Job · chapter 41 of 42
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In Job 41 the Lord describes Leviathan, a creature so powerful that no one can catch it with a hook or subdue it. Its skin is like shields, torches go out of its mouth and its heart is hard as stone. If no one dares to stir it up, God concludes, who then can stand before me? Everything under heaven is mine, and Leviathan is king over all the sons of pride.
The Lord's second speech reaches its peak in this chapter with the figure of Leviathan, a sea monster who in ancient poetry symbolizes chaos and terror. Job 41 does not ask Job to explain anything but to recognize that he cannot master even a creature. If God made and governs it, how could Job claim to demand an account from the Creator?
The Lord asks Job whether he can draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord; whether he can put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook. Will he make many pleas to you? Will he make a covenant with you to take him as your servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird, or put him on a leash for your girls? Will traders bargain over him? The hope of capturing him is false: even at the sight of him one is laid low (vv. 1-9).
No one is so fierce that he can stir him up, and so the Lord concludes: who then can stand before me? Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the whole heaven is mine (vv. 10-11). Then he describes Leviathan: his limbs, his great strength and his armor. Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal, so near each other that no air can come between (vv. 12-17).
His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes smoke as from a boiling pot. His breath kindles coals. In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him. His heart is hard as stone, hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; sword, spear, dart and javelin do not avail against him, and he laughs at the rattle of the javelin. He makes the deep boil like a pot and leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep to be white-haired (vv. 18-32). On earth there is nothing like him, a creature without fear. He sees everything that is high and is king over all the sons of pride (vv. 33-34).
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord asks Job whether he can draw out Leviathan with a hook. The question introduces the whole chapter: what man cannot master, God made and governs.
No one is fierce enough to stir Leviathan up, and God asks who then can stand before him. The argument is from the lesser to the greater: if no one can face a creature, much less the Creator.
The Lord asks who has first given to him that he should repay, and declares that everything under heaven is his. It is a statement of his sovereignty: God owes nothing to anyone, and all that exists belongs to him.
On earth there is nothing like Leviathan, who looks on all that is high and is king over the sons of pride. If the monster who rules the proud is a creature of God, no fearsome power lies outside his dominion.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Whether he can draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord. — Job 41:1
Answer: That it is false; even at the sight of him one is laid low. — Job 41:9
Answer: Who then can stand before him. — Job 41:10
Answer: That it is his. — Job 41:11
Answer: Flaming torches and sparks of fire. — Job 41:19
Answer: That on earth there is nothing like him and that he is king over all the sons of pride. — Job 41:33-34
Job 41 presents a monster no man can master, yet a creature of God. In a small group this chapter can help us talk about the fears we feel before what overwhelms us: illness, injustice, the power of evil. All of it, the book says, has a limit that God sets.
It also humbles us in a good way. God does not owe us an explanation, because everything that exists is his. Even so, he chooses to speak with us and to show himself. For the Christian, the decisive victory over evil has already been won in Christ, and that certainty sustains hope when what we face seems too big.
Job 41 ends with Leviathan as king of the proud, subject to the Lord. With this God's speech comes to a close. In chapter 42 Job will respond with a confession of faith and repentance, and the book will reach its end.
The text describes an aquatic creature with crocodile traits but with details that point to a monster of chaos, as in other biblical texts (Psalm 74:14; Isaiah 27:1). Many see it as a poetically exaggerated crocodile; others as a symbol of evil and chaos. In any case, it is a creature God governs.
To show him that there are powers he cannot master and God can. If Job cannot face Leviathan, much less can he demand an account from the Creator. And if God governs it, Job can trust that no evil lies outside his control.
That God owns all creation and depends on no one. Paul echoes a similar thought in Romans 11:35, where no one has first given to God so that God must repay. All creation is his and under his care.