TEXT [Commentary]

  3.   Danger and beauty: Leviathan (41:1-34)

1 [*]“Can you catch Leviathan[*] with a hook

or put a noose around its jaw?

2 Can you tie it with a rope through the nose

or pierce its jaw with a spike?

3 Will it beg you for mercy

or implore you for pity?

4 Will it agree to work for you,

to be your slave for life?

5 Can you make it a pet like a bird,

or give it to your little girls to play with?

6 Will merchants try to buy it

to sell it in their shops?

7 Will its hide be hurt by spears

or its head by a harpoon?

8 If you lay a hand on it,

you will certainly remember the battle that follows.

You won’t try that again!

9 [*]No, it is useless to try to capture it.

The hunter who attempts it will be knocked down.

10 And since no one dares to disturb it,

who then can stand up to me?

11 Who has given me anything that I need to pay back?

Everything under heaven is mine.

12 “I want to emphasize Leviathan’s limbs

and its enormous strength and graceful form.

13 Who can strip off its hide,

and who can penetrate its double layer of armor?[*]

14 Who could pry open its jaws?

For its teeth are terrible!

15 The scales on its back are like[*] rows of shields

tightly sealed together.

16 They are so close together

that no air can get between them.

17 Each scale sticks tight to the next.

They interlock and cannot be penetrated.

18 “When it sneezes, it flashes light!

Its eyes are like the red of dawn.

19 Lightning leaps from its mouth;

flames of fire flash out.

20 Smoke streams from its nostrils

like steam from a pot heated over burning rushes.

21 Its breath would kindle coals,

for flames shoot from its mouth.

22 “The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck

strikes terror wherever it goes.

23 Its flesh is hard and firm

and cannot be penetrated.

24 Its heart is hard as rock,

hard as a millstone.

25 When it rises, the mighty are afraid,

gripped by terror.

26 No sword can stop it,

no spear, dart, or javelin.

27 Iron is nothing but straw to that creature,

and bronze is like rotten wood.

28 Arrows cannot make it flee.

Stones shot from a sling are like bits of grass.

29 Clubs are like a blade of grass,

and it laughs at the swish of javelins.

30 Its belly is covered with scales as sharp as glass.

It plows up the ground as it drags through the mud.

31 “Leviathan makes the water boil with its commotion.

It stirs the depths like a pot of ointment.

32 The water glistens in its wake,

making the sea look white.

33 Nothing on earth is its equal,

no other creature so fearless.

34 Of all the creatures, it is the proudest.

It is the king of beasts.”

NOTES

41:1 [40:25] Leviathan. Like the former creature, this one is also ambiguous, being given the name Leviathan, the mythical creature mentioned in the first lament of Job (3:8) and later under the name Rahab (9:13; 26:12-13). There is no doubt that the description is based on a crocodile, found in the same river as the hippopotamus. In Job, the name Leviathan immediately brings to mind the forces of chaos overcome by God at creation. The crocodile, dragon, or sea monster is the creature used to represent the forces of chaos that oppose the created order. The commentary below treats this animal as a crocodile.

41:5 [40:29] give it to your little girls. Lit., “bind him for your maidens.” The word na‘aroth [TH5291, ZH5855] would normally mean “servant girls” and not “children.” But it is unusual that Job should have a pet for his servants, and the poetic pattern in the verse would call for a reference to another bird here. The context suggests that, rather than “maidens,” a Semitic word for “sparrow” is found here (Thomas 1964:115-116) and that it should be translated as “can you confine it as one of your sparrows?” (Gordis 1964:492-494).

41:10 [2] who then can stand up to me? The first person reference to God is striking, and many translations choose to change it to a third person reference to Leviathan (NRSV, REB, NAB, NJB). The MT has a little sermon from God at this point (41:9-12), which interrupts the description of the animal. Though there are variations among the versions, none of them is consistent; and on the whole they support the MT, which should be left unchanged.

41:11 [3] Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? The Heb. says, “who will confront me and I must repay.” The apostle Paul quoted a form of this verse in his hymn of praise to the great wisdom of God in bringing salvation (Rom 11:34-35). There he joined it with a quote from Isa 40:13. It is notable that the Isaiah quotation is almost exactly as in the LXX, but the one from Job is not. It is almost certain that these verses were joined in a hymnic text before the time of the apostle Paul (Johnson 1989:166-168) in a traditional form of the text. The old Greek translation of Job should not be followed in changing the last phrase to “remain safe” (from Gr. hupomenō). The point of the verse is that none can stand before God and demand that he pay accordingly (KJV, NIV, RSV), though many translations follow the LXX (NRSV, REB, NAB, NJB).

41:12 [4] Leviathan’s limbs. The interpretation of the phrase “his limbs” is a crux in determining the role of this verse in relation to the preceding. The Heb. word bad [TH905A, ZH963] has been used in Job to mean a body part such as limbs (18:13), but a homonym has been used to mean “boastful speech” (11:3) bad [TH907, ZH966]. Some lexicons list this reference under both words (Koehler and Baumgartner 1:104-105), since it could be interpreted either way. There are a number of verbal associations in this short sermon from God (41:9-12) with words Job has said to God (Gibson 1992:137-138; see commentary below), and this may indicate that this verse is part of the sermon rather than the description of the crocodile. In that case it would be translated “will I not silence his [Job’s] boasting?”

its enormous strength and graceful form. The interpretation of this line flows from that of the previous line. The literal words “grace of its order” can refer either to the body of the crocodile or to the words Job had said he would use to make his case in protest to God.

41:13 [5] double layer of armor. The word “bridle” (KJV, NIV) has been replaced in most translations with “coat of mail,” as found in Gr. The Gr. translator apparently read siryono [TH5630, ZH6246] (coat of armor) instead of the MT risno [TH7448, ZH8270] (bridle), which is not really comprehensible with the word “double.”

41:20 [12] pot heated over burning rushes. It is not certain how the reeds, or “rushes,” relate to the pot. The word “reed” (’agmon [TH100, ZH109]) is often abbreviated to ’ogem [TH97.1, ZH105] meaning “heat” or “boil.” Another possibility is that “reed” is metonymy for “marsh” [TH98, ZH106] and two metaphors are present (Gordis 1978:486): “like a boiling pot or a steaming marsh.”

41:24 [16] heart . . . hard as a millstone. Heart must mean the “breast,” just as Aaron wore the breastplate on his “heart” (Exod 28:29). In this case, the outer appearance of the animal is evidence of its harsh or “cruel” nature. The lower millstone was not fixed so it could not be moved; the scales of the crocodile in the same way are fixed and cannot be penetrated through to the skin.

41:25 [17] gripped by terror. It is uncertain how the word “shatter” (sheber [TH7667, ZH8691]) should be interpreted. Sometimes it means “waves of water,” and it is sometimes thought to mean that here (cf. 41:17, NAB, NJB); this can also be translated as his “thrashing” (NIV) , “crashing” (NRSV), or “lashings of his tail” (REB). “Shatter” is also used to describe being terrified, collapsing in fear. The verb is similarly ambiguous; the root khata’ [TH2398, ZH2627] means “miss” and is the common word for sin. It is in the reflexive form and could mean “lose the way” or “become confused” (RSV, NRSV), but it is also taken as “falling back” or “withdrawing” (NIV; 41:17 in NAB, NJB). Between the variables of the two words, the translations have a considerable diversity, all equally defensible.

COMMENTARY [Text]

The crocodile is the surviving legacy of the great and ferocious dinosaurs that once roamed the world. It is fitting as the last creature in God’s tribute of praise to his creation. Like Behemoth, it is portrayed as an animal larger than life, invulnerable in its own domain. Though the poem distinctly says it cannot be captured, crocodiles were taken by hunters with ropes and hooks as described in the opening lines. Keel (1981:223-224) gives several examples depicting the ancient capture of a crocodile. A papyrus fragment from the middle of the first millennium depicts a twisting crocodile held by a rope through its jaw, about to be slaughtered by a man with a giant knife. It illustrates a saying of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which contains numerous portrayals of the killing of crocodiles. However, the killing of crocodiles in the context of the Book of the Dead does not depict hunting for sport or commerce. The crocodile is portrayed there as the ancient enemy and opponent of the correct order of life in this world. The caption of this papyrus fragment suggests that the crocodile has come because a spell of death was cast upon the individual, and the incantation was to remove this curse into the realm of the underworld.

As the poet of Job concluded his portrayal of beauty and danger in creation, he used a majestic but dangerous creature of the wild to point towards the greater forces of evil in the world. His description of the crocodile as a kind of “fire-breathing dragon,” that can turn the waters into a boiling cauldron, is more than just poetic hyperbole; it is also symbolic. Evil is greater than just those forces observable within creation.

The use of the name Leviathan cannot help but recall for the reader Job urging Leviathan to rise up and destroy the day of his birth from creation (3:8). The eyes of the crocodile, described as red in the water like the dawn (41:18), are a further allusion to Job’s demand that Leviathan destroy his day so it never see the first, red light of dawn (3:9). The speech of God began with a description of the birth of creation (38:4-21) as a reminder to Job of his complaint about his own birth. Now at the close of the speech, God speaks of the creature that Job had requested remove his day from the months of the year. With this orientation, the short, direct sermon from God to Job (41:9-11) is understandable, and translators have been wrong in emending it away. Though the vocabulary can be made to fit a bodily description of the crocodile, it is deliberately drawn from the passages in which Job launched his challenge against God (Gibson 1992:133-138). Job had dared to “rouse Leviathan” (3:8), but in presenting the crocodile to Job, God asked if he would wish to rouse this earthly creature. If just rousing the crocodile was a hazardous task, should Job be so ready to rouse Leviathan? Further, if Job was tenuous about standing before the crocodile, should he be so insistent on standing before the Creator of the crocodile, as he had demanded (13:15; 23:4)? Job had said he was prepared to take his life in his hands (13:14), confident that God would be his savior (13:16). Most importantly, God asked Job about his boasting (41:12; see note), as Zophar had already pointed out (11:3). Job had twice declared he would prepare his case before God (13:18; 23:4), which he regarded as being irrefutable. Did Job really think God would not silence such boasts (41:11)?

God had confronted and conquered the chaos and disorder that the Leviathan represents, and in place he left but a living representation of that disorder and violence—the crocodile. If that representative overwhelmed Job, he must reconsider his demands before the Almighty God who fully controlled this creature. In another song in praise of creation, the psalmist described Leviathan as merely one of the creatures of the sea (Ps 104:26) fully dependent on God for his sustenance, playful, and making sport in the waters. The poet described it as a creature that played with its attackers—“it laughs at the swish of javelins” (41:29).

In an age when the greatest of water creatures, the whales, have been declared an endangered species, the effect of the poetic description of the Leviathan (or crocodile) might seem to lose its edge. Humans have fashioned weapons and equipment that can control the greatest and most powerful beasts of the animal kingdom. It would be unwise, however, to assume that the point of the poet has lost its relevance. Environmentalists constantly warn that we are destroying ourselves by making our own habitat uninhabitable. Though the poet did not intend to present an ethical base for ecology, he has in fact done so (Gordis 1985:199). Humans take their place among the other living creatures, all of whom are the handiwork of God and have a right to live on his earth. An evolutionist has no basis for ecological concern as far as ethics is concerned,[24] since by their view of the world the elimination of species is the way in which progress happens. The creationist has an entirely different point of view. If God created all the creatures and put them under the care of humans, then it is their responsibility to care for them all, even at some sacrifice to themselves. The poem, at the same time, is a reminder that the destiny of the world is not in the hands of humans. Humans are totally dependent creatures, although they control other creatures and, to a certain degree, their environment. But they must be careful that they do not jeopardize their own existence. The crocodile must be feared and respected by modern humans just as by the ancients.

The final speech of God is the culmination of the argument that the universe was not created for human wishes to govern the way in which it operates. People must rethink the outrage they feel at the things they perceive to be out of order. The world is an immense arena of power and beauty amidst awesome, warring forces. This world is permeated with the order of divine providence, but it presents to humans a “welter of contradictions, dizzying variety, energies, and entities that man cannot take in” (Alter 1984:41). This realization makes the fact that God spoke to Job and confronted him even more remarkable. God asked Job who would dare to stand before him (41:10). According to the prologue, the members of the heavenly court do so, but according to the divine speech, it is also the one whom God favors, such as Job (Williams 1984:271). The pulsating life of the cosmos was his heritage, even though he was unable to comprehend it any more than he could follow the foaming wake of Leviathan as it churned the water into a boiling cauldron. The grandeur of creation is the place where mortals meet God. The home of humans displays the face of a foreign and fascinating divinity. They cannot understand his creation, much less his divine nature. Rather than challenge what they do not know about themselves in their world, they are invited to live in its mystery and to know they stand before its Creator.