Job 41

19. burning lamps--"torches"; namely, in respiring ( Job 41:18 ), seem to go out.

20. seething--boiling: literally, "blown under," under which a fire is blown.

21. kindleth coals--poetical imagery ( Psalms 18:8 ).

22. remaineth--abideth permanently. His chief strength is in the neck.
sorrow--anxiety or dismay personified.
is turned into joy--rather, "danceth," "exulteth"; wherever he goes, he spreads terror "before him."

23. flakes--rather, "dewlaps"; that which falls down (Margin). They are "joined" fast and firm, together, not hanging loose, as in the ox.
are firm--UMBREIT and MAURER, "are spread."
in themselves--rather, "upon him."

24. heart--"In large beasts which are less acute in feeling, there is great firmness of the heart, and slower motion" [BOCHART]. The nether millstone, on which the upper turns, is especially hard.

25. he--the crocodile; a type of the awe which the Creator inspires when He rises in wrath.
breakings--namely, of the mind, that is, terror.
purify themselves--rather, "they wander from the way," that is, flee away bewildered [MAURER and UMBREIT].

26. cannot hold--on his hard skin.
habergeon--coat of mail; avail must be taken by zeugma out of "hold," as the verb in the second clause: "hold" cannot apply to the "coat of mail."

27. iron . . . brass--namely, weapons.

28. arrow--literally, "son of the bow"; Oriental imagery ( Lamentations 3:13 ; Margin).
stubble--Arrows produce no more effect than it would to throw stubble at him.

29. Darts--rather, "clubs"; darts have been already mentioned ( Job 41:26 ).

30. stones--rather, "potsherds," that is, the sharp and pointed scales on the belly, like broken pieces of pottery.
sharp-pointed things--rather, "a threshing instrument," but not on the fruits of the earth, but "on the mire"; irony. When he lies on the mire, he leaves the marks of his scales so imprinted on it, that one might fancy a threshing instrument with its sharp teeth had been drawn over it ( Isaiah 28:27 ).

31. Whenever he moves.
sea--the Nile ( Isaiah 19:5 , Nahum 3:8 ).
pot of ointment--the vessel in which it is mixed. Appropriate to the crocodile, which emits a musky smell.

32. path--the foam on his track.
hoary--as hair of the aged.

33. who--being one who, &c.

34. beholdeth--as their superior.
children of pride--the proud and fierce beasts. So Job 28:8 ; Hebrew, "sons of pride." To humble the pride of man and to teach implicit submission, is the aim of Jehovah's speech and of the book; therefore with this as to leviathan, the type of God in His lordship over creation, He closes.