Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls?
God has been questioning Job about a creature no man can catch or tame. Now He asks something stranger still: could Job keep this monster on a string, a pet for the girls?
The plain sense of the question
The picture behind the verse is a household pet — a small bird tied by a thread, handled by girls. Commentators place the crocodile beside that picture.
Leslie M. GrantThe very appearance of the crocodile is hostile and intimidating. He would certainly never be tamed to engage in play like some birds or animals, and certainly not as a pet for girls!
The verse sits inside a chain of refusals. God names every use a man might have for a creature, then rules each one out.
William KellyBut if he is caught, is he soft and yielding, ready to give lifelong service? Or can you play with him like a bird or a deer, as a plaything for girls? No — he is no commodity for traders, no game for the hunter, no safe opponent in battle. The very sight of him could knock a man flat, and anyone who would provoke him is a fool.
The edge of God's questioning
God is speaking to a man who had been ready to judge His ways. The questions carry a sting.
William Kelly"Can you draw out leviathan with a hook?" You who can do such wonders! You can talk about God. You can judge on God's behalf, and you can find fault with God! Well, can you catch leviathan with a hook? You ought to be able to do that. "Or press down his tongue with a cord?" Off with you! Don't you fight him.
From the creature to the Creator
If a man cannot leash an animal, what is he doing squaring up to the One who made it?
Samuel RidoutIf this is true of a mere creature, who can stand before the Creator? (That is how verse 10 should be translated. It leads into verse 11: "Who will stand before Me?") Who has first given to the Lord, so that he can demand it back again?
Kelly draws the same conclusion from both creatures — behemoth, the great beast of the chapter before, and leviathan here.
William KellyNothing could be more vivid than these two accounts, or more forceful than the conclusion for Job and anyone else. These are mere animals, made by God's creative will. If their might is so great, how foolish it is to resist, criticise, or even judge His ways!
The untamable will
The untamable creature has a human parallel. What no one can tame in the water, no one has tamed in the human heart.
Samuel RidoutThis spirit is not only national. The same strong self-will, which puts up with no contradiction, shows itself in individuals too — an untamable refusal to submit to authority. Who has ever bound and held the proud will of man?
Grant turns the creature into a question Job must answer about himself.
Leslie M. GrantSo he is untamable and uncontrollable. Man could do nothing with him as he does with an ox or a horse. He was also completely selfish: he was of no use to any man or animal. Would Job want to be like this — strong and self-confident, with no real aim of being a help to others?
What leviathan pictures
Commentators differ on what the creature stands for beyond itself. Some see the power of Satan behind it. Others see the same proud will at work in nations and in single people. Both readings land in the same place: Job needs to depend on God, not on himself.
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 God's aim 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 everything."
Summary
- Untamable. No hook, no rope, no leash — you can tie a bird for a child's amusement, but never leviathan.
- Unusable. The chapter dismisses every human use in turn: no servant, no trade goods, no game, no safe opponent.
- Unanswerable. If a made thing defeats you, the Maker is beyond argument — "who can stand before the Creator?"
- Unbridled. The same wild self-will lives in a man's heart; no one has ever leashed human pride.
- Undone. Job's only way out is not mastery but dependence: "I know that You can do everything."