Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?
God ends His questioning of Job with Leviathan, the last and greatest creature He names. This verse is one of a string of mocking questions: if Job cannot rope and lead this one creature, why is he arguing with the God who made it?
Fishing tackle against a monster
One writer hears God turning Job's own confidence back on him.
William KellyYou who can do such wonders; you can talk about God, and judge for God, and find fault with God! Well, can you catch Leviathan with a hook? You ought to be able to do that. … Be off with you! Do not fight him.
What the rope and the hook mean
The questions of these verses run through the ordinary uses a man has for a fish or a pet.
Samuel RidoutCan he be captured with a net or hook, by a line pressing down on his tongue? Can he be tied up like an ordinary fish, with a rush rope passed through the gills? Is he timid and fawning, or loyal and obedient? Can he be made into a plaything, like a bird, to amuse the household?
One writer takes the creature to be a crocodile. The parts a fisherman grabs first are the parts no one can grab.
Leslie M. GrantJob could use a hook to catch fish, but how pointless the thought of a hook for a crocodile! No attack of any kind can get through his jaws or his nose.
From the creature to the Creator
The questions are not about wildlife. No man can answer one of them, and they all drive at a single conclusion.
Samuel RidoutIf this is true of a mere creature, who can stand before the Creator? Who has first given to the Lord, that he can demand it back again?
Not a nature lesson
These chapters can read like poetry about the wonders of the animal world. One writer says that misses the point.
William KellyMen 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 before 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.
Who Leviathan pictures
Writers agree the beast stands for something beyond itself, but they differ on what. Some read him as the adversary of God and man:
Charles StanleyGod 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 complete dependence on Himself.
Others read him as human power in revolt. This writer sets Leviathan beside behemoth, the great creature God described just before:
Samuel RidoutIf in behemoth we have the spirit of turning away from revealed truth in religion, in Leviathan we see that spirit in civil government. … This is not limited to nations. The same spirit of strong self-will, which will take no contradiction, shows itself in the individual too. It is an untamable refusal to submit to authority. Who has ever bound and held the proud will of man?
The hook God Himself puts in
Job cannot put a hook in this creature's nose. God says elsewhere what He will do to a proud king who raged against Him.
An Outline of Sound WordsGod's answer is, "Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came" (Isaiah 37:29). Compare these words with God's words to Gog in Ezekiel 38:4, "I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out."
Summary
- Ridicule. The question mocks Job: a rope and a hook are fishing gear, and no attack gets through this creature's jaws and nose.
- Creature. No man can rope, lead or tame this one creature. So no man can stand before the One who made it.
- Creator. God's object in the whole description was to lead Job into complete dependence on Him.
- Pride. Commentators differ on what Leviathan pictures: Satan, human government in revolt, or the proud will no one has ever bound. All read him as pride that will not submit.
- Reversal. What no man can do, God does: He puts His own hook in the nose of the proud and turns them back the way they came.