John Gill Commentary Job 41:15

"[His] strong scales are [his] pride, Shut up together [as with] a close seal." — Job 41:15 (ASV)

[His] scales [are his] pride, shut up together [as with] a
close seal .
] This is notoriously true of the crocodile, whose back and tail are covered with scales, which are in a measure impenetrable and invincible. All writers concerning it, and travellers that have seen it, agree in; (See Gill on Ezekiel 29:4); but the skin of the whale is smooth; the outward skin is thin, like parchment, and is easily pulled off with the hand; and its under skin, though an inch thick, is never stiff nor tough, but soft ^F4 .

Though, if Nearchus ^F5 is to be credited, he reports, that one was seen fifty cubits long, with a scaly skin all over it a cubit thick. And such, it is said, were by a storm brought into our river Trent some years ago, and cast ashore, which had scales upon their backs very hard, as large and thick as one of our shillings ^F6 .

But Aben Ezra interprets this of the teeth of the leviathan, and in which he is followed by Hasaeus. These are strong like a shield, as the words used signify; so Mr. Broughton, ``the strong shields have pride:'' but then this is as applicable, or more so, to the scales of the crocodile; which are so close as if they were sealed together, and are like a shield, its defence, and in which it prides itself.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Voyage to Spitzbergen, p. 146, 147, 152.
• F5: Apud Arrian. in Indicis.
• F6: Vid. Wesley's Dissertations on Job, dissert. 38. p. 290.