Job 41: 1-6, Leviathan
"Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down his tongue with a rope?
Can you put a cord through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Will he keep begging you for mercy?
Will he speak to you with gentle words?
Will he make an agreement with you
for you to take him as your slave for life?
Can you make a pet of him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?
Will traders barter for him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
Leviathan answers to no one. If you go after leviathan, it will not be leviathan that begs for mercy! There is humor (verse 5) in the suggestion that leviathan might be treated as a pet bird or put on a leash to frolic with Job's daughters! In Psalm 104: 26, it mighty leviathan who frolics in the seas.
Job 41: 7-11, Leviathan is not one you can subdue!
Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle
and never do it again!
Any hope of subduing him is false;
the mere sight of him is overpowering.
No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
Who then is able to stand against me?
Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
Leviathan seems impervious to spears and harpoons. Reach out a hand out to him and see what happens! Year ago. at an exhibit outside Darwin, Australia, I had an opportunity to see saltwater crocodiles in action. These are mighty, horrifying beasts, quick and powerful, eager to snap and pull you under. The description in this chapter, including the verses that follow, certainly seem to fit that creature.
Job 41: 12-17, Such strength and grace!
"I will not fail to speak of his limbs,
his strength and his graceful form.
Who can strip off his outer coat?
Who would approach him with a bridle?
Who dares open the doors of his mouth,
ringed about with his fearsome teeth?
His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;
each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
Leviathan has a large long snout with fearsome teeth and a back of scales like chainmail.
Job 41: 18-22, Eyes like red dawn
His snorting throws out flashes of light;
his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
Firebrands stream from his mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
Smoke pours from his nostrils
as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
His breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from his mouth.
Strength resides in his neck;
dismay goes before him.
The saltwater crocodile in action would certainly suggest these dramatic images. Is Leviathan an earthly creature, described here in beautiful poetry? Or is this an image of a mythical or supernature creature.
Job 41: 23-32
The folds of his flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
His chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
When he rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before his thrashing.
The sword that reaches him has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
Iron he treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood.
Arrows do not make him flee;
slingstones are like chaff to him.
A club seems to him but a piece of straw;
he laughs at the rattling of the lance.
His undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
He makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
Behind him he leaves a glistening wake;
one would think the deep had white hair.
I've seen a saltwater crocodile thrash! Even at a protected distance, it was terrifying. A thrashing crocodile churns the water as if it were boiling, leaving white streamers in the muddy water as he disappears. Surely he can break clubs, maybe even iron spears!
Job 41: 33-34, A creature without fear
Nothing on earth is his equal--
a creature without fear.
He looks down on all that are haughty;
he is king over all that are proud."
Only modern mankind, with his rifles and urban development, is a threat to the crocodile.
Is leviathan here the mighty saltwater crocodile? Or a mythical, supernatural creature? Commentators differ. Although the last two chapters seem to be describing awesome physical creatures, the metaphors and hints of death suggest a dark, possibly secondary meaning. Hartley notes that the book of Job describes various ancient monsters: leviathan ("sea monster" in Job 3: 8), tannin, ("monster of the deep", Job 7:12) and Rahab (Job 9: 13, Job 26: 12.) In this regard, the Bible Project has a podcast series on the Chaos Dragon. The authors of the Bible Project point out that these objects (including nachash, "serpent", Genesis 3: 1) might be "mythical creatures", that is, creatures that in the culture of the ancient Near East, represent supernatural forces. Isaiah 27: 1, speaks to a future day when YHWH will destroy leviathan. Hartley notes apocalyptic Jewish literature that describes Behemoth and Leviathan as "primordial cosmic forces in conflict with God" (footnote, p. 522.) From that viewpoint, this last chapter or two may be suggesting that YHWH has added supernatural forces to the list of things that He easily controls. (See also Psalm 74: 13-17.)
Whether "leviathan" is the mighty saltwater crocodile or a supernature dragon of chaos (Revelation 12), it is YHWH, not Job, who has control of this fearsome creature.
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