Job 41:29

Job 41:29 Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

Ver. 29. Darts are counted as stubble] When any thing in the decrees or decretals likes not the pope, he sets pales, that is, stubble, upon it; or Hoc non credo: so doth this leviathan upon all kinds of weapons; he slights them. The word here rendered darts is as strange as the weapon it signifieth is to us unknown, lapides ballistic, an engine whereby great stones were thrown against walls or towers (as now cannon balls), to make a breach in them. Catapulta, aries vel simile aliquod tormentum. Be they what they will, the whale fears them not, no, though they were as terrible to others as those two great pieces of ordinance cast by Alphonsus, duke of Ferrara; the one whereof he called the earthquake, the other grandiabolo, the great devil.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Darts--rather, "clubs"; darts have been already mentioned (Job 41:26).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 29. Darts are counted as stubble] All these verses state that he cannot be wounded by any kind of weapon, and that he cannot be resisted by any human strength.

A young crocodile, seen by M. Maillet, twelve feet long, and which had not eaten a morsel for thirty-five days, its mouth having been tied all that time, was nevertheless so strong, that with a blow of its tail it overturned a bale of coffee, and five or six men, with the utmost imaginable ease! What power then must lodge in one twenty feet long, well fed, and in health!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(29) Darts.—Rather, clubs.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. darts are counted] Rather, clubs.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sharp stones are under him,.... And yet give him no pain nor uneasiness;

he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire; and makes his bed of them and lies upon them; as sharp stones, as before, shells of fishes, broken pieces of darts, arrows, and javelins thrown at him, which fall around him: this does not so well agree with the crocodile, the skin of whose belly is soft and thin; wherefore dolphins plunge under it and cut it with a thorn, as Pliny (h) relates, or with spiny fins (i); but with the whale, which lies among hard rocks and sharp stones, and large cutting pieces of ice, as in the northern seas.

(h) Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 25. (i) Sandys's Travels, l. 2. p. 78.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Darts are counted as stubble - The word rendered “darts” (תותח tôthâch) occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures. It is from יתח, obsolete root, “to beat with a club.” The word here probably means clubs. Darts and spears are mentioned before, and the object seems to be to enumerate all the usual, instruments of attack. The singular is used here with a plural verb in a collective sense.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

So far is he from fearing it, and fleeing from it, that he scorns and defies it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. Darts — Thothahh. Either clubs, battle axe, or bludgeon. (Furst.) The like meaning of the same word in the Arabic favours the first of these definitions. The boomerang, or club-stick, (now called lissan, tongue,) was much in use among the ancient Egyptian soldiers, and, in close combat, was really a formidable weapon, as the experience of modern times sufficiently testifies. It was about two and a half feet long, and made of hard acacia wood. See Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, (P.A., i, p. 365.)

The spear — The kidhon (javelin) or spear was borne upon the shoulder, as in the case of Goliath, (1Sa_17:6-7,) and was in common use among the Babylonians and Persians. Jer_6:23; Jer_50:42.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Darts are counted as stubble; rather, the club is counted as stubble. Maces, either of hard wood or of metal, were used by the Assyrians ("Ancient Monarchies," vol. 2. p. 64). They had heavy heads, and were quite as effective weapons as either swords or spears. If a strong man could have succeeded in dealing a blow with one on the head of a crocodile, it would probably have proved fatal; but intending assailants were doubtless charged, and scattered "as stubble," before they could find opportunity to strike. He laugheth at the shaking of a spear; rather, at the rushing of the javelin (see the Revised Version).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.