Job 41:26

WEAPONS NOT EFFECTIVE AGAINST THE CROCODILE

"If one lay at him with the sword, it cannot avail;

Nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.

He counteth iron as straw,

And brass as rotten wood.

The arrow cannot make him flee:

Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble.

Clubs are counted as stubble:

He laugheth at the rushing of the javelin.

His underparts are like sharp potsherds:

He spreadeth, as it were, a threshing-wain upon the mire.

He maketh the deep to boil like a pot:

He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

He maketh a path to shine after him;

One would think the deep to be hoary.

Upon earth there is not his like,

That is made without fear.

He beholdeth everything that is high:

He is king over all the sons of pride."

"Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble" (Job 41:28). The sling, of course, was a deadly weapon both for war and for hunting. David, it will be remembered, used this weapon in his triumph over Goliath of Gath. It is surprising that it is mentioned here; because, "There is no evidence that it was ever used in an effort to destroy a crocodile. What is meant is that no ordinary weapon of any kind was effective against the crocodile."[27]

"His underparts are sharp like potsherds" (Job 41:30). See quotation from Driver under Job 41:23, above.

"He maketh the deep to boil like a pot ... a path to shine after him (in the deep); one would think the deep to be hoary" (Job 41:31-32). Barnes and other scholars remind us that "the deep" in these verses is not a reference to the ocean but to the Nile river, which in ancient times was often referred to as `the sea.'[28] The path that the crocodile made to shine after him appears to be a reference to the wake following the crocodile's movement through the water, reflecting the sunlight. We also have here a reference to, "Leviathan's motion in the water, which he churns up to a foam."[29] "It is generally allowed that by `the sea' here is meant `the Nile,' as in Isaiah 19:2; 18:5, and Nahum 3:8."[30]

"He is king over all the sons of pride" (Job 41:34). "The sons of pride here are the proud beasts of prey."[31] If one wonders why both the behemoth and the leviathan are called "kings," it is because behemoth was king of the beasts, and leviathan was king of the reptiles.