Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?
God's questions to Job about leviathan fill a whole chapter, and verse 6 uses market language: could traders bargain over him and sell him off in pieces? The question sounds almost comic, and that is the point — but commentators also ask what larger power the creature stands for.
The creature no market can handle
The verse sits in a chain of questions. Each one tests a different way to master an animal, and the market question is one more failed method:
Samuel RidoutCan you catch him with a net or a hook, or with a line pressing down on his tongue? Can you tie him up like an ordinary fish, with a rope of reeds through his gills? Is he timid and eager to please, or loyal and obedient? Can you make him a plaything, like a bird, to amuse the household? Is he a regular item in the markets, bought and sold? If he cannot be caught like a fish, can you attack him with darts and weapons?
The mockery is deliberate. Another writer runs through the same failures and ends with the man who tries anyway:
William KellyIf secured, is he soft and yielding, ready to do perpetual service? Or can you play with him as you would with a bird or a deer, a toy for girls? No — he is no commodity for traders, no game for the hunter, no safe opponent in a fight. The very sight of him might knock you flat, and the man who would provoke him is a fool.
Merchants and a meal
The word for "merchants" here is the same Hebrew word used in other trade verses:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe same Hebrew word is translated "merchant" in Job 41:6, Proverbs 31:24 and Isaiah 23:8. So Zechariah 14:21 may mean, "there shall no more be the merchant in the house of the LORD of hosts."
Traders buy meat in order to sell it. One writer asks the obvious follow-up question:
Leslie M. GrantWho would think of trying to get his flesh and make a dinner of him? Harpoons were useless against him, because they could not pierce his outer covering.
From the creature to the Creator
The chain of questions has an aim. It moves from the creature to its Maker, and then to what any man could claim from Him:
Samuel RidoutIf this is so with a mere creature, who can stand before the Creator? Who has first given to the LORD, that he can demand it back again? Or, as the apostle asks, "Who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?" (Romans 11:35).
Commentators differ on how far the picture reaches. Some stay at the level of nature and set the creature beside man himself:
F. B. HoleThey 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 clear then as it is now, when we subdue these mighty creatures with ease — but not proud man!
A power for evil, and God's aim in showing it
Others read a further layer, linking leviathan to the dragon and to the world-power:
Samuel RidoutThe description is not only of a mighty power, but of a power for evil. So Satan is called the dragon (Revelation 20:2). He rules the earth through his instrument, the ruler of Egypt, and of him it is said, "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).
If that reading is right, the chapter has a purpose beyond natural history. God shows Job a strength far greater than his own, and the effect on Job is the point:
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 entire dependence on Himself. "I know," says Job, "that You can do all things."
Summary
- Untamable. Hook, rope, pet, dinner, harpoon — the questions change, the answer never does. It is always no.
- Unsellable. No trader can price him, cut him into portions or carry him to market.
- Unassailable. The sight of him alone can knock a man flat, and only a fool provokes him.
- Unanswerable. The argument climbs from creature to Creator: if a made thing defeats you, who can stand before the One who made it?
- Undone. Some see Satan and the world-power in leviathan; others see only brute strength. The aim is the same — Job's pride gives way to dependence on God.