Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle?
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.
The creature in view
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:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinA 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.
Nothing hidden from God
Just before this verse, God says He will not hide the creature's limbs or strength. Holding nothing back is part of the argument:
Leslie M. GrantThe 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?
Armour with no seam
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:
Samuel RidoutThe 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.
The will that no one has ever bridled
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:
Samuel RidoutThe 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:
Charles StanleyGod 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 purpose behind the description
The danger is to stop at the animal and admire it. God's aim runs in the opposite direction:
William KellyPeople 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?
Kindness in the humbling
God's questions press hard on a broken man. One writer calls that pressure mercy:
Samuel RidoutIs 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.
Summary
- 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.