to laugh (in pleasure or detraction) · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
shaking
לְרַ֣עַשׁle.Ra.'ash
H7494
vibration · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
spear
כִּידֽוֹןki.Don
H3591
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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).
Cross-references
2 Chronicles 26:14 And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
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…
Darts--rather, "clubs"; darts have been already mentioned (Job 41:26).
Adam Clarke on Job 41:29
Darts are counted as stubble - All these verses state that he cannot be wounded by any kind of weapon, and that he cannot be resisted by any human strength. A young crocodile, seen by M. Maillet, twelve feet long, and which had not eaten a morsel for thirty-five days, its mouth having been tied all that time, was nevertheless so strong, that with a blow of its tail it overturned a bale of coffee, and five or six men, with the utmost imaginable ease! What power then must lodge in one twenty feet long, well fed, and in health!
John Gill on Job 41:29
Darts are counted as stubble,.... Darts being mentioned before, perhaps something else is meant here, and, according to Ben Gersom, the word signifies an engine out of which stones are cast to batter down walls; but these are of no avail against the leviathan;
he laugheth at the shaking of a spear; at him, knowing it cannot hurt him; the crocodile, as Thevenot says (g), is proof against the halberd. The Septuagint version is, "the shaking of the pyrophorus", or torch bearer; one that carried a torch before the army, who, when shook, it was a token to begin the battle; which the leviathan being fearless of laughs at it; See Gill on Obadiah 1:18.
(g) Travels, part 1. b. 2. c. 72. p. 245.
The Church Fathers
He will esteem the hammer as stubble. And will laugh at Him that shaketh the spear. 23. As if he were saying, He despises even the weight of that reproof, which strikes him by a punishment coming from above. For in Holy Scripture by the name 'hammer' is sometimes designated the devil, by whom the faults of offenders are now smitten. But it is sometimes taken for the smiting of heaven, by which even the Elect feel blows from above, in order to amend their evil ways: or it strikes the reprobate with just indignation, in order that by now anticipating eternal punishments, it may shew them what they also deserve hereafter. For that the ancient enemy is expressed by the term 'hammer' the Prophet witnesses, when he observes the power of the last judgment upon him, and says, How is the hammer of the whole earth broken and crushed? [Jer. 50, 23] As if he were saying, Who can imagine with what a whirling stroke, at the coming of the last judgment, the Lord shatters him with eternal damnation, by whom He smites those vessels of His which are to he fashioned for the use of His service? Again, by a 'hammer' is expressed a blow from heaven, which is signified by Solomon building the temple, when it is said, And the house when it was in building, was built of stones hewn, and made ready, and neither hammer, nor hatchet, nor any tool of iron was heard in the house, while it was in building. [1 Kings 6, 7] For what did that house typify but Holy Church, which the Lord inhabits in heavenly places? To the building of which the souls of the Elect are brought, as if they were some polished stones. And when it is built in heaven, no hammer of discipline there any longer resounds, because we are brought thither, as stones hewn, and made ready to he arranged in places fitted for us according to our desert. For here we are beaten outwardly, in order that we may arrive thither without reproach. Here does the hammer, here the hatchet, here do all the iron tools of blows resound. But in the house of God no blows are heard, because in the eternal country the noises of smitings are now hushed. There the hammer strikes not, because no punishment afflicts. The hatchet cuts not, because no sentence of severity casts out those who have been once received within. The instruments of iron resound not, because not even the slightest scourges are any longer felt. Because then the weight of the…
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
Spear · Different kinds of: Darts — Different kinds of: Darts
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 41:26-29
26 If one reacheth him with the sword-it doth not hold;
Neither spear, nor dart, nor harpoon.
27 He esteemeth iron as straw,
Brass as rotten wood.
28 The son of the bow doth not cause him to flee,
Sling stones are turned to stubble with him.
29 Clubs are counted as stubble,
And he laugheth at the shaking of the spear.
משּׂיגהוּ, which stands first as nom. abs., "one reaching him," is equivalent to, if one or whoever reaches him, Ew. 357, c, to which בּלי תקוּם, it does not hold fast (בּלי with v. fin., as Hos 8:7; Hos 9:16, Chethb), is the conclusion. חרב is instrumental, as Psa 17:13. מסּע, from נסע, Arab. nz‛, to move on, hasten on, signifies a missile, as Arab. minz‛a, an arrow, manz‛a, a…
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;…
He looks at all high things All the high things in the world he sees beneath himself, for so is the custom of the world, that whoever stands above sees the one below more than the one below sees [him]. Also, the one below has no power or victory against the one above. Now this leviathan sees all mighty men; that is to say, they have no power against him.
he is king over all proud beasts This is a repeated expression. He looks over all proud beasts and he is king over all the proud beasts, over all haughty creatures that I created in My world, who have no rule or dominion against him. Now how did you dare to lift your head before Me, since I perform all these wonders?
