11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Everything under the heavens is mine. 12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame. 13 Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who shall come within his jaws? 14 Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror. 15 Strong scales are his pride,
shut up together with a close seal. 16 One is so near to another,
that no air can come between them. 17 They are joined one to another.
They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart. 18 His sneezing flashes out light.
His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. 19 Out of his mouth go burning torches.
Sparks of fire leap forth. 20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goes,
as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. 21 His breath kindles coals.
A flame goes forth from his mouth. 22 There is strength in his neck.
Terror dances before him. 23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together.
They are firm on him.
They can’t be moved. 24 His heart is as firm as a stone,
yes, firm as the lower millstone. 25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.
They retreat before his thrashing. 26 If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail;
nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. 27 He counts iron as straw;
and brass as rotten wood. 28 The arrow can’t make him flee.
Sling stones are like chaff to him. 29 Clubs are counted as stubble.
He laughs at the rushing of the javelin. 30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. 31 He makes the deep to boil like a pot.
He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 He makes a path shine after him.
One would think the deep had white hair. 33 On earth there is not his equal,
that is made without fear. 34 He sees everything that is high.
He is king over all the sons of pride.”

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 41:11-34

Chapter Contents

Concerning Leviathan.

The description of the Leviathan, is yet further to convince Job of his own weakness, and of God's almighty power. Whether this Leviathan be a whale or a crocodile, is disputed. The Lord, having showed Job how unable he was to deal with the Leviathan, sets forth his own power in that mighty creature. If such language describes the terrible force of Leviathan, what words can express the power of God's wrath? Under a humbling sense of our own vileness, let us revere the Divine Majesty; take and fill our allotted place, cease from our own wisdom, and give all glory to our gracious God and Saviour. Remembering from whom every good gift cometh, and for what end it was given, let us walk humbly with the Lord.