Will you play with him as with a bird, Or will you leash him for your maidens?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls?
- KJV Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
- BSB Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens?
- NASB “Will you play with him as with a bird, And tie him down for your young girls?
- NLT Can you make it a pet like a bird, or give it to your little girls to play with?
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 whether Job can play with Leviathan as with a pet bird or leash him for his daughters. The deadly creature cannot be made a plaything.
Overview
God asks if Job could treat Leviathan as a tame pet, something to amuse children. The absurdity of the image highlights the creature's fearsome, untamable nature. Man may keep small birds, but not this beast. The passage keeps pressing Job toward humility: a creature he cannot domesticate is wholly subject to God, whose power and wisdom far exceed Job's own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 2
- Judg 16:25–30When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson, that he may entertain us.” They called for Samson out of the prison; and he performed before them. They set him between the pillars;
- Job 28:11He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 41:5 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.