Job 41:2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Canst thou put a hook Hebrew, אגמן, agmon, a bulrush, that is, a hook like a bulrush, with its head hanging down, as is expressed Isaiah 58:5; into his nose? To hang him up by it for sale, or to carry him home for use, after thou hast drawn him out of the sea or river. Or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Or with an iron hook, or instrument, as sharp as a thorn, wherewith thou usest to carry small fishes. Heath translates the former clause, Canst thou put a bandage about his nose? meaning, by the bandage, a rope of rushes, which was to tie his mouth fast; as the thorn, or iron instrument, was to prevent him from getting the bandage off. “It is usual,” Dr. Dodd says, “to this day, to fasten the jaws of the crocodile when taken.”