Job 41:12
in Job 41I cannot keep silent about his limbs, his power and graceful form.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, Nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.
KJV
I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
8 notes on this verseI will not conceal his parts - This is most certainly no just translation of the original. The Vulgate is to this effect: I will not spare him: nor yield to his powerful words, framed for the purpose of entreaty. Mr. Good applies it to leviathan: - “I cannot be confounded at his limbs and violence; The strength and structure of his frame.” The Creator cannot be intimidated at the most formidable of his own works: man may and should tremble; God cannot.
This site's exposition
I cannot keep silent about his limbs
on Job 41:12-21
Verse 12 opens an inventory of armor. Gill takes the bridle of verse 13 as a warhorse's gear, dressing Leviathan for battle. Delitzsch reads the snorting that “flashes with light” and the smoke “as from a boiling pot” as poetry built on the crocodile surfacing and spouting.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Third, he shows that he is not cruel in permitting Satan to be raised up in his power, because he defers to him in nothing. For it is a characteristic of cruelty that when someone wants to favor a tyrant, he tolerates patiently the afflictions …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
I will not spare him, nor his mighty words, and framed for entreaty. 42. Who can think this, which he knows he has never read, that the devil is about to ask pardon for his faults?
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
I will not conceal his parts,.... The parts of the leviathan; or "his bars", the members of his body, which are like bars of iron: nor his power; which is very great, whether of the crocodile or the whale: nor his comely proportion; the symmetry of his body, and the members of it; which, though large, every part is in just proportion to each other.
The parts of his body, the power he exerts, especially when he is set upon, and the comely proportion of the whole of him, are what God will not conceal, and therefore what we must observe and acknowledge the power of God in. Though he is a creature of monstrous bulk, yet there is in him a comely proportion.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
I will not conceal--a resumption of the description broken off by the digression, which formed an agreeable change. his power--literally, "the way," that is, true proportion or expression of his strength (so Hebrew, De 19:4). comely proportion--literally, "the comeliness of his structure" (his apparatus: so "suit of apparel" Jud 17:10) [MAURER].
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
I will not conceal his parts - This is the commencement of a more particular description of the animal than had been before given. In the previous part of the chapter, the remarks are general, speaking of it merely as one of great power, and not to be taken by any of the ordinary methods. A description follows of the various parts of the animal, all tending to confirm this general impression, and to fill the hearer with a deep conviction of his formidable character. The words rendered, “I will not conceal,” mean, “I will not be silent;” that is, he would speak of them. The description which follows of the “parts” of the animal refers particularly to his mouth, his teeth, his scales, his eyelids, his nostrils, his neck, and his heart. Nor his comely proportion - The crocodile is not an object of beauty, and the animal described here is not spoken of as one of beauty, but as one of great power and fierceness. The phrase used here (ערכוּ חין chı̂yn ‛êrekô) means properly “the grace of his armature,” or the beauty of his armor. It does not refer to the beauty of the animal as such, but to the armor or defense which it had. Though there might be no beauty in an animal like the one here described, yet there might be a “grace” or fitness in its means of defense which could not fail to attract admiration. This is the idea in the passage. So Gesenius, Umbreit, and Noyes render it.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
From his nostrils smoke goes forth like a bubbling pot on the fire, which raises smoke.
2 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
From his mouth From the flame that goes forth from his mouth.
His breath kindles coals Burning and blazing coals. and flame And burning flames emerge from his mouth.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לֽוֹ | lo- | to it | ||
| אַחֲרִ֥ישׁ | ʾacharish | I will keep silent | H2790 → | 74 times |
| בַּדָּ֑יו | badav | limbs its | H907 → | |
| וּדְבַר־ | udevar- | and [the] matter of | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| גְּ֝בוּר֗וֹת | gevurot | strength<s> | H1369 → | 61 times |
| וְחִ֣ין | vechin | and [the] grace of | H2433 → | |
| עֶרְכּֽוֹ׃ | erko | arrangement its | H6187 → |
לֽוֹto it
lo-
אַחֲרִ֥ישׁI will keep silent
ʾacharishH2790 →74 times
בַּדָּ֑יוlimbs its
badavH907 →
וּדְבַר־and [the] matter of
udevar-H1697 →1440 times
גְּ֝בוּר֗וֹתstrength<s>
gevurotH1369 →61 times
וְחִ֣יןand [the] grace of
vechinH2433 →
עֶרְכּֽוֹ׃arrangement its
erkoH6187 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
4 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
Genesis 1:25God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 27:5
By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please.
- Job 12:8–10
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; let the fish of the sea inform you.
- Genesis 2:19–20
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each…
- Job 26:13
By His breath the skies were cleared; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
- Jeremiah 27:5
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 XXXIII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.