Ver. 1. Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?] As men use to do the lesser fishes in angling? No, as little as thou canst bore behemoth’s nose with a snare, Job 40:24. Leviathan is a common name for all great sea monsters, Psalms 104:26. Beza and Diodati understand it to be the crocodile; others, of the sea dragon; others, of the whirlpool: but most, of the whale; in creating whereof, Creavit Deus vastitates et stupores, saith one. Pliny writeth about them, when they swim and show themselves, annare insulas putes, you would think them to be so many islands (lib. ix. cap. 2). Another saith, they appear like huge mountains; and that when they grow old they are so fat and corpulent that they keep long together in a place, so that upon their backs (by the dust and filth gathered and condensed) grass and shrubs grow, as if there were some islands there; whereat seamen attempting to land, have cast themselves into no small dangers (Heidfeld). Some tell us of a whale that would have covered four acres of ground, his mouth so wid e, that he could have swallowed a whole ship (Plin. lib. 9). Virgil calleth whales monsters; the Greeks call them θηρας and θηρια, wild beasts. The majesty and power of the Creator is much seen in these vast creatures. Psalms 77:14, “Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.” Hereupon the Jewish doctors have fabled, that God at first made two leviathans only; the one whereof he gave to the Israelites in the wilderness to feast with, the other he hath salted up for a feast to be made for the Jews, to be gathered together by the Messiah at the end of the world. Others have turned all this, and a great part of the former chapter, into allegories; whereof see Job 40:24. Let us by the ensuing description take notice of, l. God’s omnipotence, who hath made such great wonders, whereof the sea hath more store than the earth, as they know well who are conversant therein. 2. His justice, who by these creatures oft punisheth offenders. Procopius telleth us, That in his time a great whale much infested the coasts of Constantinople, and did great mischief for fifty years together, till at length being taken and brought to land, he was found to be thirty cubits long, and ten broad. 3. His wisdom in making the whale so complete in all its parts, which all have their various uses; all which are here noted and numbered; how much more are our members, yea, our very hairs! 4. His goodness in creating such sea monsters for man’s use and benefit in many particulars; as his flesh for meat, his fat for oil, his hide for thongs, his teeth for combs, his bones for building, mounding, bodice making, &c. In Africa the whales’ bones serve commonly for rafters of houses. Leviathan he is called because of the fast joining together of his scales and members, wherein consisteth his strength; and so doth ours in unity.
Ver. 2. Canst thou put a hook into his nose?] Canst thou ring him like a swine, or rule him like a bear? God can, and did Sennacherib that crooked leviathan, Isaiah 27:1 37:29; and doth still the Great Turk, who desireth to devour Christendom. Or bore his jaw through with a thorn?] Or twig, as men do lesser fishes, taken with an angle, or herrings from the fish market. These are facetious and ironic questions that are put to Job in these five first verses; hinting to him, that although he could not do any of these things, yet God could with ease.
Ver. 3. Will he make many supplications unto thee?] As conquered captives use to do; witness Benhadad, 1 Kings 20:32, and Teridates, king of Parthians, who being brought prisoner to Nero, thus bespake him: I come unto thee as unto my god, and will henceforth worship thee as I do the sun in heaven; I will be whatsoever thou shalt appoint me; for t hou art my fate and fortune, Συ γαρ μοι, και μοιρα ει και τυχη (Dio in Neron.). Will he speak soft words unto thee?] Verba byssina; as unto his lord and master. An elegant and pleasant prosopopoeia (personification). No, his stomach is too great to stoop so low.
Ver. 4. Will he make a covenant with thee?] And compound, where he cannot conquer. Wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?] To be at thy disposal, and to do thy drudgery? q.d. He scorns the motion. Before the fall this and all other creatures were at man’s service, Genesis 1:28 2:19,20; but now, alas! it is otherwise. Howbeit to those that are in Christ this part of God’s lost image is in part restored, Hebrews 2:6, with Psalms 8:4,5, and shall be perfectly, Revelation 2:26. What singular service the whale did Jonas in shipping him to land who knows not?
Ver. 5. Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?] Shall he make thee sport, as those poor birds that serve as pastime for little children? Or as the foolish Emperor Honorius delighted in his bird Roma (so he called it), at the loss whereof, when the city was taken by the Vandals, he grieved more than at all the rest? Indignum sane, regem aves praeferre viribus, saith the divine chronologer. Wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?] Shall your daughters tie him with a thread, which, lengthening or strengthening at their discretion, shall make his prison either larger or straiter?