Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
Job 41 · World English Bible
1“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
2Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
3Will he make many petitions to you, or will he speak soft words to you?
4Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever?
5Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls?
6Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants?
7Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears?
8Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more.
9Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?
11Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.
12“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.
13Who can strip off his outer garment? Who will come within his jaws?
14Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.
15Strong scales are his pride, shut up together with a close seal.
16One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.
17They are joined to one another. They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart.
18His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out.
20Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21His breath kindles coals. A flame goes out of his mouth.
22There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him.
23The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can’t be moved.
24His heart is as firm as a stone, yes, firm as the lower millstone.
25When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing.
26If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail; nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
27He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
28The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him.
29Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.
30His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair.
33On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear.
34He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.”
World English Bible · World English Bible; source eBible.org.
Notes on Job 41
1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Job xli. 27 sq.
Editorial footnote · Life of Antony, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 9, editorial note cite_note-19 · Original source
Date uncertain | Athanasius (historical edition attribution)
24. ‘And he said they often appeared as the Lord revealed the devil to Job, saying, “His eyes are as the morning star. From his mouth proceed burning lamps and hearths of fire are cast forth. The smoke of a furnace blazing with the fire of coals proceeds from his nostrils. His breath is coals and from his mouth issues flame.” When the prince of the demons appears in this wise, the crafty one, as I said before, strikes terror by speaking great things, as again the Lord convicted him saying to Job, for “he counteth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood, yea he counteth the sea as a pot of ointment, and the depth of the abyss as a captive, and the abyss as a covered walk.” And by the prophet, “the enemy said, I will pursue and overtake,” and again by another, “I will grasp the whole world in my hand as a nest, and take it up as eggs that have been left.” Such, in a word, are their boasts and professions that they may deceive the godly. But not even then ought we, the faithful, to fear his appearance or give heed to his words. For he is a liar and speaketh of truth never a word. And though speaking words so many and so great in his boldness, without doubt, like a dragon he was drawn with a hook by the Saviour, and as a beast of burden he received the halter round his nostrils, and as a runaway his nostrils were bound with a ring, and his lips bored with an armlet. And he was bound by the Lord as a sparrow, that we should mock him. And with him are placed the demons his fellows, like serpents and scorpions to be trodden underfoot by us Christians. And the proof of this is that we now live opposed to him. For he who threatened to dry the sea and seize upon the world, behold now cannot stay our discipline, nor even me speaking against him. Let us then heed not his words, for he is a liar: and let us not fear his visions, seeing that they themselves are deceptive. For that which appears in them is no true light, but they are rather the preludes and likenesses of the fire prepared for the demons who attempt to terrify men with those flames in which they themselves will be burned. Doubtless they appear; but in a moment disappear again, hurting none of the faithful, but bringing with them the likeness of that fire which is about to receive themselves. Wherefore it is unfitting that we should fear them on account of these things; for through the grace of Christ all their practices are in vain.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Life of Antony, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 9, source paragraph 9 · Original source