Глава 41

1. One look from a crocodile can terrify a hunter and forever destroy the desire to take possession of it. Job 41:1. Hope is in vain: won’t you fall from one look from him? Job 41:2. There is no one so brave who would dare to disturb him; who can stand before My face? Job 41:3. Who went before Me that I should repay him? under all heaven everything is mine. Conclusion from what has been said. If a crocodile, the creation of God, inspires such horror that no one dares to attack it, then who will dare to compete with God, the creator of this monster? The correct reading of the first half of the third verse should be: “Who gave me anything in advance that I should give it back to him?” All nature is the creation of the Lord, and everything that a person owns is the property and gift of God. Therefore, protests on his part are impossible, as in the case when God gives or takes away something (cf. Job 2.10). Job 41:4–26. A more detailed description of the crocodile, confirming the idea of ​​Job 40.26–27 and Job 41.1. Job 41:4. I will not keep silent about his members, about their strength and beautiful proportionality. Job 41:5. Who can open his robe, who can come near his double jaws? Job 41:6. Who can open the doors of his face? the circle of his teeth is horror; The first question of this verse is: “Who can uncover his garment?” , i.e., to expose the crocodile’s meat from the scales covering it, is explained in Art. 7–9. The impossibility of approaching “double jaws,” literally, a double row of teeth, as well as opening the jaws (“opening the doors of the face”) is explained by the fact that “there is horror in the circle of his teeth.” 36 sharp and long teeth of the upper jaw and 30 of the lower, and always visible, since the crocodile has no lips, inspire involuntary fear, preventing one from approaching the animal. Job 41:7. His strong shields are splendor; they are sealed as if with a firm seal; Job 41:8. one touches the other close, so that no air passes between them; Job 41:9. one with the other lie tightly, interlocked and do not move apart. Arranged in 17 symmetrical rows, the scales of the crocodile's back rise up like bones or tiles; each of them has a convexity, which makes the animal’s back look like a shield. Solid in themselves, they cannot be moved apart or separated from one another, since they fit unusually tightly to each other. Job 41:10. His sneezing makes light appear; his eyes are like the eyelashes of dawn; When a crocodile sneezes with its mouth facing the sun, the water and moisture released from its mouth and nostrils casts light. Emitting a strong reddish shine, visible even when the animal’s head is under water, the crocodile’s eyes resemble a brilliant dawn. And indeed, among the Egyptians they were a hieroglyphic sign of this latter. Job 41:11. flames come out of its mouth, fiery sparks jump out; Job 41:12. smoke comes out of his nostrils, like from a boiling pot or cauldron. Job 41:13. His breath heats the coals, and flames come out of his mouth. Appearing on the surface of the water after a long stay in it, the crocodile appears to emit smoke and fire. “He,” the English traveler describes a crocodile rushing into the lake, “inflated his monstrous body and moved his tail in the air. Thick smoke came from his wide-open nostrils with a noise that shook the earth." “Initially,” says the same traveler, “the crocodile swims with the speed of lightning, and then little by little it slows down until it reaches the middle of the river. Here he stops, inhales air and water, his body becomes huge, and at a certain time a great noise is heard from his mouth. Then with a crash he releases steam from his mouth, which looks like a cloud of smoke.” Job 41:14. Power dwells on his neck, and terror runs before him. An indicator of the monster’s strength is its massive neck, and when it appears, animals and people run away in horror. Job 41:15. The fleshy parts of his body are firmly united with each other and do not tremble. One of the structural features of the crocodile, which gives it a rare strength, is that its fleshy parts are not soft and loose, like those of other animals, but hard and durable. Job 41:16. His heart is as hard as a stone and as hard as a millstone. This amazingly structured animal is given extraordinary vitality. It depends on the activity of the heart, and this latter in a crocodile is as solid as the lower millstone, made of strong stone due to the greater pressure it experiences. Job 41:17. When he rises, the strongmen are in fear, completely lost in horror. Job 41:18. The sword that touches him will not stand, neither the spear, nor the javelin, nor the armor. Job 41:19. He considers iron to be straw, copper to be rotten wood. Job 41:20. The bow's daughter will not put him to flight; sling stones turn into chaff for him. Job 41:21. His mace is considered a straw; he laughs at the whistling of the dart. A strong and terrible monster terrifies even the bravest, the “strong men” (Heb. “eilim”): “frightened, they do not achieve their goal” (second half of the verse). Trying to kill a crocodile only causes fear. And this is quite understandable, since protected by his scales, impenetrable strong armor (vv. 7-9), he is invulnerable to any deadly weapon, starting with the sword. Job 41:22. There are sharp stones under him, and he lies on the sharp stones in the mud. The correct reading of this verse is, “It has sharp tiles underneath; he lies like a harrow in the mud.” Nothing can pierce the back of a crocodile, and the stomach is also resistant to blows. The scales on it are less strong than on the back, but still quite hard. Their imprint remains on the ground when the monster crawls or rests. Job 41:23. He boils the abyss like a cauldron, and turns the sea into boiling ointment; Job 41:24. leaves behind him a luminous path; the abyss seems gray. The crocodile leaves an even larger mark in the water. From his quick, impetuous movements (cf. vv. 11-12), she becomes agitated in the same way as when boiling. “He turns the sea into a vessel with boiling incense.” The waters of the “sea” set in motion by the crocodile, i.e. the Nile (Isaiah 19.5; Nahum 3.8) resemble “boiling incense”, as it leaves behind the smell of musk. The water disturbed by the animal becomes covered with foam, reminiscent of gray hair in its whiteness. Job 41:25. There is no one like him on earth; he was created fearless; Job 41:26. looks at everything lofty with courage; he is the king over all the sons of pride. Terrible for people, the crocodile has no rival among the most ferocious animals (“sons of pride”; cf. Job 28.8): they tremble before him as before a king. You might be interested in: