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Job 41:19

in Job 41

Firebrands stream from his mouth; fiery sparks shoot forth!

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Out of his mouth go burning torches, And sparks of fire leap forth.

KJV

Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

This verse in Job 41

Commentary

10 notes on this verse

A commentator

Origen of Alexandria

FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.114 · Written before 253.

I believe that all the impious teachers of immoral doctrines are properly the limbs of the dragon. What are the names, if you want to listen, of the limbs of the dragon? The mouth of the dragon can be metaphorically interpreted as the main limb, because all the dangerous speeches come from it. "From his mouth go flaming torches." From it you hear the insulting speech under the guise of Christianity, the speech vilifying the Creator, or on the other hand that openly supports the theories of Marcion, Basilides and Valentinus.

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

Firebrands stream from his mouth

Gill calls the firebrands and sparks hyperbole, drawn from spray thrown up in the sun. Wesley gives the fiery mouth to the crocodile. Origen read the mouth as false teachers.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Gregory the Dialogist

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII · Written before 604.

proposed

Out of his mouth proceed lamps. As kindled torches of fire. 58. For those who look forward are called his 'eyes,' but those who preach, his 'mouth.' But lamps proceed from this 'mouth,' because they inflame the minds of their hearers to the love of misbelief, and from seeming to shine by wisdom, they doubtless thence burn with wickedness. But what kind of light their wisdom is, is shewn, when it is immediately subjoined, As kindled torches of fire. 59. Behold the hypocrisy of those is now plainly described, whose preaching is compared to lamps of torches. For when a torch is lighted, it has a sweet scent, but a dismal light. And so because these preachers of Antichrist claim to themselves a show of sanctity, but yet practise works of iniquity, the smell, as it were, which they emit is pleasant, but the light they give is dark. For they smell sweetly through their pretence of righteousness, but burn gloomily by their perpetration of iniquity. The malice of their hypocrisy John sums up in a brief description in the Apocalypse, saying; I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb's, and he spake as a dragon. [Rev. 13, 11] He had spoken indeed of the first beast, that is, Antichrist, in a former description; after whom this other beast is said to have also come up, because the multitude of his preachers after him boasts in his earthly power. For to come up from the earth is to boast in earthly glory. And it has two horns like a lamb, because, through his pretended sanctity, he falsely asserts that that wisdom and conduct exist in him, which the Lord truly possessed in Himself in a special manner. But because under the appearance of a lamb he infuses into his reprobate hearers the poison of serpents, it is there rightly subjoined; And he spake as a dragon. […]

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Job · Written before 1274.

proposed

Third, he describes the work or effect of his mouth when he says, "from his mouth lamps go forth like flaming pine logs." Consider here that a pine log is a type of wood which when lit gives forth a pleasant odor. It is said …

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Which, though hyperbolical expressions, have some foundation for them in the latter; in the vast quantities of water thrown out by the whale, through its mouth or hole in its frontispiece, which in the sun may look like lamps and sparks of fire, as before observed; and especially in the "orcae", or whales with teeth, which eject in the same way an oily mucus, or the fat liquor of the brain, commonly called spermaceti, which may appear more bright and glittering.

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

Lamps - This also better agrees with the crocodile, which breathes like the river-horse, of which ancient authors affirm, that his nostrils are very large, and he breathes forth a fiery smoke like that of a furnace.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Probably these hyperbolical expressions are used concerning the leviathan to intimate the terror of the wrath of God, for that is it which all this is designed to convince us of.
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Out of his mouth go burning lamps - Dr. Young, in his paraphrase, has a sensible note on this passage: - “This is nearer the truth than at first view may be imagined. The crocodile, according to naturalists, lying long under water, and being there forced to hold its breath, when it emerges, the breath long repressed is hot, and bursts out so violently, that it resembles fire and smoke. The horse does not repress his breath by any means so long, neither is he so fierce and animated; yet the most correct of poets ventures to use the same metaphor concerning him, volvit sub naribus ignem. By this I would caution against a false opinion of the boldness of Eastern metaphors, from passages ill understood.”
Out of his mouth go burning lamps - The word “lamps” here is probably used to denote torches, or fire-brands. The animal is here described as in pursuit of his prey on land; and the description is exceedingly graphic and powerful. His mouth is then open; his jaws are distended; his breath is thrown out with great violence; his blood is inflamed, and the animal seems to vomit forth flames. The description is of course to be regarded as figurative.

The words behind it

6 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • מִ֭פִּיוfrom mouth its

    mipivH6310 →498 times

  • לַפִּידִ֣יםtorches

    lapidimH3940 →

  • יַהֲלֹ֑כוּthey go

    yahalokhuH1980 →1546 times

  • כִּיד֥וֹדֵיsparks of

    kidodeiH3590 →

  • אֵ֝֗שׁfire

    ʾeshH784 →378 times

  • יִתְמַלָּֽטוּ׃they escape

    yitmalatuH4422 →95 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

5 stops

Each 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 18:8

    Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 21:9

      You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.

    • Psalms 11:6

      On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.

    • Nahum 1:5–6

      The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles at His presence—the world and all its dwellers.

    • Numbers 16:35

      And fire came forth from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

    • Amos 4:11

      “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

About Job

Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Job Hears of His Misfortunes, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
This page draws on 10 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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.114 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.