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The NET Bible®

Job 41:24

Its heart is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God;   Mill;   Millstone;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Leviathan;   Mills;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Corn;   Leviathan;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Mill;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Leviathan;   Mill, Millstone;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Mill-Stone ;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Leviathan;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Stone;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Hard;   Leviathan;   Mill;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Concordance;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
His heart is as hard as a rock,as hard as a lower millstone!
Hebrew Names Version
His heart is as firm as a stone, Yes, firm as the lower millstone.
King James Version
His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.
English Standard Version
His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone.
New Century Version
Its chest is as hard as a rock, even as hard as a grinding stone.
Amplified Bible
"His heart is as hard as a stone, Indeed, as solid as a lower millstone.
New American Standard Bible
"His heart is as firm as a stone, And as firm as a lower millstone.
World English Bible
His heart is as firm as a stone, Yes, firm as the lower millstone.
Geneva Bible (1587)
His heart is as strong as a stone, & as hard as the nether milstone.
Legacy Standard Bible
Its heart is as hard as a stone,Even as hard as a lower millstone.
Berean Standard Bible
His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!
Contemporary English Version
and its heart is stone.
Complete Jewish Bible
He leaves a shining wake behind him, making the deep seem to have white hair.
Darby Translation
His heart is firm as a stone, yea, firm as the nether [millstone].
Easy-to-Read Version
His heart is like a rock; he has no fear. It is as hard as a millstone.
George Lamsa Translation
His meat is good and fat, and it is nourishing.
Good News Translation
His stony heart is without fear, as unyielding and hard as a millstone.
Lexham English Bible
Its heart is cast as stone; yes, it is cast as the lower millstone.
Literal Translation
His heart is cast hard as a stone, even cast hard as a piece of a lower millstone .
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
His hert is as harde as a stone, ad as fast as the styth ye that the hammer man smyteth vpon.
American Standard Version
His heart is as firm as a stone; Yea, firm as the nether millstone.
Bible in Basic English
His heart is as strong as a stone, hard as the lower crushing-stone.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.
King James Version (1611)
His heart is as firme as a stone, yea as hard as a peece of the nether mil-stone.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
His heart is as hard as a stone, and as fast as the stythie that the smyth smiteth vpon.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
There is nothing upon the earth like to him, formed to be sported with by my angels.
English Revised Version
His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, firm as the nether millstone.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
His herte schal be maad hard as a stoon; and it schal be streyned togidere as the anefeld of a smith.
Update Bible Version
His heart is as firm as a stone; Yes, firm as the nether millstone.
Webster's Bible Translation
His heart is as firm as a stone; yes, as hard as a piece of the nether [millstone].
New King James Version
His heart is as hard as stone, Even as hard as the lower millstone.
New Living Translation
Its heart is hard as rock, hard as a millstone.
New Life Bible
His heart is as hard as a stone, even as hard as a grinding-stone.
New Revised Standard
Its heart is as hard as stone, as hard as the lower millstone.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
His heart, is hardened like a stone, yea hardened, like the nether millstone;
Douay-Rheims Bible
(41-15) His heart shall be as hard as a stone, and as firm as a smith’s anvil,
Revised Standard Version
His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the nether millstone.
Young's Literal Translation
His heart [is] firm as a stone, Yea, firm as the lower piece.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"His heart is as hard as a stone, Even as hard as a lower millstone.

Contextual Overview

11 (Who has confronted me that I should repay? Everything under heaven belongs to me!) 12 I will not keep silent about its limbs, and the extent of its might, and the grace of its arrangement. 13 Who can uncover its outer covering? Who can penetrate to the inside of its armor? 14 Who can open the doors of its mouth? Its teeth all around are fearsome. 15 Its back has rows of shields, shut up closely together as with a seal; 16 each one is so close to the next that no air can come between them. 17 They lock tightly together, one to the next; they cling together and cannot be separated. 18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the red glow of dawn. 19 Out of its mouth go flames, sparks of fire shoot forth! 20 Smoke streams from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning rushes.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

as hard: Isaiah 48:4, Jeremiah 5:3, Zechariah 7:12

Reciprocal: Job 6:12 - of brass Job 41:33 - is made

Cross-References

Genesis 41:8
In the morning he was troubled, so he called for all the diviner-priests of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
Exodus 8:19
The magicians said to Pharaoh, "It is the finger of God!" But Pharaoh's heart remained hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.
Daniel 4:7
When the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners entered, I recounted the dream for them. But they were unable to make known its interpretation to me.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether [millstone]. Which must be understood not of the substance but of the qualities of it, being bold, courageous, undaunted, and unmerciful; which is true both of the whale and crocodile, and particularly of the crocodile: Aelianus z relates of one sort of them that they are unmerciful, though elsewhere a, he represents them as fearful.

z De Animal. l. 12. c. 41. a Ibid. l. 10. c. 24.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

His heart is as firm as a stone - As hard; as solid. Bochart remarks that the word “heart” here is not to be regarded as denoting the “courage” of the animal, as it sometimes does, but the heart literally. The statement occurs in the description of the various parts of the animal, and the object is to show that there was special firmness or solidity in every one of his members. There is special firmness or strength needed in the “hearts” of all animals, to enable them to propel the blood through the arteries of the body; and in an animal of the size of the crocodile, it is easy to see that the heart must be made capable of exerting vast force. But there is no reason to suppose that the affirmation here is made on the supposition that there is need of extraordinary strength in the heart to propel the blood. The doctrine of the circulation of the blood was not then known to mankind, and it is to be presumed that the argument here would be based on what “was” known, or what might be easily observed. The presumption therefore is, that the statement here is based on what had been “seen” of the remarkable compactness and firmness of the heart of the animal here referred to. Probably there was nothing so unique in the heart of the crocodile that this description would be applicable to that animal alone, but it is such doubtless as would apply to the heart of any animal of extraordinary size and strength.

Yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone - The mills commonly used in ancient times were hand-mills; see a description of them in the notes at Matthew 24:41. Why the lower stone was the hardest, is not quite apparent. Perhaps a more solid stone might have been chosen for this, because it was supposed that there was more wear on the lower than the upper stone, or because its weight would make the machine more solid and steady.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 41:24. Hard as a piece of the nether millstone.] Which is required to be harder than that which runs above.


 
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