Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever?
Parallel translations
- KJV Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
- BSB Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life?
- NKJV Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?
- NASB “Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?
- NLT Will it agree to work for you, to be your slave for life?
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 if Leviathan will make a covenant to serve Job forever. The untamable creature will never become man's perpetual servant.
Overview
The question of whether Leviathan would enter a covenant of lifelong servitude continues the irony. No such creature submits to human mastery. The imagery exposes the limits of Job's power and dominion. If Job cannot enlist Leviathan as a servant, he must abandon any thought of contending with the God who holds the creature in his hand.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Exod 21:6then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
- Deut 15:17then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.
- 1 Kgs 20:31–34His servants said to him, “See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth on our bodies, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will save your life.”
- Ps 8:5–6For you have made him a little lower than God, and crowned him with glory and honor.
- Gen 1:28God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
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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 41:4 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.