Job 41:7
in Job 41Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, Or his head with fish-spears?
KJV
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?
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This verse in Job 41
Commentary
9 notes on this verse["And all the ships come together would not be able to bear the mere skin of his tail."] All the ships come together are not capable to mortify the extreme and main parts of the dragon. People using bodies or ships cannot by themselves lift a single piece of the skin of his tail. But with the favor of divine virtue, they can bear not only a piece of the skin of his tail but also his entire body, and [they can] mortify it.
This site's exposition
Can you pet him like a bird
on Job 41:5-8
God asks whether Job can keep Leviathan as a pet. Henry reads this string of questions as building toward the warning of verse 8. Clarke takes “you will remember the battle and never repeat it” as blunt counsel, that one encounter with this creature settles the question for good.
This site's exposition
fill his hide with harpoons
Barnes points to a hide too thick for spears. Gill notes that whalers pierce the whale with harpoons, so the verse fits the whale poorly. Origen read Leviathan as the dragon, whose hide all the ships together could not lift.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Second, he shows that man cannot use Leviathan like he uses fish which have been caught. Fishermen fill large nets with these fish with the larger specimens, and he expresses this saying, "Will you fill the nets with his skin?" He clearly says "skin" perhaps …
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistMorals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII · Written before 604.
proposed
Wilt thou fill nets with his skin, and the cabin of fishes with his head? 34. What is designated by 'nets,' or a 'cabin of fishes,' except the churches of the faithful which make one Catholic Church? Whence it is written in the Gospel, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net cast into the sea, and gathering of every kind of fishes. [Matt. 13, 47] The Church is in truth called the kingdom of heaven, for while the Lord exalts her conduct to things above, she already reigns herself in the Lord by heavenly conversation. And it is also rightly compared to a net cast into the sea, gathering of every kind of fishes; because when cast into this gentile world, it rejected no one, but caught the wicked with the good, the proud with the humble, the angry with the gentle, and the foolish with the wise. But by the 'skin' of this Leviathan we understand the foolish, and by his 'head,' the wise ones of his body. Or certainly by the 'skin,' which is outermost, are designated those who serve him as inferiors in these meanest offices, but by the 'head' those placed over them. And the Lord observing the proper order rightly declares that He will fill these 'nets,' or 'cabin of fishes,' that is, His Church, and the wishes of the faithful with his 'skin' first, and afterwards with his 'head.' Because, as we said before, He first chose the weak, that He might confound the strong afterwards. [l Cor. l, 27] He chose in truth the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise. For He gathered together the unlearned first, and philosophers afterwards; and He taught not fishermen by means of orators, but with wondrous power He subdued orators by means of fishermen. He says therefore, Wilt thou fill nets with his skin, or the cabin of fishes with his head? […]
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? This seems not so well to agree with the whale; whose skin, and the several parts of his body, are to be pierced with harpoons and lances, such as fishermen use in taking whales; and their flesh to be cut in pieces with their knives: but better with the crocodile, whose skin is so hard, and so closely set with scales, that it is impenetrable; See Gill on Eze 29:
He kept out of the reach of their instruments of slaughter, or, if they touched him, they could not touch him to the quick. That it was to no purpose to attempt it: The hope of taking him is in vain,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? - Referring to its thickness and impenetrability. A common method of taking fish is by the spear; but it is here said that the leviathan could not be caught in this manner. The common method of taking the crocodile now is by shooting him; see the notes at Job 41:1. Nothing is more remarkable in the crocodile than the thick and impenetrable skin with which it is covered; and the description here will agree better with this animal than with any other.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? - This refers to some kind of harpoon work, similar to that employed in taking whales, and which they might use for some other kinds of animals; for the skin of the crocodile could not be pierced. Herrera says that he saw a crocodile defend itself against thirty men; and that they fired six balls at it without being able to wound it. It can only be wounded under his belly.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַֽתְמַלֵּ֣א | hatmale' | ¿ will you fill | H4390 → | 249 times |
| בְשֻׂכּ֣וֹת | vesukot | with harpoons | H7905 → | |
| עוֹר֑וֹ | oro | hide its | H5785 → | 99 times |
| וּבְצִלְצַ֖ל | uvetziltzal | and with a spear of | H6767 → | |
| דָּגִ֣ים | dagim | fish<es> | H1709 → | |
| רֹאשֽׁוֹ׃ | rosho | head its | H7218 → | 599 times |
הַֽתְמַלֵּ֣א¿ will you fill
hatmale'H4390 →249 times
בְשֻׂכּ֣וֹתwith harpoons
vesukotH7905 →
עוֹר֑וֹhide its
oroH5785 →99 times
וּבְצִלְצַ֖לand with a spear of
uvetziltzalH6767 →
דָּגִ֣יםfish<es>
dagimH1709 →
רֹאשֽׁוֹ׃head its
roshoH7218 →599 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, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXIII; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS ON JOB 28.85 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.
