Job 41:34

Louis Segond

Il regarde avec dédain tout ce qui est élevé, Il est le roi des plus fiers animaux.

Parallel Translations

La Bible Ostervald (1996)
span data-lang="fre" data-trans="ost" data-ref="job.41.1" class="versetxt"> Il n'y a point d'homme si hardi qui l'ose réveiller; et qui se tiendra debout devant moi? Qui m'a fait des avances, et je lui rendrai? Tout ce qui est sous les cieux est à moi. Je ne me tairai pas sur ses membres, sur ses forces, et sur la beauté de sa stature. Qui a soulevé le dessus de son vêtement? Qui est entré dans sa double mâchoire? Qui a ouvert les portes de sa gueule? La terreur est autour de ses dents. Ses puissants boucliers sont superbes; ils sont fermés, étroitement scellés. Ils se touchent l'un l'autre, le vent ne passe point entre eux. Ils sont adhérents l'un à l'autre; ils se tiennent, ils ne se séparent point. Ses éternuements jettent un éclat de lumière, et ses yeux sont comme les paupières de l'aurore. De sa bouche sortent des lueurs, et s'échappent des étincelles de feu. De ses narines sort une fumée, comme d'un vase qui bout ou d'une chaudière. Son souffle enflammerait des charbons, et une flamme sort de sa gueule. Dans son cou réside la force, et la terreur marche devant lui. Les fanons de sa chair sont adhérents; ils sont massifs, inébranlables. Son cÅ“ur est massif comme une pierre, massif comme la meule de dessous. Quand il se lève, les plus forts tremblent, ils défaillent d'effroi. Quand on l'approche, l'épée ne sert à rien, ni la lance, ni le dard, ni la cuirasse. Il regarde le fer comme de la paille, et l'airain comme du bois pourri. La flèche ne le fait pas fuir, les pierres de la fronde sont pour lui comme du chaume; Comme du chaume, la massue; il se rit du frémissement des javelots. Son ventre a des tessons pointus: il étend une herse sur le limon. Il fait bouillonner le gouffre comme une chaudière, il rend la mer semblable à un vase de parfumeur. Il laisse après lui une trace brillante, on dirait sur l'abîme une blanche chevelure. Il n'a pas son pareil sur la terre; il a été fait pour ne rien craindre. Il regarde tout ce qui est élevé; il est roi des plus fiers animaux.

Darby's French Translation
(41:25) Il regarde tout ce qui est élevé; il est roi sur tous les fiers animaux.

La Bible David Martin (1744)
span data-lang="fre" data-trans="mar" data-ref="job.41.1" class="versetxt"> Il n'y a point d'homme assez courageux pour le réveiller; qui est-ce donc qui se présentera devant moi? Qui est-ce qui m'a prévenu, et je [le] lui rendrai? Ce qui est sous tous les cieux est à moi. Je ne me tairai point de ses membres, ni de ce qui concerne ses forces, ni de la grâce de l'arrangement [des parties de son corps]. Qui est-ce qui découvrira le dessus de sa couverture, et se jettera entre les deux branches de son mors? Qui est-ce qui ouvrira les portes de sa gueule? La terreur se tient autour de ses dents. Les lames de ses boucliers ne sont que magnificence; elles sont étroitement serrées [comme] avec un cachet. L'une approche de l'autre, et le vent n'entre point entre-deux. Elles sont jointes l'une à l'autre, elles s'entretiennent, et ne se séparent point. Ses éternuements éclaireraient la lumière, et ses yeux sont [comme] les paupières de l'aube du jour. Des flambeaux sortent de sa bouche, et il en rejaillit des étincelles de feu. Une fumée sort de ses narines comme d'un pot bouillant, ou d'une chaudière. Son souffle enflammerait des charbons, et une flamme sort de sa gueule. La force est dans son cou, et la terreur marche devant lui. Sa chair est ferme, tout est massif en lui, rien n'y branle. Son cÅ“ur est dur comme une pierre, même comme une pièce de la meule de dessous. Les plus forts tremblent quand il s'élève, et ils ne savent où ils en sont, voyant comme il rompt tout. Qui s'en approchera avec l'épée? ni elle, ni la lance, ni le dard, ni la cuirasse, ne pourront point subsister [devant lui]. Il ne tient pas plus de compte du fer que de la paille; et de l'airain, que du bois pourri. La flèche ne le fera point fuir, les pierres d'une fronde lui sont comme du chaume. Il tient les machines de guerre comme des brins de chaume; et il se moque du javelot qu'on lance sur lui. Il a sous soi des tests aigus, et il abat [sous soi] des roseaux pointus [en se couchant] sur la boue. Il fait bouillonner le gouffre comme une chaudière, et rend semblable la mer à un chaudron de parfumeur. Il fait reluire après soi son sentier, et on prendrait l'abîme pour une tête blanchie de vieillesse. Il n'y a rien sur la terre qui lui puisse être comparé, ayant été fait pour ne rien craindre. Il voit [au-dessous de lui] tout ce qu'il y a de plus élevé; il est Roi sur tous les plus fiers animaux.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

he is: Job 26:12, Exodus 5:2, Psalms 73:6, Psalms 73:10, Isaiah 28:1, Ezekiel 29:3, Revelation 12:1-3, Revelation 13:2, Revelation 20:2, Revelation 20:3

Reciprocal: Job 18:14 - the king Ecclesiastes 11:5 - even

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He beholdeth all high [things],.... Or "who beholdeth all high [things]"; even he that made leviathan, that is, God, as the above interpreter: he does that which Job was bid to do, and could not; beholds everyone that is proud, and abases him, Job 40:11; and therefore he ought to acknowledge his sovereignty and superiority over him, and submit to him;

he [is] a king over all the children of pride: the proud angels that fell, and all the proud sons of men; proud monarchs and potentates of the earth, such as Nebuchadnezzar and others, Daniel 4:31. But interpreters generally understand all this either of the crocodile, or of a fish of the whale kind. Bochart observes, that the crocodile, though it has short legs, will behold, and meet unterrified, beasts abundantly taller than itself, and with one stroke of its tail break their legs and bring them low; and will destroy not only men, but all sorts of beasts, as elephants, camels, horses, oxen, boars, and every animal whatsoever. But others apply this to the whale, which beholds the tossing waves of the sea, which mount up to heaven; the clouds of heaven on high over it; the lofty cliffs or shores, and ships of the greatest bulk and height; and which, when it lifts up itself above the water, equals the high masts of ships, and is abundantly superior to all the tribes of watery animals, or the beasts of the sea. But this seems not wholly to come up to the expressions here used. Upon the whole, as there are some things that agree with the crocodile, and not the whale; and others that agree with the whale, of one sort or another, and not with the crocodile; it is uncertain which is meant, and it seems as if neither of them were intended: and to me very probable is the opinion of Johannes Camerensis c, and to which the learned Schultens most inclines, that the leviathan is the dragon of the land sort, called leviathan, the piercing serpent, as distinct from the dragon in the sea, Isaiah 27:1; which agrees with the description of the leviathan in the whole: as its prodigious size; its terrible countenance; its wide jaws; its three forked tongue; its three rows of sharp teeth; its being covered all over, back and belly, with thick scales, not to be penetrated by arrows and darts; its flaming eyes, its fiery breath, and being most terrible to all, and fearless of every creature; it will engage with any, and conquer and kill an elephant d; hence in Ethiopia dragons have no other names than elephant killers: and so it may be said to be king over all the children of pride; of all which proof may be given from various writers, as Pliny e, Aelianus f, Philostratus g, and others; and particularly the dragon Attilius Regulus, the Roman general, killed near Bagrade in Africa, is a proof itself of almost all the above articles, as Osorius h has described it; nor is it any objection that the leviathan is represented as being in the sea, since the dragon, even the land dragon, will plunge into rivers, and is often found in lakes called seas, and in maritime places, and will go into the sea itself, as Pliny i and Philostratus k relate. To which may be added, that this creature was found among the Troglodytes l who lived near the Red sea, and not far from Arabia, where Job dwelt, and so might be well known by him: and besides, of all creatures, it is the most lively emblem of the devil, which all the ancient Christian writers make leviathan to be; and Satan is expressly called the dragon in

Revelation 12:3. So Suidas m says, the devil is called a dragon in Job. But be the leviathan what it may, it certainly is an illustrious instance of the power of God in making it; and therefore Job and every other man ought to submit to him that made it, in all things, and be humble under his mighty hand; owning freely, that it is his right hand, and his only, and not man's, that can save, either in a temporal or spiritual sense; for which end this and the behemoth are instanced in.

(See definition for 03882. Editor.)

c Apud Pinedam, in v. 1. d Isidor. Origin l. 12. c. 4. e Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 14. f De Animal. l. 2. c. 21. & l. 10. c. 48. & l. 15. c. 21. & l. 16. c. 39. g Vit. Apollon. l. 3. c. 2. Vid. Ovid. Metamorph. l. 3. Fab. 1. h Hist. l. 4. c. 8. i Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 13. k Ut supra. (Vit. Apollon. l. 3. c. 2. Vid. Ovid. Metamorph. l. 3. Fab. 1.) l Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 11, 12. & l. 31. c. 2. m In voce δρακων, & in voce ψελιω.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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. It could not have been done without a very decided reference to the future state, where all these inequalities are to be removed.

(3) It has been the general plan of God to communicate knowledge by degrees; to impart it when people have had full demonstration of their own imbecility, and when they feel their need of divine teaching; and to reserve the great truths of religion for an advanced period of the world. In accordance with this arrangement, God bas been pleased to keep in reserve, from age to age, certain great and momentous truths, and such as were particularly adapted to throw light on the subjects of discussion between Job and his friends. They are the truths pertaining to the resurrection of the body; the retributions of the day of judgment; the glories of heaven and the woes of hell, where all the inequalities of the present state may receive their final and equal adjustment. These great truths were reserved for the triumph and glory of Christianity; and to have stated them in the time of Job, would have been to have anticipated the most important revelations of that system. The truths of which we are now in possession would have relieved much of the perplexity then felt, and solved most of those questions; but the world was not then in the proper state for their revelation.

(4) It was a very important lesson to be taught to people, to bow with submission to a sovereign God, without knowing the reason of his doings. No lesson, perhaps, could be learned of higher value than this. To a proud, self-confident, philosophic mind, a mind prone to rely on its own resources, and trust to its own deductions, it was of the highest importance to inculcate the duty of submission to “will” and to “sovereignty.” This is a lesson which we often have to learn in life, and which almost all the trying dispensations of Providence are fitted to teach us. It is not because God has no reason for what he does; it is not because he intends we shall never know the reason; but it is because it is our “duty” to bow with submission to his will, and to acquiesce in his right to reign, even when we cannot see the reason of his doings. Could we “reason it out,” and then submit “because” we saw the reason, our submission would not be to our Maker’s pleasure, but to the deductions of our own minds.

Hence, all along, he so deals with man, by concealing the reason of his doings, as to bring him to submission to his authority, and to humble all human pride. To this termination all the reasonings of the Almighty in this book are conducted; and after the exhibition of his power in the tempest, after his sublime description of his own works, after his appeal to the numerous things which are in fact incomprehensible by man, we feel that God is great - that it is presumptuous in man to sit in judgment on his works - and that the mind, no matter what he does, should bow before him with profound veneration and silence. These are the great lessons which we are every day called to learn in the actual dispensations of his providence; and the “arguments” for these lessons were never elsewhere stated with so much power and sublimity as in the closing chapters of the book of Job. We have the light of the Christian religion; we can look into eternity, and see how the inequalities of the present order of things can be adjusted there; and we have sources of consolation which neither Job nor his friends enjoyed; but still, with all this light, there are numerous cases where we are required to bow, not because we see the reason of the divine dealings, but because such is the will of God. To us, in such circumstances, this argument of the Almighty is adapted to teach the most salutary lessons.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 41:34. He is a king over all the children of pride. — There is no animal in the waters that does not fear and fly from him. Hence the Chaldee renders it, all the offspring of FISHES.

Calmet says, that by the children of pride the Egyptians are meant; that the crocodile is called their king, because he was one of their principal divinities; that the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh, which signifies a crocodile; and that the Egyptians were proverbial for their pride, as may be seen in Ezekiel 32:12. And it is very natural to say that Job, wishing to point out a cruel animal, adored by the Egyptians, and considered by them as their chief divinity, should describe him under the name of king of all the children of pride.

Houbigant considers the לויתן livyathan, the coupled dragon, to be emblematical of Satan: "He lifts his proud look to God, and aspires to the high heavens; and is king over all the sons of pride." He is, in effect, the governor of every proud, haughty, impious man. What a king! What laws! What subjects!

Others think that MEN are intended by the sons of pride; and that it is with the design to abate their pride, and confound them in the high notions they have of their own importance, that God produces and describes an animal of whom they are all afraid, and whom none of them can conquer.

AFTER all, what is leviathan? I have strong doubts whether either whale or crocodile be meant. I think even the crocodile overrated by this description. He is too great, too powerful, too important, in this representation. No beast, terrestrial or aquatic, deserves the high character here given, though that character only considers him as unconquerably strong, ferociously cruel, and wonderfully made. Perhaps leviathan was some extinct mammoth of the waters, as behemoth was of the land. However, I have followed the general opinion by treating him as the crocodile throughout these notes; but could not finish without stating my doubts on the subject, though I have nothing better to offer in the place of the animal in behalf of which almost all learned men and critics argue, and concerning which they generally agree. As to its being an emblem either of Pharaoh or the devil, I can say little more than, I doubt. The description is extremely dignified; and were we sure of the animal, I have no doubt we should find it in every instance correct. But after all that has been said, we have yet to learn what leviathan is!