Job 41:34

41:1-34 Concerning Leviathan. - The description of the Leviathan, is yet further to convince Job of his own weakness, and of God's almighty power. Whether this Leviathan be a whale or a crocodile, is disputed. The Lord, having showed Job how unable he was to deal with the Leviathan, sets forth his own power in that mighty creature. If such language describes the terrible force of Leviathan, what words can express the power of God's wrath? Under a humbling sense of our own vileness, let us revere the Divine Majesty; take and fill our allotted place, cease from our own wisdom, and give all glory to our gracious God and Saviour. Remembering from whom every good gift cometh, and for what end it was given, let us walk humbly with the Lord.

Job 41:34 . He beholdeth all high things — He looks about him with contempt and disdain on every thing he sees. He does not turn his back upon, or hide his face from, the highest and mightiest creatures, but beholds them with a bold and undaunted countenance, as being without any fear of them. He is king over all the children of pride — He carries himself with princely majesty and courage toward the strongest, loftiest, and fiercest creatures, which, though far higher in stature than himself, he strikes down with one stroke of his tail, as he commonly does cows and horses, and sometimes elephants. Heath’s translation of this verse seems peculiarly proper, as referring to, and closing the description of, the crocodile: He will look upon any thing with contempt, be it ever so high: he is king over all the sons of rapine; that is, over the most ravenous beasts, according to the Syriac and Arabic. Dr.

Young’s paraphrase on these last two verses will please the reader, and give him a juster idea of their contents, than any thing we have said upon them: “His like earth bears not on her spacious face;Alone in nature stands his dauntless race,For utter ignorance of fear renown’d;In wrath he rolls his baleful eyes around;Makes every swoll’n, disdainful heart subside,And holds dominion o’er the sons of pride.” Here end the words of God to Job, whereby he sets forth his wisdom and power, in the works of the creation: from whence Job might be led to infer, that the wisdom and power of God being so immense, men ought to speak most reverently of him, and think most humbly and lowly of themselves; persuaded that, though we cannot always see the reason why the divine providence suffers certain things to come to pass, yet we ought to rest assured that they are wisely, and therefore justly, ordered, and therefore we should resignedly submit our selves to the divine will in all things.

Verse 34. - He beholdeth all high things He looks without fear on everything that is high and great. Nothing alarms him; nothing disturbs his equanimity. He is a king over all the children (literally, sons ) of pride (comp. Job 28:8 ). He feels himself superior to all other animals that come within his ken. They may be "sons of pride," but he has more to be proud of than the proudest of them. Ordinarily, the lion poses as "the king of beasts;" but here he is, as it were, deposed, and relegated into the second position ( Job 38:39 ), the crocodile being exalted into his place. From different points of view, there are several great beasts which might be regarded as the lords of the animal creation. Job 41:34

34. beholdeth—as their superior. children of pride—the proud and fierce beasts. So Job 28:8; Hebrew, "sons of pride." To humble the pride of man and to teach implicit submission, is the aim of Jehovah's speech and of the book; therefore with this as to leviathan, the type of God in His lordship over creation, He closes.

He doth not turn his back upon nor hide his face from the highest and proudest creatures, but looks upon them with a bold and undaunted countenance, as being without any fear of them, as was now said. He carries himself with princely majesty and courage towards the stoutest and loftiest creatures; which, though of far higher stature than himself, he striketh down with one stroke of his tail, as he commonly doth cows, and horses, and sometimes elephants.

He beholdeth all high things - That is, he looks down on everything as inferior to him. He is a king over all the children of pride - Referring, by "the children of pride," to the animals that are bold, proud, courageous - as the lion, the panther, etc. The lion is often spoken of as "the king of the forest," or "the king of beasts," and in a similar sense the leviathan is here spoken of as at the head of the animal creation. He is afraid of none of them; he is subdued by none of them; he is the prey of none of them. The whole argument, therefore, closes with this statement, that he is at the head of the animal creation; and it was by this magnificent description of the power of the creatures which God had made, that it was intended to impress the mind of Job with a sense of the majesty and power of the Creator. It had the effect. He was overawed with a conviction of the greatness of God, and he saw how wrong it had been for him to presume to call in question the justice, or sit in judgment on the doings, of such a Being. God did not, indeed, go into an examination of the various points which had been the subject of controversy; he did not explain the nature of his moral administration so as to relieve the mind from perplexity; but he evidently meant to leave the impression that he was vast and incomprehensible in his government, infinite in power, and had a right to dispose of his creation as he pleased.

No one can doubt that God could with infinite ease have so explained the nature of his administration as to free the mind from perplexity, and so as to have resolved the difficulties which hung over the various subjects which had come into debate between Job and his friends. "Why" he did not do this, is nowhere stated, and can only be the subject of conjecture. It is possible, however, that the following suggestions may do something to show the reasons why this was not done: (1) We are to remember the early period of the world when these transactions occurred, and when this book was composed. It was in the infancy of society, and when little light had gleamed on the human mind in regard to questions of morals and religion. (2) In that state of things, it is not probable that either Job or his friends would have been able to comprehend the principles in accordance with which the wicked are permitted to flourish and the righteous are so much afflicted, if they had been stated. Much higher knowledge than they then possessed about the future world was necessary to understand the subject which then agitated their minds.