On earth there is not his like, a creature 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?
The creature described
Writers have argued over which creature is meant. One of them names it, then draws the lesson.
William KellyThe 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!
Fearless because untouchable
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.
Samuel RidoutStrong 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."
Something harder to subdue than a crocodile
One writer sets the beast beside a proud human being, and finds the beast the easier of the two to handle.
F. B. HoleHe 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!
Job's own place in the picture
The picture is also a mirror. The man listening belongs somewhere in the scene.
Samuel RidoutHere 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?
Pride's king, pride's subjects
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.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinBoth 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.
Leslie M. GrantMan'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!
The purpose behind the terror
Why paint an enemy's power so large? One writer answers from God's purpose in it.
Charles StanleyGod 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."
Summary
- 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.