“Who can strip off his outer covering? Who can pierce his double armor?
Parallel translations
- WEB Who can strip off his outer garment? Who shall come within his jaws?
- KJV Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?
- BSB Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can approach him with a bridle?
- NKJV Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle?
- NLT Who can strip off its hide, and who can penetrate its double layer of armor?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God asks who can strip off Leviathan's outer hide or approach his fearsome jaws. The creature's armor and mouth defy any attacker.
Overview
God highlights Leviathan's impenetrable outer covering and dreadful jaws, beyond any man's ability to handle. The questions stress how thoroughly the creature is protected and how perilous it is to approach. Each detail magnifies the Creator who designed such defenses. Job is led ever deeper into awe before the God whose power so far surpasses his own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Ps 32:9Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.
- Jas 3:3Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body.
- 2 Kgs 19:28Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.’
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 41:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.