Job 41:7

Study note

Setting — God addresses Job in Job 41:7, continuing a rhetorical challenge about the Leviathan’s invulnerability immediately after asking whether traders could barter for the creature. The question precedes a direct warning that attempting to strike the beast will result in remembered defeat and never be repeated.

The words — תְמַלֵּא (temalle’) means “will you fill,” paired with שְׂכָבוֹת (s’kovot), rendered here as “harpoons,” and צִלְצַל (tsiltzal), meaning “spear.” These terms describe the physical attempts to pierce the creature’s hide and head.

The thread — The verse advances the motif of human impotence against a divinely shielded creature, running parallel to the surrounding rejection of merchant trade and physical combat. This same pattern of dismissing human weapons to highlight divine sovereignty appears in the immediate context of Job 41:6 and Job 41:8.

Why it lands — The text asks the reader to measure human weaponry against an unbreachable armor and acknowledge the impossibility of the task. It requires a plain recognition that strength measured by harpoons and spears cannot control what God has placed beyond human reach.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.