John Gill Commentary Job 41

Can you draw out leviathan with an hook ?
&c.] That is, draw it out of the sea or river as anglers draw out smaller fishes with a line or hook? the question suggests it cannot be done; whether by the "leviathan" is meant the whale, which was the most generally received notion; or the crocodile, as Bochart, who has been followed by many; or the "orca", a large fish of the whale kind with many teeth, as Hasaeus, it is not easy to say "Leviathan" is a compound word of than the first syllable of "thanni", rendered either a whale, or a dragon, or a serpent, and of "levi", which signifies conjunction, from the close joining of its scales, (Job 41:15–17) ; the patriarch Levi has his name from the same word; see (Genesis 29:34) ; and the name bids fairest for the crocodile, and which is called "thannin", (Ezekiel 29:3Ezekiel 29:4) (32:2) .

Could the crocodile be established as the "leviathan", and the behemoth as the river horse, the transition from the one to the other would appear very easy; since, as Pliny says ^F1 , there is a sort of a kindred between them, being of the same river, the river Nile, and so may be thought to be better known to Job than the whale; though it is not to be concealed what Pliny says ^F2 , that whales have been seen in the Arabian seas; he speaks of one that came into the river of Arabia, six hundred feet long, and three hundred and sixty broad. There are some things in the description of this creature that seem to agree best with the crocodile, and others that suit better with the whale, and some with neither;

or his tongue with a cord [which] you let down ?
into the river or sea, as anglers do, with lead to it to make it sink below the surface of the water, and a quill or cork that it may not sink too deep; but this creature is not to be taken in this manner; and which may be objected to the crocodile being meant, since that has no tongue ^F3 , or at least so small that it is not seen, and cleaves close to its lower jaw, which never moves; and is taken with hooks and cords, as Herodotus {d}, Diodorus Siculus ^F5 , and Leo Africanus ^F6 , testify; but not so the whale.

(See definition for 03882 .
Editor.)

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Nat. Hist. l. 28. c. 8.
• F2: Ib. l. 32. c. 1.
• F3: Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 31. Herodot. Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 68. Solin. c. 45. Plutarch. de Is. & Osir. Vid. Aristot. de Animal. l. 2. c. 17. & l. 4. c. 11. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 37. Thevenot, ut supra. (Travels, part 1. c. 72.) Sandys's Travels, l. 2. p. 78.
• F5: Ut supra. (Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 31.)
• F6: Descriptio Africae, l. 9. p. 762. See Sandy's Travels, ut supra, (l. 2.) p. 79.

Can you put an hook into his nose ?
&c.] Or a rush, that is, a rope made of rushes; for of such ropes were made, as Pliny ^F7 affirms;

or bore his jaw through with a thorn ?
as men do herrings, or such like small fish, for the convenience of carrying them, or hanging them up to dry; the whale is not to be used in such a manner: but the Tentyritae, a people in Egypt, great enemies to crocodiles, had methods of taking thorn in nets, and of binding and bridling them, and carrying them as they pleased ^F8 .

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Nat. Hist. l. 19. c. 2.
• F8: Strabo. Geograph. l. 17. p. 560. Aelian. de Animal. l. 10. c. 21. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 25.

Will he make many supplications to you ? &c.] To cease pursuing him, or to let him go when taken, or to use him well and not take away his life; no, he is too spirited and stouthearted to ask any favour, it is below him;

will he speak soft [words] to you ? smooth and flattering ones, for the above purposes? he will not: this is a figurative way of speaking.

Will he make a covenant with thee ?
&c.] To live in friendship or servitude, as follows;

will you take him for a servant for ever ?
oblige him to serve you for life, or reduce him to perpetual bondage; signifying, that he is not to be tamed or brought into subjection; which is true of the whale, but not of the crocodile; for several authors ^F9 speak of them as making a sort of a truce with the priests of Egypt for a certain time, and of their being tamed so as to be handled, and fed, and brought up in the house.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Herodot, ut supra, (Euterpe, sive, l. 2.) c. 69. Aelian. l. 8. c. 2. & l. 10. c. 21. Solin. c. 45. Plin. l. 8. c. 46.

Will you play with him as [with] a bird ?
&c.] In the hand or cage: leviathan plays in the sea, but there is no playing with him by land, (Psalms 104:26);

or will you bind him for your maidens ?
or young girls, as Mr. Broughton renders it; tie him in a string, as birds are for children to play with? Now, though crocodiles are very pernicious to children, and often make a prey of them when they approach too near the banks of the Nile, or whenever they have an opportunity of seizing them ^F11 ; yet there is an instance of the child of an Egyptian woman that was brought up with one, and used to play with it ^F12 , though, when grown up, was killed by it; but no such instance can be given of the whale of any sort.

FOOTNOTES:

• F11: Aelian. l. 10. c. 21.
• F12: Maxim. Tyr. Sermon. 38.