Ayub 36:32

36:32 With his hands ¹  he covers ²  the lightning,

and directs it against its target.

Ayub 41:1

The Description of Leviathan

41:1 (40:25) ³  “Can you pull in ⁴  Leviathan with a hook,

and tie down ⁵  its tongue with a rope?

[36:32]  ¹ tn R. Gordis (Job, 422) prefers to link this word with the later Hebrew word for “arch,” not “hands.”

[36:32]  ² tn Because the image might mean that God grabs the lightning and hurls it like a javelin (cf. NLT), some commentators want to change “covers” to other verbs. Dhorme has “lifts” (נִשָּׂא [nissa’] for כִּסָּה [kissah]). This fit the idea of God directing the lightning bolts.

[41:1]  ³ sn Beginning with 41:1, the verse numbers through 41:9 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 41:1 ET = 40:25 HT, 41:2 ET = 40:26 HT, etc., through 41:34 ET = 41:26 HT. The Hebrew verse numbers in the remainder of the chapter differ from the verse numbers in the English Bible. Beginning with 42:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[41:1]  ⁴ tn The verb מָשַׁךְ (mashakh) means “to extract from the water; to fish.” The question here includes the use of a hook to fish the creature out of the water so that its jaws can be tied safely.

[41:1]  ⁵ tn The verb שָׁקַע (shaqa’) means “to cause to sink,” if it is connected with the word in Amos 8:8 and 9:5. But it may have the sense of “to tie; to bind.” If the rope were put around the tongue and jaw, binding tightly would be the sense.