Job 41:13
in Job 41Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can approach him with a bridle?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Who can strip off his outer garment? Who shall come within his jaws?
KJV
Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
11 notes on this verseWho can discover the face of his garment?.... Or rather uncover it? Not the sea, which Mr. Broughton represents as the garment of the whale; who can strip him of it, or take him out of that, and bring him to land? which, though not impossible, is difficult: but either the garment of his face, the large bulk or prominence that hangs over his eyes; or rather his skin.
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.
This site's exposition
strip off his outer coat
The outer coat is his skin, Barnes notes, hard and rough as armor. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see a hard outer coat laid over an inner skin, and take the bridle as his double row of teeth. Wesley asks who would dare even to touch it.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Jesus sanctified Baptism by being Himself baptized. If the Son of God was baptized, what godly man is he that despiseth Baptism? But He was baptized not that He might receive remission of sins, for He was sinless; but being sinless, He was baptized, that He might give to them that are baptized a divine and excellent grace. For since the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise partook of the same, that having been made partakers of His presence in the flesh we might be made partakers also of His Divine grace: thus Jesus was baptized, that thereby we again by our participation might receive both salvation and honour. According to Job, there was in the waters the dragon that draweth up Jordan into his mouth. Since, therefore, it was necessary to break the heads of the dragon in pieces, He went down and bound the strong one in the waters, that we might receive power to tread upon serpents and scorpions. The beast was great and terrible. No fishing-vessel was able to carry one scale of his tail: destruction ran before him, ravaging all that met him. The Life encountered him, that the mouth of Death might henceforth be stopped, and all we that are saved might say, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is drawn by Baptism.
The Medieval Church2 voices
After he has said these things to remove the charge of cruelty against himself, he proceeds to describe the power of Leviathan, and first he describes his shape beginning with his head. It is said that "above the eyes of whales there are certain horns …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Who will uncover the face of his garment? And who will enter into the midst of his mouth? 44. This Leviathan tempts in one way the minds of men which are religious, and in another those which are devoted to this world.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Discover - Or, uncover, or take off from him. Face - The upper or outward part of his garment, or, the garment itself: the word face being often redundant. And by the garment is meant the skin which covers the whole body; who dare attempt to touch his very skin?
Who dares come so near him while he is alive as to discover or take a distinct view of the face of the garment, the skin with which he is clothed as with a garment, so near him as to bridle him like a horse and so lead him away, so near him as to be within reach of his jaws, which are like a double bridle?
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Who can discern the face of his garment? - literally, “Who can reveal the face, that is, the appearance, of his garment?” This “garment” is undoubtedly his skin. The meaning seems to be, “His hard and rough skin is his defense, and no one can so strip off that as to have access to him.” The word rendered “discover” (גלה gâlâh) means “to make naked”; then “to reveal”; and the idea is, that he cannot be made naked of that covering, or deprived of it so that one could attack him.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
discover--rather, "uncover the surface" of his garment (skin, Job 10:11): strip off the hard outer coat with which the inner skin is covered. with--rather, "within his double jaws"; literally, "bridle"; hence that into which the bridle is put, the double row of teeth; but "bridle" is used to imply that none dare put his hand in to insert a bridle where in other animals it is placed (Job 41:4;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
Who can discover the face of his garment? - Who can rip up the hide of this terrible monster? Who can take away his covering, in order to pierce his vitals?
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
His breath kindles coals Burning and blazing coals. and flame And burning flames emerge from his mouth.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
From his nostrils smoke goes forth like a bubbling pot on the fire, which raises smoke.
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
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מִֽי־ | mi- | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| גִ֭לָּה | gilah | has he uncovered | H1540 → | 186 times |
| פְּנֵ֣י | penei | [the] surface of | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| לְבוּשׁ֑וֹ | levusho | clothing its | H3830 → | 33 times |
| בְּכֶ֥פֶל | bekhefel | in [the] doubling of | H3718 → | |
| רִ֝סְנ֗וֹ | risno | halter its | H7448 → | |
| מִ֣י | mi | who? | H4310 → | 423 times |
| יָבֽוֹא׃ | yavo' | will he come | H935 → | 2568 times |
מִֽי־who?
mi-H4310 →423 times
גִ֭לָּהhas he uncovered
gilahH1540 →186 times
פְּנֵ֣י[the] surface of
peneiH6440 →2123 times
לְבוּשׁ֑וֹclothing its
levushoH3830 →33 times
בְּכֶ֥פֶלin [the] doubling of
bekhefelH3718 →
רִ֝סְנ֗וֹhalter its
risnoH7448 →
מִ֣יwho?
miH4310 →423 times
יָבֽוֹא׃will he come
yavo'H935 →2568 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
Psalms 32:9Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding; they must be controlled with bit and bridle to make them come to you.
it leads to
- Proverbs 26:3
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools!
- Jeremiah 4:22
“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
- James 3:3
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can guide the whole animal.
- Job 35:11
who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
- Proverbs 26:3
Through
James 3:3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can guide the whole animal.
it leads to
- Psalms 32:9
Do not be like the horse or mule, which have no understanding; they must be controlled with bit and bridle to make them come to you.
- Psalms 39:1
I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present.”
- James 1:26
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.
- Psalms 32:9
Through
2 Kings 19:28Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’
it leads to
- Ezekiel 29:4
But I will put hooks in your jaws and cause the fish of your streams to cling to your scales. I will haul you up out of your rivers, and all the fish of…
- Ezekiel 29:4
About Job
This page draws on 11 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); Cyril of Jerusalem, ''Catechetical Lectures, Lecture 3''; 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 (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.