Job Chapter 41

A further description of the leviathan.

41:1. I will not stir him up, like one that is cruel, for who can resist my countenance?

41:2. Who hath given me before that I should repay him? All things that are under heaven are mine.

41:3. I will not spare him, nor his mighty words, and framed to make supplication.

41:4. Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can go into the midst of his mouth?

41:5. Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.

41:6. His body is like molten shields, shut close up with scales pressing upon one another.

41:7. One is joined to another, and not so much as any air can come between them:

41:8. They stick one to another and they hold one another fast, and shall not be separated.

41:9. His sneezing is like the shining of fire, and his eyes like the eyelids of the morning.

41:10. Out of his mouth go forth lamps, like torches of lighted fire.

41:11. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, like that of a pot heated and boiling.

41:12. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame cometh forth out of his mouth.

41:13. In his neck strength shall dwell, and want goeth before his face.

41:14. The members of his flesh cleave one to another: he shall send lightnings against him, and they shall not be carried to another place.

41:15. His heart shall be as hard as a stone, and as firm as a smith's anvil,

41:16. When he shall raise him up, the angels shall fear, and being affrighted shall purify themselves.

Angels. . .Elim, Hebrew: which signifies here, the mighty, the most valiant, shall fear this monstrous fish, and in their fear shall seek to be purified.

41:17. When a sword shall lay at him, it shall not be able to hold, nor a spear, nor a breastplate.

41:18. For he shall esteem iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.

41:19. The archer shall not put him to flight, the stones of the sling are to him like stubble.

41:20. As stubble will he esteem the hammer, and he will laugh him to scorn who shaketh the spear.

41:21. The beams of the sun shall be under him, and he shall strew gold under him like mire.

Under him. . .He shall not value the beams of the sun; and gold to him shall be like mire.

41:22. He shall make the deep sea to boil like a pot, and shall make it as when ointments boil.

41:23. A path shall shine after him, he shall esteem the deep as growing old.

The deep as growing old. . .Growing hoary, as it were with the froth which he leaves behind him.

41:24. There is no power upon earth that can be compared with him who was made to fear no one,

41:25. He beholdeth every high thing, he is king over all the children of pride.

He is king, etc. . .He is superior in strength to all that are great and strong amongst living creatures: mystically it is understood of the devil, who is king over all the proud.