A Fifty-sixfold Description of Leviathan from the book of Job

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  1. He cannot be taken with a hook like a fish (Job 41:1).
  2. His tongue cannot be snared with a rope.
  3. His nose cannot be hooked (Job 41:2).
  4. Jaws cannot be bored through with a thorn (ring).
  5. He does not beg for his life (Job 41:3).
  6. He cannot be made a servant of man (Job 41:4).
  7. He cannot be tamed (Job 41:5).
  8. He is not edible (Job 41:6).
  9. He cannot be divided and sold.
  10. His skin cannot be filled with barbed irons in taking him (Job 41:7).
  11. His head cannot be filled with fish spears in capturing him.
  12. In seeking to take him, all that a man can do is to fight him and no more (Job 41:8).
  13. The hope of taking him in battle is vain (Job 41:9).
  14. Men give up in any fight with him when they see him.
  15. No man is so fierce that he can stir him up any more than he can stand against God-and who will dare fight with God (Job 41:10-11)?
  16. God alone is not confounded by his parts (limbs), power, and frame (Job 41:12).
  17. No man can discover the face of his garment or his skin (Job 41:13).
  18. No man can bridle him.
  19. No man can open his jaws (Job 41:14).
  20. His scales are his pride (Job 41:15).
  21. His scales are shut up together as with a close seal.
  22. One scale is so near another that no air can come between them (Job 41:16).
  23. The scales are joined one to another (Job 41:17).
  24. They stick together.
  25. They cannot be separated.
  26. Light shoots out of his nostrils when he sneezes (Job 41:18).
  27. His eyes look like two suns that come up in the morning.
  28. Burning torches shoot out of his mouth when it is open (Job 41:19).
  29. Sparks of fire leap out when his mouth is open.
  30. Smoke goes out of his nostrils when he breathes, as out of a boiling pot.
  31. His breath kindles the coals of his mouth into flames of fire (Job 41:21).
  32. His neck is exceedingly strong (Job 41:22).
  33. Sorrow (terror) is turned into joy (dances) before him.
  34. His flesh is not flabby and soft, but solid and firm (Job 41:23).
  35. His flesh cannot be moved.
  36. His heart is as firm as a hard millstone (Job 41:24).
  37. The mighty are afraid when he raises himself up to attack (Job 41:25).
  38. By reason of breakings (destruction wrought by him) the mighty purify themselves (miss the mark and flee in terror).
  39. The sword (harpoon) that is put into him cannot hold (penetrate his hard skin, Job 41:26).
  40. The spear, dart, and other weapons have no effect on him.
  41. He esteems iron as weak straw (Job 41:27).
  42. He esteems brass as rotten wood.
  43. Arrows have no effect on him (Job 41:28).
  44. Slingstones fall off him like stubble (Job 41:28).
  45. Darts are also counted as stubble by him (Job 41:29).
  46. He laughs at the spear.
  47. He walks and lies on sharp stones which have no effect on him (Job 41:30).
  48. Sharp pointed stones are as soft to him as clay.
  49. Wherever he goes he makes the water to boil like a pot (Job 41:31).
  50. He stirs the sea up into a foam like a pot of ointment.
  51. He makes a foamy path in the water after him (Job 41:32).
  52. He makes the deep to appear hoary (white) and foamy.
  53. There is nothing like him on earth (Job 41:33).
  54. He is without fear.
  55. He beholds all high things (Job 41:34).
  56. He is king over all the children of pride.

This is no doubt a symbol of Satan as a great dragon, the enemy of both God and man.  Certain statements in this description could refer only to a supernatural being, as in Isaiah 27:1; Rev. 12.  In Job 41:34 he is called “the king over all the children of pride.”  The Berkeley and Young versions read, “he is king over all the sons of pride”; Moffatt reads, “the monarch of proud creatures.”  Thus leviathan could be none other than Satan, the spirit that now works in all sons of disobedience and pride (Ephes. 2:1-3). The word pride is not used of beasts in all the book of Job.  See Job 9:13; Job 26:12; Job 40:11-12 where the word proud is used of men.  Outside the book of Job pride is used 45 times, always of men; proud is used 42 times of men. Not once are these used of animals.  In Job pride is used only of men (Job 33:17; Job 35:12) and leviathan (Job 41:15); so “the children of pride” in Job 41:34 must refer to men.  To interpret this verse as meaning that leviathan is king over all the animals is out of harmony with truth.  If he is king over all the sons of the proud human race, then beyond doubt he is Satan.

Finis J. Dake, Dake Topical Index, WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: “Leviathan, A Fifty-sixfold Description of”.

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