Job 41:15-17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

His scales are his pride He prides and pleases himself in his strong and mighty scales. Hebrew, אפיקי מגנים, aphikee maginnim, robusta scutorum, the strength, or strong things, of his shields are his pride. Or, his body, or his back, (as גאוה, gaavah, is rendered by many ancient and modern interpreters,) is the strength of shields, that is, fortified with scales strong as shields. Heath translates it, Strong scales cover his back. This is remarkably the case with the crocodile, whose strength is in his back, which is covered with impenetrable scales, whereas his belly is very soft, and easily pierced. If it be interpreted as meant of the whale, we must understand by these shields the several coats of his skin, which, though it be smooth and entire, and without scales, may nevertheless be said to be as strong as shields, (shields being formerly made of leather,) because it is exceeding hard and strong, and almost impenetrable, and that not only on his back, as in the crocodile, but also in the belly all over. “The outward, or scarf-skin of the whale,” indeed, “is no thicker than parchment; but this being removed, the real skin appears, of about an inch thick, and covering the fat, or blubber, that lies beneath, which is from eight to twelve inches in thickness. The muscles lie beneath this, and, like the flesh of quadrupeds, are very red and tough.” Ency. Brit. But as the skin of the whale is all one entire piece, and does not consist of different parts joined together, the following clause, and the contents of the next two verses, do not seem to be properly applicable to it. Shut up together as with a close seal That is, the shields, or scales, are closely compacted together, as things that are fastened by a seal. One is so near another, &c. This plainly shows that the scales, or shields, are several, which certainly agrees better to the crocodile than to the whale, unless there be a sort of whales which have scales, as some have affirmed, but it is not yet known or proved. By these shields, or scales, the animal is not only kept warm, for no air can come between them, but kept safe, for no sword can pierce through those scales. They stick together that they cannot be sundered It is exceeding difficult, and almost impossible, by any power or art, to sever them one from another.