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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 41:15 - 41:15
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
15 A pride are the furrows of the shields,
Shut by a rigid seal.
16 One joineth on to the other,
And no air entereth between them.
17 One upon another they are arranged,
They hold fast together, inseparably.
Since the writer uses אָפִיק both in the signif. robustus, Job 12:12, and canalis, Job 40:18, it is doubtful whether it must be explained robusta (robora) scutorum (as e.g., Ges.), or canales scutorum (Hirz., Schlottm., and others). We now prefer the latter, but so that “furrows of the shields” signifies the square shields themselves bounded by these channels; for only thus is the סָגוּר, which refers to these shields, considered, each one for itself, suitably attached to what precedes. חֹותָם צָר is an acc. of closer definition belonging to it: closed is (each single one) by a firmly attached, and therefore firmly closed, seal. lxx remarkably ὥσπερ σμυρίτης λίθος, i.e., (emery (vid., Krause's Pyrogeteles, 1859, S. 228). Six rows of knotty scales and four scales of the neck cover the upper part of the animal's body, in themselves firm, and attached to one another in almost impenetrable layers, as is described in Job 41:7 in constantly-varying forms of expression (where יִגַּשׁוּ with Pathach beside Athnach is the correct reading), - a גַּאֲוָה, i.e., an equipment of which the animal may be proud. Umbr. takes גאוה, with Bochart, = גֵּוָה, the back; but although in the language much is possible, yet not everything.