Job 41:17
in Job 41They are joined to one another; they clasp and cannot be separated.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They are joined one to another; They stick together, so that they cannot be sundered.
KJV
They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThey are joined one to another,.... One scale to another, or "a man in his brother" (h): which may seem to favour the notion of the whale's teeth in the sockets, which exactly answer to one another; but the next clause will by no means agree with them; they stick together, that they cannot be sundered: whereas they easily be, at least by the creature itself; but the scales of a crocodile are so closely joined and sealed together, that there is no parting them. (h) איש באחיהו "vir in fratre suo"; Montanus.
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
They are joined to one another
Joined to one another is literally a man with his brother. Barnes adds that the scales have no fastening and lie so near they cannot be separated. Gregory read them as sinners joined together in stubborn union.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Therefore, to show the obstinacy of their consensus to evil he says, "One will adhere to another," by mutual favor and consent, "they hold themselves together and cannot be separated in any way," because of their obstinant consent in evil, like the scales of Leviathan …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
They will adhere one to another, and holding each other they will not be separated. 55. For they who might be corrected, if divided, persevere, when united, in the obstinacy of their iniquities: and are day by day the more easily separable from the knowledge of righteousness, the more they are not mutually separated from each other by any reproach. For as it is wont to be injurious if unity be wanting to the good, so is it fatal if it be not wanting to the wicked.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
That which is remarkable concerning the scales is that they stick so close together, by which he is not only kept warm, for no air can pierce him, but kept safe, for no sword can pierce him through those scales.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
They are joined one to another - literally, “A man with his brother;” that is, each one is connected with another. There is no natural fastening of one scale with another, but they lie so close and compact that they seem thus to be fastened down on one another; see Bochart on this verse. It is this which makes the crocodile so difficult to be killed. A musket-ball will penetrate the skin under the belly, which is there less firmly protected; and accordingly the efforts of those who attempt to secure them are directed to that part of the body.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִישׁ־ | ʾish- | each | H376 → | 1663 times |
| בְּאָחִ֥יהוּ | beachihu | on brother its | H251 → | 630 times |
| יְדֻבָּ֑קוּ | yedubaku | they are joined together | H1692 → | 54 times |
| יִ֝תְלַכְּד֗וּ | yitlakedu | they grasp one another | H3920 → | 121 times |
| וְלֹ֣א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יִתְפָּרָֽדוּ׃ | yitparadu | they are separated | H6504 → |
אִישׁ־each
ʾish-H376 →1663 times
בְּאָחִ֥יהוּon brother its
beachihuH251 →630 times
יְדֻבָּ֑קוּthey are joined together
yedubakuH1692 →54 times
יִ֝תְלַכְּד֗וּthey grasp one another
yitlakeduH3920 →121 times
וְלֹ֣אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
יִתְפָּרָֽדוּ׃they are separated
yitparaduH6504 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
About Job
This page draws on 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; 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.