Job 41:21
in Job 41His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour from his mouth.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
His breath kindleth coals, And a flame goeth forth from his mouth.
KJV
His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
7 notes on this verseHis breath kindleth coals. And a flame goeth out of his mouth. 67. For what does He call 'coals,' but the minds of reprobate men, kindled with earthly desires. For they are on fire when they seek after any temporal object; doubtless because their longings, which suffer not their mind to be quiet and whole ['integrum'], inflame them. The breath of Leviathan therefore kindles the coals, as often as his secret suggestion allures the minds of men to unlawful pleasures.
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
His breath sets coals ablaze
Barnes sets the breath that sets coals ablaze beside Hesiod's Chimera, breathing fire from its mouth. Gill calls the flames hyperbole. Gregory read the coals as hearts burning with earthly desire.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Since an animal breathes not only through the nostrils but also through the mouth, he describes the action of his mouth in a fifth place saying, "His breath," i.e., his exhaling, coming from his mouth, "makes live coals blaze," for it is so hot and …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
His breath kindles coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. Hyperbolical expressions, which the above observations may seem to justify.
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.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
His breath kindleth coals - It seems to be a flame, and to set on fire all around it. So Hesiod, “Theog.” i. 319, describing the creation of the Chimera, speaks of it as πνέουσαν ἀμαισάκετον πῦρ pneousan amaimaketon pur. “Breathing unquenchable fire,” So Virgil, “Georg.” ii.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נַ֭פְשׁוֹ | nafsho | breath its | H5315 → | 754 times |
| גֶּחָלִ֣ים | gechalim | coals | H1513 → | |
| תְּלַהֵ֑ט | telahet | it kindles | H3857 → | |
| וְ֝לַ֗הַב | velahav | and a flame | H3851 → | |
| מִפִּ֥יו | mipiv | from mouth its | H6310 → | 498 times |
| יֵצֵֽא׃ | yetze' | it goes forth | H3318 → | 1067 times |
נַ֭פְשׁוֹbreath its
nafshoH5315 →754 times
גֶּחָלִ֣יםcoals
gechalimH1513 →
תְּלַהֵ֑טit kindles
telahetH3857 →
וְ֝לַ֗הַבand a flame
velahavH3851 →
מִפִּ֥יוfrom mouth its
mipivH6310 →498 times
יֵצֵֽא׃it goes forth
yetze'H3318 →1067 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
Habakkuk 3:5Plague went before Him, and fever followed in His steps.
it leads to
- Exodus 12:29–30
Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon,…
- Numbers 16:46–49
Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the…
- Psalms 78:50–51
He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.
- Numbers 14:12
I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”
- Exodus 12:29–30
Through
Isaiah 30:33For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a…
it leads to
- 2 Kings 23:10
He also desecrated Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.
- Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.
- Jeremiah 19:6
So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
- 2 Kings 23:10
Through
Psalms 18:12From the brightness of His presence His clouds advanced— hailstones and coals of fire.
it leads to
- Joshua 10:11
As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the LORD cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by…
- Joshua 10:11
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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.