properly · verb, pual imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
one
אִישׁ'ish-
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
another
בְּאָחִ֥יהוּbe.'a.Chi.hu
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
together
יִ֝תְלַכְּד֗וּyit.la.ke.Du
H3920
to catch (in a net · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
sundered
יִתְפָּרָֽדוּyit.pa.Ra.du
H6504
to break through · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 41:11–end
God, having in the foregoing verses shown Job how unable he was to deal with the leviathan, here sets forth his own power in that massy mighty creature. Here is,
I. God's sovereign dominion and independency laid down, Job 41:11. 1. That he is indebted to none of his creatures. If any pretend he is indebted to them, let them make their demand and prove their debt, and they shall receive it in full and not by composition: "Who has prevented me?" that is, "who has laid any obligations upon me by any services he has done me? Who can pretend to be before-hand with me? If any were, I would not long be behind-hand with them; I would soon repay them." The apostle quotes this for the silencing of all…
Rather, his "furrows of shields" (as "tubes," "channels," see on Job 40:18), are, &c., that is, the rows of scales, like shields covering him: he has seventeen such rows.
shut up--firmly closed together. A musket ball cannot penetrate him, save in the eye, throat, and belly.
Adam Clarke on Job 41:16
One is so near to another - It has already been stated, that a musket-ball fired at him in any direction cannot make a passage through his scales.
John Gill on Job 41:17
They are joined one to another,.... One scale to another, or "a man in his brother" (h): which may seem to favour the notion of the whale's teeth in the sockets, which exactly answer to one another; but the next clause will by no means agree with them;
they stick together, that they cannot be sundered: whereas they easily be, at least by the creature itself; but the scales of a crocodile are so closely joined and sealed together, that there is no parting them.
(h) "vir in fratre suo"; Montanus.
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 41:15-17
15 A pride are the furrows of the shields,
Shut by a rigid seal.
16 One joineth on to the other,
And no air entereth between them.
17 One upon another they are arranged,
They hold fast together, inseparably.
Since the writer uses אפיק both in the signif. robustus, Job 12:12, and canalis, Job 40:18, it is doubtful whether it must be explained robusta (robora) scutorum (as e.g., Ges.), or canales scutorum (Hirz., Schlottm., and others). We now prefer the latter, but so that "furrows of the shields" signifies the square shields themselves bounded by these channels; for only thus is the סגוּר, which refers to these shields, considered, each one for itself, suitably attached to what precedes. חות…
The Church Fathers
They will adhere one to another, and holding each other they will not be separated. 55. For they who might be corrected, if divided, persevere, when united, in the obstinacy of their iniquities: and are day by day the more easily separable from the knowledge of righteousness, the more they are not mutually separated from each other by any reproach. For as it is wont to be injurious if unity be wanting to the good, so is it fatal if it be not wanting to the wicked. For unity strengthens the perverse, while it makes them accord; and it makes them the more incorrigible, the more unanimous. Of this unity of the reprobate it is said by a wise man; The congregation of sinners is tow gathered together. [Ecclus. 21, 9] Of this the Prophet Nahum says; As thorns embrace each other, so is the feast of those who drink together. [Nahum 1, 10] For the feast of the reprobate is the delight of temporal pleasures. In which feast they doubtless drink together, who make themselves drunk alike with the allurements of their delight. Because therefore an equal guilt unites, for their own defence, the members of this Leviathan, that is, all the wicked, whom the word of God compares to scales compacted together, it is well said; They will adhere one to another, and holding each other, they will never be separated. For they cannot be separated when holding each other, because they are the more bound together for their mutual defence, the more they remember that they are like each other in all things...
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Leviathan · Nature and habits of — Nature and habits of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Unlike the peaceful Behemoth (40:15-24), Leviathan was menacing (see also 3:8; Pss 74:14; 104:26; Isa 27:1). Most commentators identify Leviathan with the crocodile, with its terrible jaws (Job 41:14) and armored hide (41:15-17, 23), thrashing the water (41:31-32). But Leviathan is a fire-breathing dragon (41:18-21) that wraps its coils around the sun to cause an eclipse (3:8-9). The background for Leviathan is the seven-headed sea monster that represents chaos in ancient Near Eastern mythology. In the biblical record, this unruly maritime monster is a frequent biblical image for chaos and wickedness, whose head the Lord crushes (Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1; cp. Job 9:13; 26:12; Ps 89:9-10; Isa 30:7;…
From his fear the mighty are frightened From his fear, the mighty and strong, both fishes and other creatures, are frightened.
the breakers fail The waves of the sea, which are called breakers, fail before him, because he breaks them with his swimming, as he swims and floats in the waves of the sea.
[The word] יִתְחַטָּאוּ is an expression of a lack, like (I Kings 1:21), “and I and my son Solomon will be lacking (חַטָּאִים).”
