Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
All Commentaries on Job 40:20 Go To Job 40
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Leviathan: the whale, or some sea monster. (Challoner)
Protestants' marginal note, "or a whirlpool. "(Haydock)
But some animal is designated; and Bo chart understands the crocodile, which agrees very well with the context. The Thalmudists also say that the calbish is a small fish, which gets into the throat of the leviathan. They mean probably the ichneumon, which kills the crocodile by that means. Leviathan, "the winding serpent "(Calmet) often denotes the dragon or crocodile, (Psalm ciii. 26., and Isaias xxvii. 1.) which frequents the Nile. (Haydock)
It can live as well by land as under water, (Watson, p. 293) and hence may be translated, (Haydock) "the coupled dragon. "(Parkhurst)
Moses mentions the choled, (Leviticus xi. 29.) which the Septuagint and most others translate, "the land crocodile: "but what could induce the Protestants "to render it tortoise, we are at a loss to determine. "Crocodiles lay about sixty eggs, like those of geese, in the sand, the warmth of which soon hatches them. Their bodies are covered with scales, which are scarcely penetrable, except under the belly; and they are between twenty and thirty feet in length, running very fast, straight forward, though their feet be short, and they cannot turn easily. They have several rows of sharp teeth, which enter one within another, and their throat is very wide. (Button.)
The same word may however denote whales, (Parkhurst) which are the greatest fishes with which man is acquainted. (Haydock)
They may also be styled coupled dragons, because many smaller fishes accompany them, and they are well protected by scales (Menochius)
This huge fish, perhaps the whale, representing the devil, is subject to God. (Worthington)
Cord. The crocodile may be taken, but with the utmost hazard; though the Tent rites attacked it without fear, chap. iii. 8. Herodotus (ii. 70.) says it may be caught with a hook, baited with hog's flesh, while the fisher has a pig grunting, at which the crocodile comes open-mouthed. Having swallowed the hook, it is drawn to land, and its small eyes being filled with dirt it is easily slain. But the method was not yet invented, or was deemed too rash in Job's days.
