Crocodylus niloticus

May those curse it who curse the day, who are ^[d]prepared to disturb Leviathan.  Job 3:8 NASB

Leviathan – “ . . . liwyātān appears six times in the ot.”^[1]

Yahweh overawed Job by confronting him with his invincible creature liwyātān (Job 41 [H 40:25ff.]). Clearly the Nile crocodile, with scaly hide (vv. 7, 15–17 [H 40:31; 41:7–9]), terrible teeth (v. 14 [H 6]), and swift swimming (v. 32 [H 24]), it is described poetically, i.e. “his sneezes flash forth light … out of his nostrils smoke goes forth” (vv. 18–21 [H 10–13]), but not mythological. Other hyperbolical comparisons follow: “he spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mire; he makes the depths boil like a pot” (vv. 30–31 [H 22–23], (NASB)]. In the Psalter (cf. rahab [q.v.] in Isa 51:9–10) the power of the crocodile becomes a natural symbol for the troops of Egypt, overthrown by the Lord at the Red Sea:

Thou didst divide the sea …

Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan

Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness (Ps 74:13–14).

Perhaps here liwyātān refers to the corpses of Egyptian soldiers that were washed up on the shore before Israel (Ex 14:31).^[2]

With this in mind, consider Job’s declaration.  Who would want to disturb a Nile crocodile?  Only someone brave enough (foolish enough?) to challenge one of God’s most terrible creatures.  This comparison highlights the intensity of Job’s self-extinction desire.  May the curse he places on his day of birth be as strong as someone who would dare rouse the ire of a crocodile.

It’s also important to recognize that Leviathan is a symbolic “figure for sinful mankind in general (Isa 27:1).”^[3]  Figuratively, only sinful men would attempt to overthrow God’s powerful natural creature.  In Job’s case, this curse may be understood as the declaration of a sinful man.  At least it would seem that way since Job’s punishment appears to be without cause.  His friends argue that he must have sinned (somehow) for all this tragedy to have occurred.  Perhaps Job feels almost the same way.  When he enlists the symbolism of the Leviathan, perhaps he too is acknowledging that somehow, unknown to him, he has unintentionally aroused God’s ire.  Job is prepared to ask the strongest of men, those who would dare challenge this creature, to apply their prowess to his wish for extinction.  If they are willing to wrestle with the most fearsome of God’s creations, then perhaps their strength can accomplish the great feat of erasing him from humanity.  Strong words indeed.  Have you ever felt like this?  I wonder if we can really appreciate the dichotomy of living if we’ve never battled with the Leviathan.

Topical Index: Leviathan, liwyātān, sinful men, crocodile, Job 3:8

^[1] Payne, J. B. (1999). 1089 לוה. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 472). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.