Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_517.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-23 | 7KB | 132 lines

\*Ver. 33. \\Upon the earth there is not his like\\, &c.] As
to form and figure; in most creatures there is some
likeness between those in the sea and on the land, as
sea horses, calves, &c. but there is no likeness between
a whale and any creature on earth; there is between
the crocodile and the lizard; nor is any like the whale
for the largeness of its bulk; the Targum is,
\*"his dominion is
"not on the earth,"\*
\*but on the sea,as Aben
Ezra notes; but rather the sense is, there is no power
on earth that he obeys and submits to, as the Tigurine
version; though the meaning seems to be, that there
is none like him, for what follows:
\*\\who is made without
fear\\; yet this agrees not neither with the crocodile,
which  Aelianus {w} says is fearful; nor with the whale,
which will make off and depart at the shoutings of
men, blowing of trumpets, and making use of any
tinkling instruments, at which it is affrighted, as
Strabo {x}, Philostratus {y}, and Olaus Magnus {z}, relate. It
is observed {a}; of their valour, that if they see a man or
a long boat, they go under water and run away; and
are never known to endeavour to hurt any man,
but when in danger; though a voyager {b} of our own
says,
\*"we saw whales in Whale-sound, and lying aloft
"on the water, not fearing our ships, or aught else."\*
\*The Targum is,
\*"he is made that he might not be
"broken;"\*
\*or bruised, as Bochart; as reptiles usually
may, among whom the crocodile may be reckoned, because
of its short legs; and yet is made with such a
hard scaly skin, that it cannot be crushed, bruised, and
broken. Aben Ezra observes that some say, the word
%hu%, that is, %he%, is wanting, and should be supplied, %he%,
that is, God, %made him without fear%; or that he might not
be bruised; wherefore Cocceius interprets the following
words entirely of God.

\*Ver. 34. \\He beholdeth all high [things]\\, &c.] 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
every one that is proud, and abases him, \\#Job 40:11,12\\;
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, \\#Da 4:31-33\\. 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, \\#Isa 27:1\\; which agrees
with the description of the leviathan in the whole: as
its prodigious bigness; 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 \\#Re 12:3,9\\. 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.

{w} De Animal. l. 10. c. 24.
{x} Geograph. l. 15. p. 499.
{y} Vit. Apollon. l. 3. c. 16.
{z} De Ritu Gent. Septent. l. 21. c. 3, 6.
{a} Voyage to Spitzbergen, p. 153.
{b} Baffin in the North West Fox, p. 150.
{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.
{l} Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 11, 12. & l. 31. c. 2.
{m} In voce \~drakwn\~, & in voce \~qeliw\~.