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.