He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.
Parallel translations
- WEB He counts iron as straw; and brass as rotten wood.
- KJV He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
- NKJV He regards iron as straw, And bronze as rotten wood.
- NASB “He regards iron as straw, Bronze as rotten wood.
- NLT Iron is nothing but straw to that creature, and bronze is like rotten wood.
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
Leviathan treats iron like straw and bronze like rotten wood. The hardest metals are nothing against him.
Overview
To Leviathan, the strongest metals are as weak as straw and decayed wood. The imagery conveys total invulnerability to human weaponry. Such strength testifies to the Creator's incomparable power. The relentless portrait drives Job to abandon any thought of self-sufficiency and to rest in the God who alone is mightier than his mightiest creature.
Cross-references & the web
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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 41:27 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
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