Ges. and others falsely translate: Canst thou press its tongue down with a cord; השׁקיע does not signify demergere = deprimere, but immergere: canst thou sink its tongue into the line, i.e., make it bite into the hook on the line, and canst thou thus draw it up? Job 41:1 then refers to what must happen in order that the משׁך of the msuh may take place. Herodotus (and after him Aristotle) says, indeed, ii. 68, the crocodile has no tongue; but it has one, only it cannot stretch it out, because the protruding part has grown to the bottom of the mouth, while otherwise the saurians have a long tongue, that can be stretched out to some length. In Job 41:2 the order of thought is the same: for first the Nile fishermen put a ring through the gills or nose of valuable fish; then they draw a cord made of rushes (σχοῖνον) through it, in order to put them thus bound into the river. “As a perpetual slave,” Job 41:4 is intended to say: like one of the domestic animals. By צפּור, Job 41:5, can hardly be meant צפּרת הכּרמים, the little bird of the vineyard, i.e., according to a Talmud. usage of the language, the golden beetle (Jesurun, p. 222), or a pretty eatable grasshopper (Lewysohn, §374), but, according to the words of Catullus, Passer deliciae meae puellae, the sparrow, Arab. ‛asfûr - an example of a harmless living plaything (שׂחק בּ, to play with anything, different from Psa 104:26, where it is not, with Ew., to be translated: to play with it, but: therein).
Verses 6-9
Job 41:6-9 6 Do fishermen trade with him,
Do they divide him among the Canaanites? 7 Canst thou fill his skin with darts,
And his head with fish-spears? 8 Only lay thy hand upon him
Remember the battle, thou wilt not do it again! 9 Behold, every hope becometh disappointment:
Is not one cast down even at the sight of him?
The fishermen form a guild (Arab. ṣunf, sunf), the associated members of which are called חבּרים (distinct from חברים). On כּרה על, vid., on Job 6:27. “When I came to the towns of the coast,” says R. Akiba, b. Rosch ha-Schana, 26b, ”they called selling, which we call מכירה, כירה, there,” according to which, then, Gen 50:5 is understood, as by the Syriac; the word is Sanscrito-Semitic, Sanscr. kri, Persic chirı̂den (Jesurun, p. 178). lxx ἐνσιτούνται, according to 2Ki 6:23, to which, however, עליו is not suitable. כּנענים are Phoenicians; and then, because they were the merchant race of the ancient world, directly traders or merchants. The meaning of the question is, whether one sells the crocodile among them, perhaps halved, or in general divided up. Further, Job 41:7 : whether one can kill it בּשׂכּות, with pointed missiles (Arab. shauke, a thorn, sting,
