Job 41:28
in Job 41No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like chaff to him.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The arrow cannot make him flee: Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble.
KJV
The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThe archer shall not put him to flight. The stones of the sling are turned with him into stubble. 21. For what do we understand by 'arrows' but the words of preachers? For when they are drawn forth by the voice of holy livers, they transfix the hearts of the hearers. With these arrows Holy Church had been struck, who was saying, I am wounded with love. [Cant.
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
No arrow can make him flee
The arrow is the son of the bow, Barnes notes, as at Lamentations 3:13. Slingstones served in war, yet to Leviathan they are chaff. Gregory read each arrow as the word of a preacher.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Man also attacks someone from a distance with arrows and stones launched by sling, but those weapons have no power against a whale either, and so he says, "The archer will not put him to flight," with a flight of arrows, which he does not …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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 arrow cannot make him flee,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The arrow - Hebrew “the son of the bow.” So Lam 3:13, margin. This use of the word son is common in the Scriptures and in all Oriental poetry. Sling-stones - The sling was early used in war and in hunting, and by skill and practice it could be so employed as to be a formidable weapon; see Jdg 20:16; 1Sa 17:40, 1Sa 17:49. As one of the weapons of attack on a foe it is mentioned here, though there is no evidence that the sling was ever actually used in endeavoring to destroy the crocodile.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יַבְרִיחֶ֥נּוּ | yavrichenu | it makes flee it | H1272 → | 63 times |
| בֶן־ | ven- | [the] son of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| קָ֑שֶׁת | kashet | a bow | H7198 → | 76 times |
| לְ֝קַ֗שׁ | lekash | into chaff | H7179 → | 16 times |
| נֶהְפְּכוּ־ | nehpekhu- | they are changed | H2015 → | 94 times |
| ל֥וֹ | lo | for it | ||
| אַבְנֵי־ | ʾavnei- | stones of | H68 → | 273 times |
| קָֽלַע׃ | kala' | a sling | H7050 → |
לֹֽא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
יַבְרִיחֶ֥נּוּit makes flee it
yavrichenuH1272 →63 times
בֶן־[the] son of
ven-H1121 →4930 times
קָ֑שֶׁתa bow
kashetH7198 →76 times
לְ֝קַ֗שׁinto chaff
lekashH7179 →16 times
נֶהְפְּכוּ־they are changed
nehpekhu-H2015 →94 times
ל֥וֹfor it
lo
אַבְנֵי־stones of
ʾavnei-H68 →273 times
קָֽלַע׃a sling
kala'H7050 →
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 1:10They scoff at kings and make rulers an object of scorn. They laugh at every fortress and build up siege ramps to seize it.
it leads to
- 2 Chronicles 36:6
Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jehoiakim and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
- Jeremiah 32:24
See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting…
- 2 Chronicles 36:10
In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and…
- Isaiah 14:16
Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble,
- 2 Chronicles 36:6
Through
Job 39:7He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.
it leads to
- Exodus 5:18
Now get to work. You will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the full quota of bricks.”
- Job 3:18
The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
- Job 39:18
Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
- Isaiah 31:4
For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not…
- Exodus 5:18
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 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.