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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 41:26 - 41:26
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
26 If one reacheth him with the sword-it doth not hold;
Neither spear, nor dart, nor harpoon.
27 He esteemeth iron as straw,
Brass as rotten wood.
28 The son of the bow doth not cause him to flee,
Sling stones are turned to stubble with him.
29 Clubs are counted as stubble,
And he laugheth at the shaking of the spear.
מַשִּׂיגֵהוּ, which stands first as nom. abs., “one reaching him,” is equivalent to, if one or whoever reaches him, Ew. §357, c, to which בְּלִי תָקוּם, it does not hold fast (בְּלִי with v. fin., as Hos 8:7; Hos 9:16, Chethîb), is the conclusion. חֶרֶב is instrumental, as Psa 17:13. מַסָּע, from נָסַע, Arab. nz‛, to move on, hasten on, signifies a missile, as Arab. minz‛a, an arrow, manz‛a, a sling. The Targ. supports this latter signification here (funda quae projicit lapidem); but since קֶלא, the handling, is mentioned separately, the word appears to men missiles in general, or the catapult. In this combination of weapons of attack it is very questionable whether שִׁרְיָה is a cognate form of שִׁרְיֹון (שִׁרְיָן), a coat of mail; probably it is equivalent to Arab. sirwe (surwe), an arrow with a long broad edge (comp. serı̂je, a short, round, as it seems, pear-shaped arrow-head), therefore either a harpoon or a peculiarly formed dart.
(Note: On the various kinds of Egyptian arrows, vid., Klemm. Culturgeschichte, v. 371f.)
“The son of the bow” (and of the אַשְׁפָּה, pharetra) is the arrow. That the ἁπ. γεγρ. תֹותָח signifies a club (war-club), is supported by the Arab. watacha, to beat. כִּידֹון, in distinction from חֲנִית (a long lance), is a short spear, or rather, since רַעַשׁ implies a whistling motion, a javelin. Iron the crocodile esteems as תֶּבֶן, tibn, chopped straw; sling stones are turned with him into קַשׁ. Such is the name here at least, not for stumps of cut stubble that remain standing, but the straw itself, threshed and easily driven before the wind (Job 13:25), which is cut up for provender (Exo 5:12), generally dried (and for that reason light) stalks (e.g., of grass), or even any remains of plants (e.g., splinters of wood).
(Note: The Egyptio-Arabic usage has here more faithfully preserved the ancient signification of the word (vid., Fleischer, Glossae, p. 37) than the Syro-Arabic; for in Syria cut but still unthreshed corn, whether lying in swaths out in the field and weighted with stones to protect it against the whirlwinds that are frequent about noon, or corn already brought to the threshing-floors but not yet threshed, is called qashsh. - Wetzst.)
The plur. נֶחְשְׁבוּ, Job 41:29, does not seem to be occasioned by תותח being conceived collectively, but by the fact that, instead of saying תותח וכידון, the poet has formed וכידון into a separate clause. Parchon's (and Kimchi's) reading תֹוחָח is founded upon an error.