Job 41:4
in Job 41Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Will he make a covenant with thee, That thou shouldest take him for a servant for ever?
KJV
Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
9 notes on this verseWill he make a covenant - Canst thou hire him as thou wouldst a servant, who is to be so attached to thy family as to have his ear bored, that he may abide in thy house for ever? Is not this an allusion to the law, Exo 21:1-6?
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
make a covenant with you
Clarke hears the law of Exodus 21:1 to 6. There a servant had his ear bored and served his master for life. Barnes asks whether Leviathan would make a covenant with you and take a slave's place for life.
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
In another way, it happens by the addition of some obligation which comes about either from some particular contract, which he express when he says, "Will he make a covenant with you?" or by perpetual slavery, which he expresses saying, "and will you take him …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Will he make a covenant with thee? And wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? 28. Thou understandest, As I. But it must be carefully observed, that this Leviathan makes a covenant with the Lord, in order to be counted His servant for ever. For in a covenant the wishes of parties who are at variance are fulfilled, that each attains to what it desires, and terminates its quarrels by the desired result.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Will he make a covenant with thee?....
"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.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Will he make a covenant with thee? - That is, will he submit himself to thee, and enter into a compact to serve thee? Such a compact was made by those who agreed to serve another; and the idea here is, that the animal here referred to could not be reduced to such service - that is, could not be tamed. Wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? - Canst thou so subdue him that he will be a perpetual slave? The meaning of all this is, that he was an untamable animal, and could not be reduced, as many others could, to domestic use.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֲיִכְרֹ֣ת | hayikhrot | ¿ will it make | H3772 → | 288 times |
| בְּרִ֣ית | berit | a covenant | H1285 → | 284 times |
| עִמָּ֑ךְ | ʾimakh | with you | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| תִּ֝קָּחֶ֗נּוּ | tikachenu | will you take? it | H3947 → | 966 times |
| לְעֶ֣בֶד | leeved | to a slave of | H5650 → | 799 times |
| עוֹלָֽם׃ | olam | perpetuity | H5769 → | 438 times |
הֲיִכְרֹ֣ת¿ will it make
hayikhrotH3772 →288 times
בְּרִ֣יתa covenant
beritH1285 →284 times
עִמָּ֑ךְwith you
ʾimakhH5973 →1050 times
תִּ֝קָּחֶ֗נּוּwill you take? it
tikachenuH3947 →966 times
לְעֶ֣בֶדto a slave of
leevedH5650 →799 times
עוֹלָֽם׃perpetuity
olamH5769 →438 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
Genesis 1:28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature…
it leads to
- Genesis 9:1
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
- Genesis 9:7
But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out across the earth and multiply upon it.”
- Leviticus 26:9
I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you.
- Psalms 128:3–4
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
- Genesis 22:17–18
I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
- Genesis 9:1
Through
Exodus 21:6then his master is to bring him before the judges. And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 15:17
then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way.
- Leviticus 25:40
Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
- Deuteronomy 19:17–18
both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time.
- Deuteronomy 15:17
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
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 XXXIII; Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 40:22-23 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.