The heads, i.e. the head; called heads, partly for the greatness of this beast, as that great monster is called beasts, Job 40:20, for the same reason; and partly for the several heads or princes who were and acted under his influence. Leviathan; Pharaoh. To the people inhabiting the wilderness, Heb. to the people in or of the desert; either,
1. To the Israelites then in the wilderness, to whom the destruction of Pharaoh and his host was meat, i.e. matter of great support and refreshment. Or,
2. To those savage people to whom they were meat, because they lived upon fishes, and might eat those very fishes which had devoured Pharaoh's host in the bottom of the sea. Or rather,
3. To those ravenous birds and beasts of the desert, which after their manner fed and feasted themselves upon the carcasses of the Egyptians, who were cast upon the sea-shore, Exodus 14:30, which were properly and immediately meat unto them. And when words can be taken properly, we ought to prefer that before the metaphorical sense, as is agreed by interpreters. And this was a very suitable punishment for this proud and insolent people, that they who were so haughty, that they would not own nor submit to the Lord himself, Exodus 5:2, should be devoured by these contemptible creatures, which was a great reproach, 1 Samuel 17:44,46, and oft threatened by God as a grievous curse, as Deuteronomy 28:26 Jeremiah 7:33, Jeremiah 16:4, &c. Neither let any think it strange that the name of people is given to these creatures, for it is given to conies, grasshoppers, pismires, &c., both in Scripture, as Proverbs 30:25,26 Joe 1:6, and in Homer, and other ancient profane writers. Nay, here is an elegancy in the expression; for these creatures are significantly called the people of the wilderness, because they are the only people that inhabited it, this being a wilderness wherein was no man, as is said, Job 38:26.