The chat will start when you send the first message.
1(40:25) “Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook,[#sn Beginning with 41:1, the verse numbers through 41:9 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 41:1 ET = 40:25 HT, 41:2 ET = 40:26 HT, etc., through 41:34 ET = 41:26 HT. The Hebrew verse numbers in the remainder of the chapter differ from the verse numbers in the English Bible. Beginning with 42:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.; #tn The verb מָשַׁךְ (mashakh) means “to extract from the water; to fish.” The question here includes the use of a hook to fish the creature out of the water so that its jaws can be tied safely.]
and tie down its tongue with a rope?
2Can you put a cord through its nose,
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3Will it make numerous supplications to you,[#tn The line asks if the animal, when caught and tied and under control, would keep on begging for mercy. Absolutely not. It is not in the nature of the beast. The construction uses יַרְבֶּה (yarbeh, “[will] he multiply” [= “make numerous”]), with the object, “supplications” i.e., prayers for mercy.]
will it speak to you with tender words?
4Will it make a pact with you,[#tn Heb “will he cut a covenant.”]
so you could take it as your slave for life?
5Can you play with it, like a bird,[#tn The Hebrew verb is שָׂחַק (sakhaq, “to sport; to trifle; to play,” Ps 104:26).]
or tie it on a leash for your girls?
6Will partners bargain for it?[#tn The word חָבַּר (khabbar) is a hapax legomenon, but the meaning is “to associate” since it is etymologically related to the verb “to join together.” The idea is that fishermen usually work in companies or groups, and then divide up the catch when they come ashore – which involves bargaining.; #tn The word כָּרַה (karah) means “to sell.” With the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”) it has the sense “to bargain over something.”]
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
8If you lay your hand on it,
you will remember the fight,
and you will never do it again!
9(41:1) See, his expectation is wrong,[#sn Job 41:9 in the English Bible is 41:1 in the Hebrew text (BHS). From here to the end of the chapter the Hebrew verse numbers differ from those in the English Bible, with 41:10 ET = 41:2 HT, 41:11 ET = 41:3 HT, etc. See also the note on 41:1.; #tn The line is difficult. “His hope [= expectation]” must refer to any assailant who hopes or expects to capture the creature. Because there is no antecedent, Dhorme and others transpose it with the next verse. The point is that the man who thought he was sufficient to confront Leviathan soon finds his hope – his expectation – false (a derivative from the verb כָּזַב [kazab, “lie”] is used for a mirage).]
he is laid low even at the sight of it.
10Is it not fierce when it is awakened?[#sn The description is of the animal, not the hunter (or fisherman). Leviathan is so fierce that no one can take him on alone.]
Who is he, then, who can stand before it?
11(Who has confronted me that I should repay?[#tn The verb קָדַם (qadam) means “to come to meet; to come before; to confront” to the face.; #sn The verse seems an intrusion (and so E. Dhorme, H. H. Rowley, and many others change the pronouns to make it refer to the animal). But what the text is saying is that it is more dangerous to confront God than to confront this animal.]
Everything under heaven belongs to me!)
12I will not keep silent about its limbs,
and the extent of its might,
and the grace of its arrangement.
13Who can uncover its outer covering?[#tn Heb “the face of his garment,” referring to the outer garment or covering. Some take it to be the front as opposed to the back.]
Who can penetrate to the inside of its armor?
14Who can open the doors of its mouth?[#tn Heb “his face.”]
Its teeth all around are fearsome.
15Its back has rows of shields,[#tc The MT has גַּאֲוָה (ga’avah, “his pride”), but the LXX, Aquila, and the Vulgate all read גַּוּוֹ (gavvo, “his back”). Almost all the modern English versions follow the variant reading, speaking about “his [or its] back.”]
shut up closely together as with a seal;
16each one is so close to the next[#tn The expression “each one…to the next” is literally “one with one.”]
that no air can come between them.
17They lock tightly together, one to the next;[#tn Heb “a man with his brother.”]
they cling together and cannot be separated.
18Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the red glow of dawn.
19Out of its mouth go flames,[#sn For the animal, the image is that of pent-up breath with water in a hot steam jet coming from its mouth, like a stream of fire in the rays of the sun. The language is hyperbolic, probably to reflect the pagan ideas of the dragon of the deep in a polemical way – they feared it as a fire breathing monster, but in reality it might have been a steamy crocodile.]
sparks of fire shoot forth!
20Smoke streams from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning rushes.
21Its breath sets coals ablaze
and a flame shoots from its mouth.
22Strength lodges in its neck,
and despair runs before it.
23The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;[#tn Heb “fallings.”]
they are firm on it, immovable.
24Its heart is hard as rock,[#tn The description of his heart being “hard” means that he is cruel and fearless. The word for “hard” is the word encountered before for molten or cast metal.]
hard as a lower millstone.
25When it rises up, the mighty are terrified,
at its thrashing about they withdraw.
26Whoever strikes it with a sword[#tn This is the clearest reading, following A. B. Davidson, Job, 285. The versions took different readings of the construction.]
will have no effect,
nor with the spear, arrow, or dart.
27It regards iron as straw
and bronze as rotten wood.
28Arrows do not make it flee;[#tn Heb “the son of the bow.”]
slingstones become like chaff to it.
29A club is counted as a piece of straw;[#tn The verb is plural, but since there is no expressed subject it is translated as a passive here.]
it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30Its underparts are the sharp points of potsherds,[#tn Heb “under him.”]
it leaves its mark in the mud
like a threshing sledge.
31It makes the deep boil like a cauldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment,
32It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had a head of white hair.
33The likes of it is not on earth,
a creature without fear.
34It looks on every haughty being;
it is king over all that are proud.”