His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
Parallel Translations
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His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
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Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.
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(41-22) Sharpest potsherds are under him; he spreadeth a threshing-sledge upon the mire.
Cross-references (1)
Passages linked to Job 41:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 41:30 Sharp stones [are] under him: he spreadeth…
Job 41:30 Sharp stones [are] under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.
Ver. 30. Sharp stones are under him] Heb. Sharp pieces of the potsherd, Acumina testacea, which prick him no more than if he lay upon the softest couch, so hard is his belly.
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He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire] When he might lie softer, he scorns it; as our hardy forefathers some two or three hundred years ago, who ordinarily lay upon straw pallets covered with canvas, and a round log under their heads instead of a bolster. As for pillows, they said they were fit only for women in childbed, &c. (Hollinshed).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain According to this translation the sense is, his skin…
According to this translation the sense is, his skin is so hard and impenetrable, that the sharpest stones are as easy to him as the mire, and make no more impression upon him. But the words are and may be otherwise rendered, as continuing the former sense, They (to wit, the arrows, darts, or stones cast at him) are or fall
under him, like (which particle is oft understood) sharp shreds, or fragments of stones;
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he spreadeth sharp pointed things (to wit, the pieces of swords or darts which were flung at him, and broken upon him) upon the mire. The fragments of broken weapons lie as thick at the bottom of the water in the place of the fight as little stones do in the mire, or as they do in a field after some fierce and furious battle. Or thus, With him (or for him, i.e. for his defence) are sharp stones; he spreadeth himself like an arrow or threshing instrument (which is filled and fortified with iron)
in the mire or mud in the bottom of the water: so he doth not describe his resting-place, but rather his back, which he not unfitly compares to sharp stones or threshing instruments, because the darts or stones east at him pierce no more into him than they would do into them if they were thrown at them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain He maketh the deep to boil (k) like a…
He maketh the deep to boil (k) like a pot,.... Which is all in a from through the violent agitation and motion of the waves, caused by its tossing and tumbling about; which better suits with the whale than the crocodile, whose motion in the water is not so vehement;
he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment; this also seems to make against the crocodile, which is a river fish, and is chiefly in the Nile. Lakes indeed are sometimes called seas, in which crocodiles are found; yea, they are also said to be in the seas, Eze 32:2; and Pliny (l) speaks of them as common to the land, river, and sea; and the Nile is in the Alcoran (m) called the sea, and its ancient name was "Oceames" with the Egyptians, that is, in Greek, "ocean", as Diodorus Siculus (n) affirms; and so it is thought to be the Egyptian sea in Isa 11:15. It is observed that they leave a sweet scent behind them; thus Peter Martyr (o), in his account of the voyages of Columbus in the West Indies, says, they sometimes met with crocodiles, which, when they fled or took water, they left a very sweet savour behind them, sweeter than musk or castoreum. But this does not come up to the expression here of making the sea like a pot of ointment; but the sperm of the whale comes much nearer to it, which is of a fat oily nature, and like ointment, and which the whale sometimes throws out in great abundance, so that the sea is covered with it; whole pails full may be taken out of the water; it swims upon the sea like fat; abundance of it is seen in calm weather, so that it makes the sea all foul and slimy (p): and there are a sort of birds called "mallemuck", which fly in great numbers and feed upon it (q). I cannot but remark what the bishop of Bergen observes (r) of the sea serpent, that its excrements float on the water in summertime like fat slime.
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(k) "Fervetque----aequor". Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. v. 327. (l) Nat. Hist. l. 32. c. 11. (m) Schultens in Job, xiv. 11. (n) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 17. (o) Decad. 3. l. 4. (p) Voyage to Spitzbergen, p. 148, 149. (q) Vid. Scheuchzer. ut supra, (vol. 4.) p. 852. & Voyage to Spitzbergen, p. 167. (r) Pantoppidan's History of Norway, part 2. p. 204.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Stones - His skin is so impenetrable, that the…
Stones - His skin is so impenetrable, that the sharpest stones or shells are as easy unto him as the mire.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 30. Sharp stones are under him] So hard…
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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 41:30. Sharp stones — חדודי חרשׂ, chadudee chares,…
Job 41:30. Sharp stones — חדודי חרשׂ, chadudee chares, acumina testæ, vel testacea, sharp points of potsherds, are under him — He can repose himself on rocks, or stones, whose edges, or points, are sharp, like those of shells, or broken potsherds; and yet he is not sensible of them, says R. Levi. and Ab. Ezra. His skin is so hard and impenetrable that they make no impression upon him, but are as easy to him as a bed of clay. He spreadeth sharp pointed things: &c. — Hebrew, חרוצ, charutz, acutum, any thing which cuts, or makes an incision. The word also means, and is rendered by Bochart, tribula, an instrument used in thrashing corn, a kind of sledge, furnished with sharp iron wheels, which was drawn over the straw by oxen, and at the same time thrashed out the corn, and cut the straw into small pieces, reducing it to chaff. Heath, therefore, translates the verse, His nether parts are like sharp potsherds: he dasheth himself on the mud like a thrashing-cart.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Sharp stones are under him - Margin, as in…
Sharp stones are under him - Margin, as in Hebrew, “pieces of pot sherd.” The Hebrew word (חדוד chaddûd), means “sharp, pointed”; and the phrase used here means “the sharp points of a potsherd,” or broken pieces of earthenware. The reference is, undoubtedly, to the scales of the animal, which were rough and pointed, like the broken pieces of earthenware. This description would not agree with the whale, and indeed will accord with no other animal so well as with the crocodile. The meaning is, that the under parts of his body, with which he rests upon the mire, are made up of sharp, pointed things, like broken pottery.
He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire - That is, when he rests or stretches himself on the mud or slime of the bank of the river. The word used here and rendered “sharp pointed things” (חרוץ chârûts) means properly something “cut in;” then something sharpened or pointed; and is used to denote “a threshing sledge;” see this instrument described in Isa 28:27-28, note; Isa 41:15, note. It is not certain, however, that there is any allusion here to that instrument. It is rather to anything that is rough or pointed, and refers to the lower part of the animal as having this character. The Vulgate renders this, “Beneath him are the rays of the sun, and he reposeth on gold as on clay.” Dr. Harris, Dr. Good, and Prof. Lee, suppose it refers to what the animal lies on, meaning that he lies on splinters of rock and broken stone with as much readiness and ease as if it were clay. But the above seems to me to be the true interpretation. It is that of Gesenius, Rosenmuller, and Umbreit. Grotius understands it as meaning that the weapons thrown at him lie around him like broken pieces of pottery.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain stones--rather, "potsherds," that is, the sharp and pointed scales…
stones--rather, "potsherds," that is, the sharp and pointed scales on the belly, like broken pieces of pottery.
sharp-pointed things--rather, "a threshing instrument," but not on the fruits of the earth, but "on the mire"; irony. When he lies on the mire, he leaves the marks of his scales so imprinted on it, that one might fancy a threshing instrument with its sharp teeth had been drawn over it (Isa 28:27).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 30. Sharp stones — Literally, pieces of potsherd. For…
30. Sharp stones — Literally, pieces of potsherd. For description of potsherd, see Job_2:8. AElian, (H.A., 10:24,) also compares the sharp-edged scales, on the under side of the crocodile, to pointed potsherds, οστρακοις καρτεροις.
Sharp pointed things — Hharouts, signifies “a threshing sledge;” also “gold;” a sense in which Carey takes it, who remarks “that the crocodile is said to spread gold upon the mud when his tail, the upper part of which is of a saffron colour, trails along, or lies upon, a bed of mud… A kind of seeming incongruity is doubtless intended in the notion of the crocodile spreading gold upon the mud. It is what man would not do.… The crocodile, on the contrary, spreads the gold-entinted portions of his belly and tail on the mud.” The word is almost unanimously accepted to signify an instrument for threshing, and is here used tropically. The impression that the tail of the animal (which is half his length) makes on the mire, is as if a threshing sledge had lain there. “This sledge consisted simply of two planks fastened together side by side, and bent upward in front; precisely as is the common stone-sledge of New England, though less heavy. Many holes are bored in the bottom beneath, and into these are fixed sharp fragments of hard stone.” — Dr. Robinson, ii, p. 307. “This comparison is somewhat ironical, as it is not customary to spread out threshing instruments ‘upon the mire,’ but upon the fruits of the ground.” — Umbreit.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 30. The impression left where he has lien.
30. The impression left where he has lien.
Under him he hath sharp potsherds,
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He spreadeth a threshing-sledge upon the mire.
The scales of the belly, though smoother than those on the back, still are sharp, particularly those under the tail, and leave an impression on the mire where he has lien as if a sharp threshing-sledge with teeth had stood on it or gone over it (Isa_41:15).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (30) He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.—Some…
(30) He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.—Some render, “He spreadeth, as it were, a threshing-wain upon the mire.” The statement is, that he not only can lie without inconvenience upon sharp-pointed things, but his own body presents a sharp surface to the mud he lies on.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Sharp stones are under him; rather, jagged potsherds are…
Sharp stones are under him; rather, jagged potsherds are under him; i.e. "his belly is covered with jagged scales a thing which is true of the crocodile, but scarcely of any other beast. He spreadeth sharp pointed things (rather, a threshing-wain, or a corn-drag) upon the mire. He leaves on the mud on which he has lain, i.e. , an impression as of an Oriental threshing-wain, or corn-drag, which is "a thick plank of timber, stuck full on the under side, of flints or hard cutting stones arranged in the form of the palate or rough tongue of a cow" (Sir C. Fellows, "Asia Minor," p. 70). The mud-banks on which crocodiles have been lying are said to be scored all over with such impressions.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain sharp stones
sharp stones
Heb. sharp pieces of potsherd.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.