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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 41:30 - 41:30
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30 His under parts are the sharpest shards,
He spreadeth a threshing sledge upon the mire.
31 He maketh the deep foam like a caldron,
He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He lighteth up the path behind him,
One taketh the water-flood for hoary hair.
33 Upon earth there is not his equal,
That is created without fear.
34 He looketh upon everything high,
He is the king over every proud beast.
Under it, or, תַּחְתָּיו taken like תַּחַת, Job 41:11, as a virtual subject (vid., Job 28:5): its under parts are the most pointed or sharpest shards, i.e., it is furnished with exceedingly pointed scales. חַדּוּד is the intensive form of חַד (Arab. hadı̂d, sharpened = iron, p. 542, note), as חַלּוּק, 1Sa 17:40, of חָלָק (smooth),
(Note: In Arabic also this substantival form is intensive, e.g., lebbûn, an exceedingly large kind of tile, dried in the open air, of which farm-yards are built, nearly eight times larger than the common tile, which is called libne (לִבְנָח).)
and the combination חַדּוּדֵי חָרֶשׂ (equal the combination חדודי הַֽחֲרָשַׂיִם, comp. Job 30:6) is moreover superlative: in the domain of shards standing prominent as sharp ones, as Arab. chairu ummatin, the best people, prop. bon en fait de peuple (Ew. §313, c. Gramm. Arab. §532). lxx ἡ στρωμνὴ αὐτοῦ ὀβελίσκοι ὀξεῖς, by drawing יִרְפַּד to Job 41:30, and so translating as though it were רְפִידָתֹו (Arab. rifâde, stratum). The verb רָפַד (rafada), cogn. רָבַד, signifies sternere (Job 17:13), and then also culcire; what is predicated cannot be referred to the belly of the crocodile, the scales of which are smooth, but to the tail with its scales, which more or less strongly protrude, are edged round by a shallow cavity, and therefore are easily and sharply separated when pressed; and the meaning is, that when it presses its under side in the morass, it appears as though a threshing-sledge with its iron teeth had been driven across it.
The pictures in Job 41:31 are true to nature; Bartram, who saw two alligators fighting, says that their rapid passage was marked by the surface of the water as it were boiling. With מְצוּלָה, a whirlpool, abyss, depth (from צוּל = צָלַל, to hiss, clash; to whirl, surge), יָם alternates; the Nile even in the present day is called bahr (sea) by the Beduins, and also compared, when it overflows its banks, to a sea. The observation that the animal diffuses a strong odour of musk, has perhaps its share in the figure of the pot of ointment (lxx ὥσπερ ἐξάλειπτρον, which Zwingli falsely translates spongia); a double gland in the tail furnishes the Egyptians and Americans their (pseudo) musk. In Job 41:32 the bright white trail that the crocodile leaves behind it on the surface of the water is intended; in Job 41:32 the figure is expressed which underlies the descriptions of the foaming sea with πολιός, canus, in the classic poets. שֵׂיבָה, hoary hair, was to the ancients the most beautiful, most awe-inspiring whiteness. מָשְׁלֹו, Job 41:33, understood by the Targ., Syr., Arab. version, and most moderns (e.g., Hahn: there is not on earth any mastery over it), according to Zec 9:10, is certainly, with lxx, Jer., and Umbr., not to be understood differently from the Arab. mithlahu (its equal); whether it be an inflexion of מֹשֶׁל, or what is more probable, of מְשֹׁל (comp. Job 17:6, where this nomen actionis signifies a proverb = word of derision, and הִתְמַשֵּׁל, to compare one's self, be equal, Job 30:19). עַל־עָפָר is also Hebr.-Arab.; the Arabic uses turbe, formed from turâb (vid., on Job 19:25), of the surface of the earth, and et-tarbâ-u as the name of the earth itself. הֶעָשׂוּ (for הֶעָשׂוּי, as צָפוּ, Job 15:22, Cheth. = צָפוּי, resolved from עָשׂוּו, ‛asûw, 1Sa 25:18, Cheth.) is the confirmatory predicate of the logical subj. described in Job 41:33 as incomparable; and לִבְלִי־חָת (from חַת, the a of which becomes i in inflexion), absque terrore (comp. Job 38:4), is virtually a nom. of the predicate: the created one (becomes) a terrorless one (a being that is terrified by nothing). Everything high, as the לבלי־חת, Job 41:33, is more exactly explained, it looketh upon, i.e., remains standing before it, without turning away affrighted; in short, it (the leviathan) is king over all the sons of pride, i.e., every beast of prey that proudly roams about (vid., on Job 28:8).