Teks -- Job 40:17 (NET)

40:17 It makes its tail stiff like a cedar, the sinews of its thighs are tightly wound.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Job 40:17 - Tail

Which though it be but short, yet when it is erected, is exceeding stiff and strong.

Wesley: Job 40:17 - Thighs

The sinews of his thighs. His thighs and feet are so sinewy and strong, that one of them is able to break or over - turn a large boat.

JFB: Job 40:17 - like a cedar

As the tempest bends the cedar, so it can move its smooth thick tail [UMBREIT]. But the cedar implies straightness and length, such as do not apply to the river horse's short tail, but perhaps to an extinct species of animal (see on Job 40:15).

JFB: Job 40:17 - stones

Rather, "thighs."

JFB: Job 40:17 - wrapped

Firmly twisted together, like a thick rope.

Clarke: Job 40:17 - He moveth his tail like a cedar

He moveth his tail like a cedar - Therefore it was neither the elephant, who has a tail like that of the hog, nor the hippopotamus, whose tail is only about a foot long

Clarke: Job 40:17 - The sinews of his stones

The sinews of his stones - I translate with Mr. Good, and for the same reasons, the sinews of his haunches, which is still more characteristic; as the animal must have excelled in leaping.

Defender: Job 40:17 - tail like a cedar

No elephant or hippo has a tail like a cedar. This description supports the theory mentioned above that a bememoth may be a dinosaur (see notes on Job 40:19)."

TSK: Job 40:17 - moveth // the

moveth : or, setteth up

the : Job 41:23

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Job 40:17 - He moveth his tail // The sinews of his stones // tail // the sinews of his thighs

He moveth his tail which though it be but short, both in the elephant and in the hippopotamus, yet when it is erected is exceeding stiff and strong. But this may be understood, either,

1. Of his generative part, which is off called by that or the like name, which the following close of the verse may seem to favour. Or,

2. Of the elephant’ s trunk, which being so eminent and remarkable a part, would not probably be omitted in this description, to which these words very fitly agree, because of its admirable motion and strength. Nor is it strange that this is called his tail, because that word is oft used improperly for any end of a thing, as Isa 7:4 . See also Deu 25:18 28:13,44 .

The sinews of his stones: this may be noted, because the elephant’ s testicles do not hang down below the belly, as they do in other beasts, but are contained within his belly, where they are fastened by ligaments of extraordinary strength. Or, the sinews of the terror thereof , to wit, of the trunk last mentioned, under the name of the

tail i.e. its terrible sinews are strongly and strangely wrapped together, that he can move it as he listeth with wonderful dexterity and strength. Or,

the sinews of his thighs as the latter word oft signifies in the Arabic tongue, which is very near akin to the Hebrew. The thighs and feet of the hippopotamus are noted to be so sinewy and strong, that one of them is able to break or overturn a large boat.

Gill: Job 40:17 - He moveth his tail like a cedar // the sinews of his stones are wrapped together

He moveth his tail like a cedar,.... To which it is compared, not for the length and largeness of it; for the tail both of the elephant and of the river horse is short; though Vartomannus ^c says, the tail of the elephant is like a buffalo's, and is four hands long, and thin of hair: but because of the smoothness, roundness, thickness, and firmness of it; such is the tail of the river horse, being like that of a hog or boar ^d; which is crooked, twisted, and which it is said to turn back and about at pleasure, as the word used is thought to signify. Aben Ezra interprets it, "maketh to stand": that is, stiff and strong, and firm like a cedar. One writer ^e speaks of the horse of the Nile, as having a scaly tail; but he seems to confound it with the sea horse. Junius interprets it of its penis, its genital part; to which the Targum in the King's Bible is inclined: and Cicero ^f says, the ancients used to call that the tail; but that of the elephant, according to Aristotle ^g, is but small, and not in proportion to the size of its body; and not in sight, and therefore can hardly be thought to be described; though the next clause seems to favour this sense:

the sinews of his stones are wrapped together; if by these are meant the testicles, as some think, so the Targums; the sinews of which were wreathed, implicated and ramified, like branches of trees, as Montanus renders it. Bochart interprets this of the sinews or nerves of the river horse, which having such plenty of them, are exceeding strong; so that, as some report, this creature will with one foot sink a boat ^h; I have known him open his mouth, says a traveller ⁱ, and set one tooth on the gunnel of a boat, and another on the second strake from the keel, more than four feet distant, and there bite a hole through the plank, and sink the boat.