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Job 41 · a question people ask

Is Leviathan the devil?

In the text

The chapter doesn't say so, and neither does anything else in Job. In Job, Satan is named only in 1:6-2:7 ("Satan also came among them", 1:6), and not in the LORD's speeches (38:1-40:2, 40:6-41:34). Leviathan is named in Job twice: "who are ready to rouse up leviathan" (3:8) and "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook" (41:1). Other books name him too: "You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces" (Psalm 74:14); "There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there" (Psalm 104:26); and "In that day, the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan, the twisted serpent" (Isaiah 27:1). None of these verses names Satan or the devil, and the WEB's New Testament never names Leviathan. These notes don't make Leviathan the devil, or a picture of anything else.

The verses

“Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan also came among them.”
Job 1:6 · World English Bible
“So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.”
Job 2:7 · World English Bible
“Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.”
Job 3:8 · World English Bible
““Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord?”
Job 41:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 41

Job 41: Can you draw out Leviathan?

In the middle of Leviathan, the LORD asks, "Who then is he who can stand before me?" (41:10), and "Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?" (41:11), where first given is one Hebrew verb, which Strong's gives as "precede". And the pride Leviathan is king over (41:34) is a word the Hebrew Bible uses only there and in 28:8.

In Favor, questions like this come up right where they arise as you read, with the Hebrew and Greek behind the words and how the chapter leads to Jesus.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions