Job 40:18
in Job 40His bones are tubes of bronze; his limbs are rods of iron.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
His bones are as tubes of brass; His limbs are like bars of iron.
KJV
His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
⋯
This verse in Job 40
Commentary
9 notes on this verseHis bones are as strong pieces of brass: his bones are as bars of iron. Than which nothing is stronger. The repetition is made for greater illustration and confirmation; but what is said is not applicable to the elephant, whose bones are porous and rimous, light and spongy for the most part, as appears from the osteology (k) of it; excepting its teeth, which are the ivory; though the teeth of the river horse are said to exceed them in hardness (l); and artificers say (m) they are wrought with greater difficulty than ivory.
This site's exposition
See the strength of his loins
on Job 40:16-19
The description turns to the body, a tail that “sways like a cedar” and bones that “are tubes of bronze”. Gill reads the language as deliberately outsized, likening the parts to trees and metals in place of other animals, too strange for an easy diagram.
This site's exposition
His bones are tubes of bronze
His bones are tubes of bronze, and the readings divide on whose bones they are. Aquinas gave them to the elephant, while Gill found elephant bones spongy and gave them to the river horse. Barnes adds that bronze here was likely copper.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Third, he describes the motion of the elephants which are said to have inflexible feet, shin bones and legs in order to sustain the weight of their body, and "they have solid bones without joints." To show this he says, "His bones are like tubes …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXII · Written before 604.
proposed
His bones are as pipes of brass. His cartilage as plates of iron. 29. In the body they are bones which hold the members together, and members which are held together. This beast then has flesh, it has bones also; because there are some wicked persons, who are yet retained in error by others, and others still more wicked who retain others also in error.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
A humbling challenge which God gave to Job. After he had heaped up many hard questions upon him, to show him, by his manifest ignorance in the works of nature, what an incompetent judge he was of the methods and designs of Providence, he clenches the nail with one demand more, which stands by itself here as the application of the whole.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
His bones are as strong pieces of brass-bars of iron - The tusk I have mentioned above is uncommonly hard, solid, and weighty for its size.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
On the other hand, Job 40:21, 22 are characteristic of the amphibious river horse. So leviathan (the twisting animal), Job 41:1, is a generalized term for cetacea, pythons, saurians of the neighboring seas and rivers, including the crocodile, which is the most prominent, and is often associated with the river horse by old writers.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
His bones are as strong pieces of brass - The circumstance here adverted to was remarkable, because the common residence of the animal was the water, and the bones of aquatic animals are generally hollow, and much less firm than those of land animals. It should be observed here, that the word rendered “brass” in the Scriptures most probably denotes “copper.” Brass is a compound metal, composed of copper and zinc; and there is no reason to suppose that the art of compounding it was known at as early a period of the world as the time of Job. The word here translated “strong pieces” (אפיק 'âphı̂yq) is rendered by Schultens “alvei - channels,” or “beds,” as of a rivulet or stream; and by Rosenmuller, Gesenius, Noyes, and Umbreit, “tubes” - supposed to allude to the fact that they seemed to be hollow tubes of brass. But the more common meaning of the word is “strong, mighty,” and there is no impropriety in retaining that sense here; and then the meaning would be, that his bones were so firm that they seemed to be made of solid metal.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עֲ֭צָמָיו | ʾatzamav | bones its | H6106 → | 126 times |
| אֲפִיקֵ֣י | ʾafikei | [are] tubes of | H650 → | 19 times |
| נְחוּשָׁ֑ה | nechushah | bronze | H5154 → | 10 times |
| גְּ֝רָמָ֗יו | geramav | limbs its | H1634 → | |
| כִּמְטִ֥יל | kimtil | [are] like a rod of | H4300 → | |
| בַּרְזֶֽל׃ | barzel | iron | H1270 → | 76 times |
עֲ֭צָמָיוbones its
ʾatzamavH6106 →126 times
אֲפִיקֵ֣י[are] tubes of
ʾafikeiH650 →19 times
נְחוּשָׁ֑הbronze
nechushahH5154 →10 times
גְּ֝רָמָ֗יוlimbs its
geramavH1634 →
כִּמְטִ֥יל[are] like a rod of
kimtilH4300 →
בַּרְזֶֽל׃iron
barzelH1270 →76 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 48:4For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.
it leads to
- Acts 7:51
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.
- Exodus 32:9
The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.
- Zechariah 7:11–12
But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
- Proverbs 29:1
A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.
- Romans 2:5
But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- Acts 7:51
Through
Job 7:12Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that You must keep me under guard?
it leads to
- Job 38:6–11
On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone,
- Lamentations 3:7
He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- Job 7:17
What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,
- Job 38:6–11
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.