which I made along with you
and which feeds on grass like an ox.
16 What strength it has in its loins,
what power in the muscles of its belly!
17 Its tail sways like a cedar;
the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.
18 Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like rods of iron.
19 It ranks first among the works of God,
yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.
20 The hills bring it their produce,
and all the wild animals play nearby.
21 Under the lotus plants it lies,
hidden among the reeds in the marsh.
22 The lotuses conceal it in their shadow;
the poplars by the stream surround it.
23 A raging river does not alarm it;
it is secure, though the Jordan should surge against its mouth.
24 Can anyone capture it by the eyes,
or trap it and pierce its nose?
41 (1) “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy?
Will it speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you
for you to take it as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird
or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6 Will traders barter for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on it,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing it is false;
the mere sight of it is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat?
Who can penetrate its double coat of armor?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
ringed about with fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has rows of shields
tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck;
dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee;
slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal—
a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty;
it is king over all that are proud.”
Job 40:15 - 41
God gave Job a remarkable survey of the wonders of creation in Job 38-39, including a look at many remarkable animals and their ways. Now lastly, God gives Job a look at two remarkable creatures: Behemoth (Job 40:15-24) and Leviathan (Job 41).
The precise identity of this animal named behemoth is debated. Some say the hippopotamus while others think it refers to a dinosaur type creature that is now extinct. God seems to rejoice in His own creation as He describes the wonder of this remarkable animal noting its strength, size, appetite, and habits.
The picture is clear. If Job cannot contend with this fellow creature, how could he ever contend with the God who created the Behemoth?
After the discussion of Behemoth in Job 40:15-24, now God called Job to consider another fearful monster, Leviathan. This creature was first mentioned in Job 3:8; Job in that context considered how sailors and fishermen would curse the threatening Leviathan, and with the same passion he cursed the day of his birth.
Some believe that Leviathan describes some ancient dragon-like dinosaur that either survived to Job’s day, or survived in the collective memory of mankind, so that God could refer to it as an example. Others consider that in this context, Leviathan is nothing more than a mighty crocodile.
The name Leviathan means “twisting one” and is also used in other interesting places in Scripture.
· Psalm 74:12-14 refers to Leviathan as a sea serpent, and that God broke the head of the Leviathan long ago, perhaps at the creation.
· Psalm 104:26 also refers to Leviathan as a sea creature.
· Isaiah 27:1 speaks of the future defeat of Leviathan, also associating it with a twisted serpent that lives in the sea.
· Isaiah 51:9 and Psalm 89-8-10 also speak of a serpent associated with the sea that God defeated as a demonstration of His great strength, and identifies this serpent with the name Rahab, meaning proud one.
· Job 26:12-13 also refers to God’s piercing defeat of a fleeing serpent associated with the sea.
God’s point with this description of Leviathan is to show Job just how powerless he is against this creature. There is nothing that Job can do against this mighty monster.
i. This makes the association between Leviathan – obviously, some dragon-type creature, even if it were in this context only a mighty crocodile – and Satan even more interesting. Satan is often represented as a dragon or a serpent (Genesis 3; Revelation 12 and 13). Therefore, Leviathan may be another serpent-like manifestation of Satan.
Even as Job was powerless against Leviathan (as all men are), so he was also powerless against an unleashed Satan set against him. Only God could defeat Leviathan and Satan. Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false: Job could not hope to defeat Leviathan; it was simply beyond his power to do so.
Who then is able to stand against Me: The logical point is made. If Job cannot contend with Leviathan (or even with Satan, whom Leviathan represents), how could he ever hope to stand against the God who made and masters Leviathan? This was another effective way of setting Job in his proper place before God.
There is a second, also important point: that God Himself was master over Leviathan (everything under heaven is Mine). “By telling of his dominion over Behemoth and Leviathan, the Lord is illustrating what he has said in 40:8-14. He is celebrating his moral triumph over the forces of evil. Satan, the Accuser, has been proved wrong though Job does not know it. The author and the reader see the entire picture that Job and his friends never knew.” (Smick)
He is king over all the children of pride: This description of Leviathan – especially at this point – is so like that of Satan, that we may fairly suppose that God here was indicating to Job not only His great might and Job’s vulnerability before Satan, but also alluding to Satan’s role in Job’s great crisis.
God called Job to consider these unconquerable beasts, who each in their own way were examples of Satan and his power. In this, God allowed Job to consider the fact that he could not stand before the power of Satan without God empowering him. Job thought that he was all alone through his ordeal; indeed he felt he was alone. Yet this was God’s way of saying that he was not alone, because if he were, then he surely would have crumbled before the power of Leviathan and Behemoth.
The essence of the gospel is that the love of God is greater than any evil.” (Mason)
God ends His words to Job without ever telling him the story behind the story. Job was left ignorant about the contest between God and Satan that prompted his whole crisis (though perhaps God later told him). Though Job did not know the whole story, God did tell him of His great victory over Leviathan/Satan, giving Job assurance for the past, the present, and for the future.
It was important that God did not tell Job the reasons why; then Job can be a continuing comfort and inspiration and example to those who suffer without an explanation. “Once again we emphasize that if the specific and ultimate reason for his suffering had been revealed to Job – even at this point – the value of the account as a comfort to others who must suffer in ignorance would have been diminished if not cancelled.” (Smick)
Taken from Bible commentary by Pastor David Guzik https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/job-40/
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