Job 41:2

Job 41:2

Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

a. ASV: Canst thou put a rope into his nose? Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?

b. YLT: Dost thou put a reed in his nose? And with a thorn pierce his jaw?

c. Classic Amplified: Can you put a rope into his nose? Or pierce his jaw through with a hook or a spike?

d. Septuagint: Dost thou not fear because preparation has been made by me? for who is there that resists me? 

e. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/ Writings: No person is rash enough to stir him up, Who, then, would dare stand up to Me?

1. “Canst thou put an hook into his nose…”

a. [Canst thou] put Strong: 7760 suwm soom or siym {seem}; a primitive root; to put (used in a great variety of applications, literal, figurative, inferentially, and elliptically):--X any wise, appoint, bring, call (a name), care, cast in, change, charge, commit, consider, convey, determine, + disguise, dispose, do, get, give, heap up, hold, impute, lay (down, up), leave, look, make (out), mark, + name, X on, ordain, order, + paint, place, preserve, purpose, put (on), + regard, rehearse, reward, (cause to) set (on, up), shew, + stedfastly, take, X tell, + tread down, ((over-))turn, X wholly, work.]

b. [an] hook [Strong: 100 'agmown ag-mone' from the same as 98; a marshy pool (others from a different root, a kettle); by implication a rush (as growing there); collectively a rope of rushes:--bulrush, caldron, hook, rush.]

c. [into his] nose [Strong: 639 'aph af from 599; properly, the nose or nostril; hence, the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire:--anger(-gry), + before, countenance, face, + forebearing, forehead, + (long-)suffering, nose, nostril, snout, X worthy, wrath.]

2. “...or bore his jaw through with a thorn?”

a. [or] bore [Strong: 5344 naqab naw-kab' a primitive root; to puncture, literally (to perforate, with more or less violence) or figuratively (to specify, designate, libel):--appoint, blaspheme, bore, curse, express, with holes, name, pierce, strike through.]

b. [his] jaw [Strong: 3895 lchiy lekh-ee' from an unused root meaning to be soft; the cheek (from its fleshiness); hence, the jaw-bone:--cheek (bone), jaw (bone).]

c. [with a] thorn [Strong: 2336 chowach kho'-akh from an unused root apparently meaning to pierce; a thorn; by analogy, a ring for the nose:--bramble, thistle, thorn.]

1). Institute of Creation Research Days of Praise  10/31/1993: “In that day the LORD with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1). There is a remarkable animal called a “leviathan,” described in the direct words of God in the 41st chapter of Job. It is surprising that most modern expositors call this animal merely a crocodile. Our text plainly calls it a “piercing serpent . . . the dragon that is in the sea.” He is also said to “play” in the “great and wide sea” (Psalm 104:25,26). God’s description in Job 41 says “a flame goeth out of his mouth” (v.21), and “he maketh the deep to boil like a pot” (v.31). The entire description is awesome! Whatever a leviathan might have been, it was not a crocodile! In fact, there is no animal living today which fits the description. Therefore, it is an extinct animal, almost certainly a great marine reptile with “terrible teeth” and “scales” (vv.14,15) still surviving in the oceans of Job’s day, evidently one of the fearsome reptiles that gave rise to the worldwide tales of great sea dragons, before they became extinct. But that is not all. In ending His discourse, God called leviathan “a king over all the children of pride” (Job 41:34), so the animal is also symbolic of Satan, whose challenge to God instigated Job’s strange trials. He is “the great dragon . . . that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). Perhaps, therefore, the mysterious and notorious extinction of the dinosaurs is a secular prophecy of the coming Day of Judgment, when God “shall punish leviathan” (Isaiah 27:1), and the “devil that deceived them” will be “cast into the lake of fire . . . and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). HMM