is straw to him, and he mocks spears.
- Unafraid. He is "a creature without fear" because no weapon on earth can wound him. His calm is not bravery; nothing can reach him.
- Unsubdued. If a beast cannot be tamed, proud man is harder still to bring down.
- Unmasked. Held up beside this creature, Job finds himself in its company; the picture searches out the pride he had cherished.
- Undone. God's aim was never to crush Job. It was to move him off his own strength into entire dependence on God — and to teach us to judge our pride now.
He beholdeth all high things; he is king over all the proud beasts.
God's long answer to Job ends with a title, not a nature lesson. Leviathan is called king over all the sons of pride. This is the last picture God gives him: a creature no one can tame. It leaves Job with one question. Whose kingdom has he been serving?
Commentators first name the animal in the picture. Then they draw the lesson it forces on Job.
The leviathan described here seems beyond doubt to be the crocodile, not the dolphin or the whale that some learned men have argued for... Nothing could be more vivid than the accounts of each. Nothing could be more forceful than the conclusion for Job or anyone else. If such is the might of mere animals, the result of God's creative will, what folly it is to resist, criticise, or even judge His ways!
The picture reaches past the animal. One writer sets behemoth beside leviathan and follows the pride behind them through history and into the individual heart.
If in behemoth we see the spirit of falling away from revealed truth in religion, in leviathan we see it in civil government... But this is looking ahead to how it comes to a head in the last days. The principle is independence of God, trying to make a name for itself. It has been visible since the days of Cain, who built a city, and of Nimrod, who founded the first great world-empire. This is not limited to whole nations. The same spirit of strong self-will shows itself in the individual too. It tolerates no contradiction. It refuses to be under authority, and nothing can tame it. Who has ever bound and held the proud will of man?
Commentators differ on whom the title finally points to. Some read leviathan as a portrait of Satan himself.
God now shows Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. What a terrible one this king over all the sons of pride is. This world has rejected the King of Righteousness and chosen the horrible slavery of Satan instead. But what could God's purpose be in describing the power of the adversary this way? Surely it was to lead Job into complete dependence on Himself.
Others trace the same title forward to a coming world ruler, and follow the line all the way to his end.
When this Roman Beast arises, he will be in league with the Antichrist. The Antichrist will set up an idolatrous image in the temple area of Jerusalem in honour of the Beast (Rev. 13:14-15). This will be the ultimate peak of man's pride, an arrogant challenge against God. Then the Lord Jesus will meet this challenge in awesome power. Both of these enemies of God will be "thrown alive into the lake of fire" (Rev. 19:19-20). Such will be the fearful end of him who "is king over all the sons of pride." What a lesson for us! We should learn to judge our own pride now.
The verse is not a zoology footnote. It names a class of people — the sons of pride — and it leaves Job to work out whether he belongs to it.
Both the behemoth and the leviathan represent Satan, his character and his rule. He is king over all the sons of pride... And now comes the conclusion Job could easily draw. If he is proud, then he belongs to leviathan, the king who rules over the sons of pride. Jehovah has touched the secret in Job's heart. He has searched out its depths. He had cherished pride, the Devil's crime. And now, with his heart laid bare by Jehovah's dealing, we shall hear Job's voice once more.
The picture ends with a question of loyalty. It falls to the reader as much as to Job.
As the crocodile is king over all proud beasts, so this beast is king over all the sons of pride. Shall Job — shall we — bow to him and help his kingdom along? If not, only one path was open for him, and for us.
That one path was the collapse of the next chapter, and it came from meeting God, not from studying animals.
"Now my eye sees You." It was nothing external now, no distant rumour... Do you think that investigating the structure or habits of behemoth and leviathan would have led to anything like this? Certainly not. He had to do with God Himself, who used them for that very purpose, and had by them turned Job away from everything to Himself.
- The king — The closing title turns pride into a kingdom, with a ruler over it.
- The subjects — Its people are the sons of pride. Their mark is independence of God. The line runs from Cain and Nimrod down to the self-will that refuses correction today.
- The identity — Commentators differ on the figure. Some see Satan behind it. Others see a coming world ruler. Both read the creature as a picture, not just an animal.
- The verdict — No one has ever bound the proud will of man. God's point was not that Job should fight leviathan. It was that Job should stop resisting God.
- The exit — The way out is to judge your own pride now. God laid Job's heart bare so that Job would depend on Him alone.