Job 41:7

Good News Translation

Can you fill his hide with fishing spears or pierce his head with a harpoon?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Can you fill his hide with harpoonsor his head with fishing spears?

Hebrew Names Version
Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, Or his head with fish-spears?

King James Version
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

English Standard Version
Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

New Century Version
Can you stick darts all over its skin or fill its head with fishing spears?

New English Translation
Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?

Amplified Bible
"Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?

New American Standard Bible
"Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?

World English Bible
Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, Or his head with fish-spears?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Canst thou fill the basket with his skinne? or the fishpanier with his head?

Legacy Standard Bible
Can you fill its skin with harpoons,Or its head with fishing spears?

Berean Standard Bible
Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

Contemporary English Version
Can it be killed with harpoons or spears?

Complete Jewish Bible
"His pride is his rows of scales, tightly sealed together —

Darby Translation
Wilt thou fill his skin with darts, and his head with fish-spears?

Easy-to-Read Version
Can you throw spears into his skin or head?

George Lamsa Translation
Can you fill his skin with meat? Or bake his head with fire?

Lexham English Bible
Can you fill its kin with harpoons or its head with fish spears?

Literal Translation
Can you fill his skin with barbs, or his head with fishing spears?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Canst thou fyll the nett wt his skynne, or ye fysh panyer with his heade?

American Standard Version
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, Or his head with fish-spears?

Bible in Basic English
Will you put sharp-pointed irons into his skin, or fish-spears into his head?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

King James Version (1611)
Canst thou fill his skinne with barbed irons? or his head with fishspeares?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Canst thou fil the basket with his skin? or the fishe panier with his head?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
One part cleaves fast to another, and the air cannot come between them.

English Revised Version
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether thou schalt fille nettis with his skyn, and a `leep of fischis with his heed?

Update Bible Version
Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, Or his head with fish-spears?

Webster's Bible Translation
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

New King James Version
Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?

New Living Translation
Will its hide be hurt by spears or its head by a harpoon?

New Life Bible
Can you fill his skin or his head with fish spears?

New Revised Standard
Can you fill its skin with harpoons, or its head with fishing spears?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Wilt thou fill, with darts, his skin? or, with fish-spears, his head?

Douay-Rheims Bible
(40-26) Wilt thou fill nets with his skin, and the cabins of fishes with his head?

Revised Standard Version
Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears?

Young's Literal Translation
Dost thou fill with barbed irons his skin? And with fish-spears his head?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?

Contextual Overview

¹ Can you catch Leviathan with a fishhook or tie his tongue down with a rope? ² Can you put a rope through his snout or put a hook through his jaws? ³ Will he beg you to let him go? Will he plead with you for mercy? ⁴ Will he make an agreement with you and promise to serve you forever? ⁵ Will you tie him like a pet bird, like something to amuse your servant women? ⁶ Will fishermen bargain over him? Will merchants cut him up to sell? ⁷ Can you fill his hide with fishing spears or pierce his head with a harpoon? ⁸ Touch him once and you'll never try it again; you'll never forget the fight! ⁹ Anyone who sees Leviathan loses courage and falls to the ground. ¹⁰ When he is aroused, he is fierce; no one would dare to stand before him.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Canst: The Leviathan, לויתן [Strong's H3882],

fish: Job 41:26-29

Cross-References

Genesis 20:3
One night God appeared to him in a dream and said, "You are going to die, because you have taken this woman; she is already married."

Genesis 37:5
One time Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?] This seems not so well to agree with the whale; whose skin, and the several parts of his body, are to be pierced with harpoons and lances, such as fishermen use in taking whales; and their flesh to be cut in pieces with their knives: but better with the crocodile, whose skin is so hard, and so closely set with scales, that it is impenetrable; :-. Or if the words are rendered, as by some, "wilt thou fill ships with his skin? and the fishermen's boat with his head" n? it makes also against the whale; for this is done continually, ships of different nations are loaded every year with its skin, flesh, and the bones of its head.

n Vid. Schultens in loc.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? - Referring to its thickness and impenetrability. A common method of taking fish is by the spear; but it is here said that the leviathan could not be caught in this manner. The common method of taking the crocodile now is by shooting him; see the notes at Job 41:1. Nothing is more remarkable in the crocodile than the thick and impenetrable skin with which it is covered; and the description here will agree better with this animal than with any other.

Or his head with fish spears - The word here rendered “fish-spears” (צלצל ts^elâtsal) means properly a “tinkling, clanging,” as of metal or arms, and then any tinkling instrument. Here it evidently refers to some metal spear, or harpoon, and the name was given to the instrument on account of its clanging noise. The Septuagint renders this strangely, referring it to the “Phenicians,” or merchants mentioned in the previous verse - “With their whole fleet they could not carry the first skin of his tail, nor his head in their fishing-barks.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 41:7. Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? — This refers to some kind of harpoon work, similar to that employed in taking whales, and which they might use for some other kinds of animals; for the skin of the crocodile could not be pierced. Herrera says that he saw a crocodile defend itself against thirty men; and that they fired six balls at it without being able to wound it. It can only be wounded under his belly.