He is a dangerous animal; when thou attackest him, be sure of thy advantage; if thou miss, thou art ruined. Depend not on other advantages, if thou miss the first. Kill him at once, or he will kill thee.
Verse 9
Behold, the hope - If thou miss thy first advantage, there is no hope afterwards: the very sight of this terrible monster would dissipate thy spirit, if thou hadst not a positive advantage against his life, or a place of sure retreat to save thine own.
Verse 10
None is so fierce that dare stir him up - The most courageous of men dare not provoke the crocodile to fight, or even attempt to rouse him, when, sated with fish, he takes his repose among the reeds. The strongest of men cannot match him.
Who then is able - If thou canst not stand against the crocodile, one of the creatures of my hand, how canst thou resist me, who am his Maker? This is the use which God makes of the formidable description which he has thus far given of this terrible animal.
Verse 11
Who hath prevented me - Who is it that hath laid me under obligation to him? Do I need my creatures? All under the heavens is my property.
Verse 12
I will not conceal his parts - This is most certainly no just translation of the original. The Vulgate is to this effect: I will not spare him: nor yield to his powerful words, framed for the purpose of entreaty.
Mr. Good applies it to leviathan: - "I cannot be confounded at his limbs and violence;
The strength and structure of his frame."
The Creator cannot be intimidated at the most formidable of his own works: man may and should tremble; God cannot.
Verse 13
Who can discover the face of his garment? - Who can rip up the hide of this terrible monster? Who can take away his covering, in order to pierce his vitals?
Verse 14
The doors of his face? - His jaws which are most tremendous.
Verse 15
His scales are his pride - They are impenetrable, as we have already seen.
Verse 16
One is so near to another - It has already been stated, that a musket-ball fired at him in any direction cannot make a passage through his scales.
Verse 18
By his neesings a light doth shine - It is very likely that this may be taken literally. When he spurts up the water out of his nostrils, the drops form a sort of iris or rainbow. We have seen this effect produced when, in certain situations and state of the atmosphere, water was thrown up forcibly, so as to be broken into small drops, which has occasioned an appearance like the rainbow.
The eyelids of the morning - It is said that, under the water, the eyes of the crocodile are exceedingly dull; but when he lifts his head above water they sparkle with the greatest vivacity. Hence the Egyptians, in their hieroglyphics, made the eyes of the crocodile the emblem of the morning. Ανατολην λεγοντες δυο οφθαλμους κροκοδειλου ζωογραφουσι. - Horapp. Egypt. Ieroglyph., lib. i., c. 65. This is a most remarkable circumstance, casts light on ancient history, and shows the rigid correctness of the picture drawn above. The same figure is employed by the Greek poets. Χρυσεας ἡμερας βλεφαρον. "The eyelid of the golden day."
Soph. Antig. ver. 103. Νυκτος αφεγγες βλεφαρον. "The darksome eyelid of the night."
Eurip. Phaeniss. ver. 553.
Verse 19
Out of his mouth go burning lamps - Dr. Young, in his paraphrase, has a sensible note on this passage: - "This is nearer the truth than at first view may be imagined. The crocodile, according to naturalists, lying long under water, and being there forced to hold its breath, when it emerges, the breath long repressed is hot, and bursts out so violently, that it resembles fire and smoke. The horse does not repress his breath by any means so long, neither is he so fierce and animated; yet the most correct of poets ventures to use the same metaphor concerning him, volvit sub naribus ignem. By this I would caution against a false opinion of the boldness of Eastern metaphors, from passages ill understood."
Verse 22
In his neck remaineth strength - Literally, "strength has its dwelling in his neck." The neck is the seat of strength of most animals; but the head and shoulders must be here meant, as the crocodile has no neck, being shaped nearly like a lizard.
And sorrow is turned into joy before him - ולפניו תדוץ דאבה ulephanaiv taduts deabah; "And destruction exulteth before him." This is as fine an image as can well be conceived. It is in the true spirit of poetry, the legitimate offspring of the genie createur. Our translation is simply insignificant.
Verse 23
The flakes of his flesh - His muscles are strongly and firmly compacted.
Verse 24
Hard as a piece of the nether millstone - Which is required to be harder than that which runs above.
Verse 25
By reason of breakings they purify themselves - No version, either ancient or modern, appears to have understood this verse; nor is its true sense known. The Septuagint have, "When he turns himself, he terrifies all the quadrupeds on the earth." The original is short and obscure: משברים יתחטאו mishshebarim yithchattau. Mr. Good takes the plural termination ים im, from the first word, of which he makes the noun ים yam, the sea, and thus translates it, "They are confounded at the tumult of the sea." In this I can find no more light than in our own. Mr. Heath has, "For very terror they fall to the ground." The translations of it are as unsatisfactory as they are various. I shall give both the verses from Coverdale: -
His herte is as harde as a stone; and as fast as the stythye (anvil) that the hammer man smyteth upon: when he goeth the mightiest off all are afrayed, and the waives hevy. The dull swell in the waters proclaims his advance; and when this is perceived, the stout-hearted tremble.
Verse 26
Habergeon - The hauberk, the Norman armor for the head, neck, and breast, formed of rings. See on [Neh 4:16] (note).
Verse 29
Darts are counted as stubble - All these verses state that he cannot be wounded by any kind of weapon, and that he cannot be resisted by any human strength. A young crocodile, seen by M. Maillet, twelve feet long, and which had not eaten a morsel for thirty-five days, its mouth having been tied all that time, was nevertheless so strong, that with a blow of its tail it overturned a bale of coffee, and five or six men, with the utmost imaginable ease! What power then must lodge in one twenty feet long, well fed, and in health!
Verse 30
Sharp stones are under him - So hard and impenetrable are his scales, that splinters of flint are the same to him as the softest reeds.