to laugh (in pleasure or detraction) · interrogative particle + verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
bird
כַּצִּפּ֑וֹרka.tzi.Por
H6833
a little bird (as hopping) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
bind
וְ֝תִקְשְׁרֶ֗נּוּve.tik.she.Re.nu
H7194
to tie · conjunction + verb, qal, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
maidens
לְנַעֲרוֹתֶֽיךָle.na.'a.ro.Tei.kha
H5291
a girl (from infancy to adolescence) · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
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
Judges 16:25-30 And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson ou…
Job 28:11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 41:1-10
Whether this leviathan be a whale or a crocodile is a great dispute among the learned, which I will not undertake to determine; some of the particulars agree more easily to the one, others to the other; both are very strong and fierce, and the power of the Creator appears in them. The ingenious Sir Richard Blackmore, though he admits the more received opinion concerning the behemoth, that it must be meant of the elephant, yet agrees with the learned Bochart's notion of the leviathan, that it is the crocodile, which was so well known in the river of Egypt. I confess that that which inclines me rather to understand it of the whale is not only because it is much larger and a nobler animal, but…
Wilt thou play with him - Is he such a creature as thou canst tame; and of which thou canst make a pet, and give as a plaything to thy little girls? נערותיך naarotheycha; probably alluding to the custom of catching birds, tying a string to their legs, and giving them to children to play with; a custom execrable as ancient, and disgraceful as modern.
John Gill on Job 41:5
Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?.... In the hand or cage: leviathan plays in the sea, but there is no playing with him by land, Psalm 104:26;
or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? or young girls, as Mr. Broughton renders it; tie him in a string, as birds are for children to play with? Now, though crocodiles are very pernicious to children, and often make a prey of them when they approach too near the banks of the Nile, or whenever they have an opportunity of seizing them (k); yet there is an instance of the child of an Egyptian woman that was brought up with one, and used to play with it (l), though, when grown up, was killed by it; but no such instance can be given of the whale of…
Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? 30. Why is it that our adversary is first called Behemoth, afterwards Leviathan, but is now compared to a 'bird,' in ridicule at his destruction? For Behemoth, as we have said, is interpreted 'monster,' ['bellua'] and it is shewn to be a quadruped, when it is said to eat hay as an ox. But Leviathan, as he is taken with a hook is doubtless set before us as a serpent in the waters. But now he is brought into comparison with a bird, when it is said, Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? Let us examine, therefore, why he is called a 'monster,' or a 'beast,' why a 'dragon,' and why a 'bird.' For we learn more quickly the meaning of his names, if we accurately examine the craft of his cunning. For he comes from heaven to earth, and no longer raises himself by any aspiration to the hope of heavenly things. He is, therefore, an irrational and four-footed animal by the folly of his unclean doings, a dragon by his malice in doing hurt, a 'bird' by the levity of his subtle nature. For because he knows not what he is doing against himself, he is a monster with brute sense; because he maliciously seeks to hurt us, he is a 'dragon;' but because he exalts himself haughtily on the subtlety of his nature, he is a 'bird.' Again, because he is in his wicked doings employed by the Divine power for our benefit, he is a 'beast;' because he secretly bites, he is a 'serpent;' but because he sometimes through his indomitable pride feigns himself to be an Angel of light, he is a 'bird.' For though he harasses mankind with his inexplicable skill in wickedness, yet he specially tempts by three sins; in order, namely, to subdue to himself some by lust, some by malice, and some by pride. 31. He is, therefore, deservedly designated by the very name of his doings, in what he attempts to do, when he is called a 'beast,' a 'dragon,' or a 'bird.' For in those whom he excites to the folly of lust, he is a 'beast;' in those whom he inflames to do malicious injury, he is a 'dragon;' but in those whom he exalts to the haughtiness of pride as though they understood high things, he is a 'bird.' But in those whom he pollutes equally with lust and malice and pride, he exists as a 'beast,' ['jumentum'] a 'dragon,' and a 'bird' at the same time. For he has insinuated himself into the hearts of those deluded by him in as…
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
Birds · Domesti — Domesti
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 41:1-5
1 Dost thou draw the crocodile by a hoop-net,
And dost thou sink his tongue into the line?!
2 Canst thou put a rush-ring into his nose,
And pierce his cheeks with a hook?
3 Will he make many supplications to thee,
Or speak flatteries to thee?
4 Will he make a covenant with thee,
To take him as a perpetual slave?
5 Wilt thou play with him as a little bird,
And bind him for thy maidens?
In Job 3:8, לויתן signified the celestial dragon, that causes the eclipses of the sun (according to the Indian mythology, râhu the black serpent, and ketu the red serpent); in Psa 104:26 it does not denote some great sea-saurian after the kind of the hydrarchus of the primeval world,
(Note: Vid., Grsse, Beitr…
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;…
Who exposed the face of his raiment He returns to the previous topic to speak of the leviathan: who can expose the scales, which are... within his double bridle Into the fold of his lips, when they are open, who is it who will enter there? [The expression] בְּכֶפֶל, double, denotes the lips, which are double, one above and one below, into which no creature may enter because of fear of him.
