Job 41:1

Job 41:1

Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?  

a. NLT: Can you catch Leviathan with a hook or put a noose around its jaw?

b. NIV: “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope?

c. YLT: Dost thou draw leviathan with an angle? And with a rope thou lettest down -- his tongue?

d. Amplified Bible Classic: Can you draw out the leviathan (the crocodile) with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord?

e. Septuagint [The Septuagint Translation and the Stone Edition of the Jewish Translation has 32 verses in Job 40 compared to the KJV, NIV, NLT, YLT, and the Amplified end Job 40 at verse 24. This causes the verse listed in the latter Translations to be listed as Job 41:1 and in the former Translations as Job 40:25]: But wilt thou catch the serpent with a hook, and put a halter about his nose?

f. Stone Edition Torah/Prophets/Writings [The Septuagint Translation and the Stone Edition of the Jewish Translation has 32 verses in Job 40 compared to the KJV, NIV, NLT, YLT, and the Amplified end Job 40 at verse 24. This causes the verse listed in the latter Translations to be listed as Job 41:1 and in the former Translations as Job 40:25]: Can you pull the Leviathan with a hook, can you embed a line in his tongue?

1. “Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook…”

a. Canst thou draw out [4900 * mashak] [Strong: a primitive root; to draw, used in a great variety of applications (including to sow, to sound, to prolong, to develop, to march, to remove, to delay, to be tall, etc.):--draw (along, out), continue, defer, extend, forbear, X give, handle, make (pro-, sound)long, X sow, scatter, stretch out.]

b. leviathan [3882 * livyathan][Strong: a wreathed animal, i.e. a serpent (especially the crocodile or some other large sea- monster); figuratively, the constellation of the dragon; also as a symbol of Bab.:--leviathan, mourning.]

1). Institute Of Creation Reasearch Daily Devotional 7/16/11 There is a remarkable animal called a "leviathan" described in the direct words of God in chapter 41 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 forever and ever" (Revalation 20:10). HMM

2). He was still alive in Job’s day and was a source of food for humans.

a). Psalm 74:13, 14  Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

74:14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

c. with a hook [2443 * chakkah] [Strong: probably from 2442; a hook (as adhering):--angle, hook.]

2. “…or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?”

a. or his tongue [3956 * lashown; or lashon; also (in plural) feminine lshonah] [Strong: from 3960; the tongue (of man or animals), used literally (as the instrument of licking, eating, or speech), and figuratively (speech, an ingot, a fork of flame, a cove of water):--+ babbler,bay, + evil speaker, language, talker, tongue, wedge.]

b. with a cord [2256 * chebel; or chebel] [Strong: from 2254; a rope (as twisted), especially a measuring line; by implication, a district or inheritance (as measured); or a noose (as of cords); figuratively, a company (as if tied together); also a throe (especially of parturition); also ruin:--band, coast, company, cord, country, destruction, line, lot, pain, pang, portion, region, rope, snare, sorrow, tackling.]

c. which thou lettest down [8257 *  shaqa`] [Strong: a primitive root; to subside; by implication, to be overflowed, cease; causatively, to abate, subdue:--make deep, let down, drown, quench, sink.]