Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
Parallel translations
- WEB Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more.
- BSB If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the battle and never repeat it!
- NKJV Lay your hand on him; Remember the battle— Never do it again!
- NASB “Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle; you will not do it again!
- NLT If you lay a hand on it, you will certainly remember the battle that follows. You won’t try that again!
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 warns that anyone who lays a hand on Leviathan will remember the battle and never try again. The encounter is so terrifying that one attempt suffices.
Overview
God advises that to fight Leviathan once is to learn never to repeat it. The warning conveys the overwhelming danger of the creature. If a single creature can so terrify and defeat a man, how much greater is the God who created it. The passage continues to dismantle Job's confidence in his own strength and to exalt the incomparable might of the Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- 2 Kgs 10:4But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him: how then shall we stand?
- 1 Kgs 20:11And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.
- Luke 14:31–32Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 41:8 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.