Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?
Parallel translations
- WEB Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears?
- KJV Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?
- BSB Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?
- NASB “Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?
- NLT Will its hide be hurt by spears or its head by a harpoon?
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 Job can fill Leviathan's hide with harpoons or his head with spears. No human weapon can subdue this creature.
Overview
God pictures the futility of hunting Leviathan with barbed irons and fish spears. The creature's armored body defies every weapon. This helplessness before the beast magnifies the power of the God who made it and holds it in check. Job, unable to so much as wound Leviathan, is in no position to challenge the Almighty's justice or wisdom.
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 41:7 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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