Job 41 is the 41st chapter of the Book of Job in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Old Testament of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

.Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012. The book is anonymous; most scholars believe it was written around 6th century BCE. This chapter records the speech of God to

Job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...

, which belongs to the "Verdicts" section of the book, comprising Job 32:1– 42:6.

Text

The original text is written in

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. This chapter is divided into 34 verses in English Bibles, but only 26 verses in Hebrew Bible using a different verse numbering (see below).

Verse numbering

There are some differences in verse numbering of this chapter in English Bibles and Hebrew texts: This article generally follows the common numbering in Christian English Bible versions, with notes to the numbering in Hebrew Bible versions.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

, which includes the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and

Codex Leningradensis The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...

(1008). There is also a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

, made in the last few centuries BC; some extant ancient manuscripts of this version include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century),

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscript ...

(S; BHK:

\mathfrak

^S; 4th century), and

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century).

Analysis

The structure of the book is as follows: *The Prologue (chapters 1–2) *The Dialogue (chapters 3–31) *The Verdicts (32:1–42:6) *The Epilogue (42:7–17) Within the structure, chapter 41 is grouped into the Verdict section with the following outline: *Elihu's Verdict (32:1–37:24) *God's Appearance (Yahweh Speeches) and Job's Responses (38:1–42:6) **God's First Speech (38:1–40:2) ***Theme Verse and Summons (38:1–3) ***The Physical World (38:4–38) ***The Physical Earth (38:4–7) ***The Sea (38:8–11) ***The Morning (38:12–15) ***The Outer Limits of the Earth (38:16–18) ***Light and Darkness (38:19–21) ***The Waters – Snow, Hail, Rain, Frost, Ice (38:22–30) ***The Heavenly Bodies (38:31–33) ***Storms (38:34–38) **The Animal World (38:39–40:2) ***God Provides for the Lions and Ravens (38:39–41) ***The Mountain Goats (39:1–4) ***The Wild Donkey (39:5–8) ***The Wild Ox (39:9–12) ***The Ostrich (39:13–18) ***The Warhorse (39:19–25) ****The Hawk and the Eagle (39:26–30) ***Brief Challenge to Answer (40:1–2) **Job's First Reply – An Insufficient Response (40:3–5) **God's Second Speech (40:6–41:34) ***Theme Verse and Summons (40:6–8) ***The Challenge Expanded (40:9–14) ***The Challenge of Controlling Behemoth (40:15–24) ***Leviathan (41:1–34) ****The Challenge to Contend with Leviathan (41:1–7) ****Some Conclusions (41:8–11) ****His Armor (41:12–17) ****His Breathing. of Fire (41:18–21) ****His Strength (41:22–25) ****Weapons Cannot Defeat Him (41:26–29) ****He Creates Turmoil (41:30–32) ****Conclusion (41:33–34) **Job's Second Reply (42:1–6) God's speeches in chapters 38–41 can be split in two parts, both starting with almost identical phrases and having a similar structure: The revelation of the Lord to Job is the culmination of the book of Job, that the Lord speaks directly to Job and displays his sovereign power and glory. Job has lived through the suffering—without cursing God, holding his integrity, and nowhere regretted it – but he was unaware of the real reason for his suffering, so God intervenes to resolve the spiritual issues that surfaced. Job was not punished for sin and Job’s suffering had not cut him off from God, now Job sees the end the point that he cannot have the knowledge to make the assessments he made, so it is wiser to bow in submission and adoration of God than to try to judge him.Note on Job 38:1 in

NET Bible The New English Translation (NET Bible) is a free, "completely new" online English translation of the Bible, "with 60,932 translators' notes" sponsored by the Biblical Studies Foundation and published by Biblical Studies Press. History and text ...

Chapter 41 continues YHWH's second speech with the focus on the sea creature

Leviathan Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some ...

. The chapters consists of two sections: #A challenge to Job to contend with Leviathan (verses 1–11) #An extended description of Leviathan's features (verses 12–34) VAT751fol154v

God challenges Job to contend with Leviathan (41:1–11)

The section opens with a series of questions to challenge Job to contend with Leviathan, which is quite overpowering for humans. The human challenge against Leviathan is described as futile (verses 8–10a), so the implication is "who can stand before" YHWH who created Leviathan (verse 10b).

Verse 1

: HWH said:''"Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook,'' ::''Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?"'' *"

": a large sea creature with unknown exact identity. It is referenced in ; ; Isaiah 27:1). The defeat of Satan in Revelation 12:3–9 is depicted with the same kind of imagery as Leviathan. *"Draw out": translated from the Hebrew verb , ''mashakh'', meaning "to extract from the water; to fish". *"Lower": translated from the Hebrew verb , ''shaqaʿ'', meaning "to cause to sink", if it is connected with the word in Amos 8:8 and 9:5. It may also have the sense of "to tie; to bind", that is 'using rope to put (bind tightly) around the tongue and jaw'.

God speaks more of Leviathan (41:12–34)

After an introductory statement (verse 12), God speaks more extensively on the

: its armor (verses 13–17), fire breathing (verses 18–21), strength (verses 22–25), inability of weapons to defeat it (verses 26–29), the turmoil it creates (verses 30–32) and a general conclusion (verses 33–34). It is out of question for human to control this creature (whether natural or symbolic of the forces of evil and chaos), but it needs to be controlled for the creation to continue and God has the control of it and all the creatures to order the world. Therefore God's rule is more than Job can imagine and more nuanced that simply rewarding righteousness or punishing wickedness.

Verse 22

: HWH said:''"In his neck abides strength,'' ::''and terror dances before him."'' *"Terror": translated from the Hebrew word , ''deʾavah'', which is only found here in the whole Hebrew Bible, but the verbal root means "to languish; to pine" and a related noun talks of "dejection and despair" in .Note on Job 41:22 in NET Bible

References

Sources

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External links

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

translations: *
Iyov - Job - Chapter 41 (Judaica Press)
translation ith_Rashi's_commentary.html"_;"title="Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary">Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentaryat_Chabad.org *__Christian_translations: *
''Online_Bible''_at_GospelHall.org
(ESV,_KJV,_Darby,_American_Standard_Version,_Bible_in_Basic_English)
Book_of_Job_Chapter_41
_Various_versions *__Various_versions {{DEFAULTSORT:Job_41 Book_of_Job_chapters.html" ;"title="Job_41.html" ;"title="Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary.html" ;"title="Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentary">Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentaryat Chabad.org * Christian translations: *
''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Book of Job Chapter 41
Various versions * Various versions {{DEFAULTSORT:Job 41 Book of Job chapters">41