The Bible Says
Job 41:12-17 Meaning

In Job 41:12-17, God begins an anatomical tour of Leviathan, bolstering the points made in the previous section, that the presence of this creature Job cannot tame is sufficient evidence to cement the point that Job has no business trying to tame its creator.

In the previous section God asked, in light of Leviathan’s fierceness, “Who then is he that can stand before Me?” (Job 41:10). The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “No one.”

The rest of Chapter 41 highlights features of Leviathan that reinforces the point that he is untamable, even unapproachable. This further bolsters the primary point of the chapter, which is the question of Job 41:10, “Who then is he that can stand before Me?”

Through this dialogue, God addresses Job’s expressed desire to have a hearing with God:

"I would present my case before Him
And fill my mouth with arguments.
"I would learn the words which He would answer,
And perceive what He would say to me.”
(Job 23:4-5)

We can note that Job expected to engage God and prevail:

"Would He contend with me by the greatness of His power?
No, surely He would pay attention to me.
"There the upright would reason with Him;
And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.”
(Job 23:4-7)

But Job is experiencing the opposite. The LORD now asserts, I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, Or his mighty strength, or his orderly frame (v. 12).

The following verses will provide details of the powerful creature Leviathan’s limbs, his mighty strength and orderly frame. All is to deepen the point already made, that the existence of such a creature should be evidence enough that God, His maker, is all the more unapproachable and undefeatable.

God begins with three rhetorical questions, each of which infer an expected answer, “No one.”

• “Who can strip off his outer armor?” (v. 13).
• “Who can come within his double mail?” (v. 13).
• “Who can open the doors of his face?” (v. 14).

Leviathan’s outer armor is the layer that keeps harm from reaching his vital places. God is telling Job, “You and no one else has access to this creature’s vulnerability.” The point is that Leviathan is not vulnerable to attack by stripping off his outer armor.

So can it be penetrated? No, because Leviathan has double mail. “Mail” is interlinking plating. The picture is that Leviathan is covered in plates of armor not just once, but twice. Good luck trying to puncture that with a spear! To open the doors of his face is to encounter his teeth, which is not a good idea, because Around his teeth there is terror (v. 14).

Teeth represent the power to seize, shred, and consume. In the ancient world, where travel was dangerous and predators were everywhere, “teeth” were not abstract imagery—they were a real, visceral threat. Perhaps part of what God is doing here is helping Job to move from speaking rightly about Him, as God says he did in Job 42:7-8, to having a proper fear of Him.

This would be greatly to Job’s benefit, as true knowledge and wisdom both begin with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10).

God returns to speaking about the creature’s plated armor:

"His strong scales are his pride, Shut up as with a tight seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them” (vv. 15-16).

The Hebrew word translated pride is translated in other verses as “majesty.” This creature is unapproachable in his power because his double plated armor is shut up as with a tight seal, to the point where no air can come between them. If no air can get between the plates then certainly no arrow or spear can penetrate.

God continues His description of Leviathan’s double plated armor: “They are joined one to another; They clasp each other and cannot be separated” (v. 17).

This is not a creature with weak points a human can exploit. The language depicts interlinking armor that refuses to come apart under pressure.

Leviathan is a picture of God’s majesty. He is not approachable. When the story of Job occurred it is likely that God’s word was primarily oral tradition. Moses was hundreds of years in the future. But during the time of Moses, God told him that no man can see His face and live (Exodus 33:20). Job recognized that God is formidable, saying he would “be dismayed at His presence” (Job 23:15). But he thought he could engage God and prevail (Job 23:7). God is making it clear that this is not remotely the case.

When Job later repents, he doesn’t do it because he suddenly receives a neat explanation. He repents because he meets God—because his view of God no longer fits in Job’s “box” which is the boundaries of his own perspective. He realizes that God supersedes his perspective. It is in God that his own perspective should rest.

Job already respected God as God (Job 1:21). But as he came to know God, he recognized that in God’s plan He has a benevolence toward him that supersedes Job’s capacity to know. Job’s desire to know will be replaced by his knowledge of God, which is the only way to truly satisfy our thirst for knowledge.