Who can open his jaws, ringed by his fearsome teeth?
Parallel translations
- WEB Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.
- KJV Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.
- NKJV Who can open the doors of his face, With his terrible teeth all around?
- NASB “Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth there is terror.
- NLT Who could pry open its jaws? For its teeth are terrible!
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 open Leviathan's jaws, ringed about with terrifying teeth. The creature's mouth is an image of inescapable danger.
Overview
The doors of Leviathan's face, guarded by rows of fearsome teeth, are beyond any man's power to open. The terror surrounding his teeth conveys the deadliness of the creature. As with every feature described, the point is that God made and masters what man cannot. The portrait keeps drawing Job toward humble submission to the Creator's supreme power.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Eccl 12:4when the doors to the street are shut and the sound of the mill fades away, when one rises at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song grow faint,
- Ps 57:4My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Prov 30:14there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men.
- Ps 58:6O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.
- Job 38:10when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,
- Dan 7:7After this, as I watched in my vision in the night, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, and it was terrifying—dreadful and extremely strong—with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed; then it trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns.
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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 41:14 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.