Job 41:3
in Job 41Will he beg you for mercy or speak to you softly?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Will he make many supplications unto thee? Or will he speak soft words unto thee?
KJV
Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Will he make many supplications unto thee? - In the manner of a captive begging for his life. That is, will he quietly submit to you? Prof. Lee supposes that there is an allusion here to the well-known cries of the dolphin when taken; but it is not necessary to suppose such an allusion. The idea is, that the animal here referred to would not tamely submit to his captor. Will he speak soft words unto thee? - Pleading for his life in tones of tender and plaintive supplication.
This site's exposition
Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook
on Job 41:1-4
God asks whether anyone can hook Leviathan, and Scripture names him again at Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26 and Isaiah 27:1. Barnes, with most nineteenth-century commentators, takes him as the Nile crocodile. Gregory the Great in the Morals reads him as a figure of the devil.
This site's exposition
beg you for mercy
Barnes pictures a captive who begs for mercy and speaks softly to save his life. Professor Lee heard in it the cries of a dolphin when taken. Gill sees a creature too proud to beg.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
He said this because the demons asked the Lord not to cast them into the abyss, or because Satan said to Christ, "I will give you all these things." Will he now, he says, implore you with a soft speech? Will he make a covenant …
The Medieval Church2 voices
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Will he multiply prayers to thee, or will he speak soft words to thee? 27. Thou understandest, As to Me.
Third, he shows that Leviathan cannot be mastered by the method by which man subjects man. This happens in two ways: in one way by a simple word, for example, when someone is so humbled by another that he prays to him, and he expresses …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Supplications - Doth he dread thine anger or power? Or will he earnestly beg thy favour? It is a metaphor from men in distress, who use these means to them to whose power they are subject.
Will he make many supplications unto thee?.... To cease pursuing him, or to let him go when taken, or to use him well and not take away his life; no, he is too spirited and stouthearted to ask any favour, it is below him; will he speak soft words unto thee? smooth and flattering ones, for the above purposes? he will not: this is a figurative way of speaking.
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
"He knows his own strength too well to make many supplications to thee, and to make a covenant with thee to be thy servant on condition thou wilt save his life." 3.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Will he make many supplications - There are several allusions in these verses to matters of which we know nothing.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲיַרְבֶּ֣ה | hayarbeh | ¿ will it multiply | H7235 → | 227 times |
| אֵ֭לֶיךָ | ʾeleikha | to you | H413 → | 5510 times |
| תַּחֲנוּנִ֑ים | tachanunim | supplications | H8469 → | |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | or? | H518 → | 1069 times |
| יְדַבֵּ֖ר | yedaber | will it speak | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| אֵלֶ֣יךָ | ʾeleikha | to you | H413 → | 5510 times |
| רַכּֽוֹת׃ | rakot | soft [words] | H7390 → |
הֲיַרְבֶּ֣ה¿ will it multiply
hayarbehH7235 →227 times
אֵ֭לֶיךָto you
ʾeleikhaH413 →5510 times
תַּחֲנוּנִ֑יםsupplications
tachanunimH8469 →
אִם־or?
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
יְדַבֵּ֖רwill it speak
yedaberH1696 →1141 times
אֵלֶ֣יךָto you
ʾeleikhaH413 →5510 times
רַכּֽוֹת׃soft [words]
rakotH7390 →
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
Proverbs 15:1A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
it leads to
- Proverbs 10:12
Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all transgressions.
- Proverbs 25:15
Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.
- Proverbs 15:18
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.
- Proverbs 29:22
An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.
- Proverbs 28:25
A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.
- Proverbs 10:12
Through
Psalms 55:21His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
it leads to
- Psalms 57:4
My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts— with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Proverbs 5:3–4
Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
- Psalms 28:3
Do not drag me away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors while malice is in their hearts.
- Psalms 57:4
About Job
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); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII; Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 40:22-23 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.