Job 41:27
in Job 41He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He counteth iron as straw, And brass as rotten wood.
KJV
He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
8 notes on this verseFor he shall esteem iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. 19. That which above He called a 'spear,' he mentioned again below under the appellation of 'iron:' and that which He spoke of as a 'breastplate,' He again designated by mentioning it as 'brass.' For iron is sharpened, that the adversary may be wounded; but brass is hardly destroyed by any rust.
This site's exposition
Strength resides in his neck
on Job 41:22-29
His chest is “as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone”, a doubled figure Barnes reads as courage nothing within can shake. Every weapon fails, “the spear or dart or arrow”. Clarke hears in these useless weapons an answer to Job's demand for legal means against God.
This site's exposition
He regards iron as straw
Gill cites Eustathius, who wrote that the sharpest iron glances off Leviathan and is blunted. Barnes gives the verse to the crocodile. Olympiodorus read it of the devil, who regards every weapon as straw and rotten wood.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
The spiritual weapons [of humans], he says, are unable to kill him, and [the devil] considers as straw and rotten wood those weapons that cannot inflict a lethal wound on him.
The Medieval Church1 voice
He assigns the reason for this saying, "For he will treat iron like straw," for just as a man cannot be wounded by straws and easily breaks them, so Leviathan cannot be wounded by an iron sword or spear, but easily breaks things like that. …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
He esteemeth iron as straw,.... You may as well cast a straw at him as a bar of iron; it will make no impression on his steeled back, which is as a coat of mail to him; so Eustathius affirms (d) that the sharpest iron is rebounded and blunted by him; and brass as rotten wood; or steel, any instrument made of it, though ever so strong or piercing. (d) Apud ibid. (Bochard. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 17. col. 785.)
It is the picture of a hard-hearted sinner, that despises the terrors of the Almighty and laughs at all the threatenings of his word. The leviathan so little dreads the weapons that are used against him that, to show how hardy he is, he chooses to lie on the sharp stones, the sharp-pointed things (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He esteemeth iron as straw - He regards instruments made of iron and brass as if they were straw or rotten wood. That is, they make no impression on him. This will agree better with the crocodile than any other animal. So hard is his skin, that a musket-ball will not penetrate it; see numerous quotations proving the hardness of the skin of the crooodile, in Bochart.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יַחְשֹׁ֣ב | yachsho | it considers | H2803 → | 124 times |
| לְתֶ֣בֶן | leteven | to straw | H8401 → | |
| בַּרְזֶ֑ל | barzel | iron | H1270 → | 76 times |
| לְעֵ֖ץ | leetz | to wood of | H6086 → | 328 times |
| רִקָּב֣וֹן | rikavon | rottenness | H7539 → | |
| נְחוּשָֽׁה׃ | nechushah | bronze | H5154 → | 10 times |
יַחְשֹׁ֣בit considers
yachshoH2803 →124 times
לְתֶ֣בֶןto straw
letevenH8401 →
בַּרְזֶ֑לiron
barzelH1270 →76 times
לְעֵ֖ץto wood of
leetzH6086 →328 times
רִקָּב֣וֹןrottenness
rikavonH7539 →
נְחוּשָֽׁה׃bronze
nechushahH5154 →10 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIV; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 41:18 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.