What Does Job 41:12 Mean?
I will not keep silent about his limbs, nor the word of his might, nor the favor of his frame.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.THE KEY
The terror in Leviathan is not left shapeless: God names its parts, its prevailing force, and the order of its form.
THE MEANING
Leviathan stands fully in view: its parts, strength, and proportion all enter speech. Its formidable power and comely form remain together, neither hidden nor made harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what terrifies must remain vague or hidden: the creature is exposed in detail while still remaining formidable.
THE ROOT
אַחֲרִישׁ
ʾaḥărîš
GROWS FROM
חרש
Keep silent, hold one’s peace.
“keep silent about” in this verse is ʾaḥărîš. The KJV rendering “conceal” also carries the shade of not keeping silent: God brings Leviathan’s body into speech. A related form means “deaf,” so the root touches both what remains unspoken and what cannot hear.
ALSO GROWS
teḥĕraš: You keep silent.
תֶּחֱרַשׁ
The same form appears in Psalm 83:1’s plea, “Keep not thou silence”; Job’s line declares that God does speak about Leviathan.
ḥērēš: Deaf; one unable to hear.
חֵרֵשׁ
This related form links silence with deafness, sharpening the verse’s movement from what is unspoken to what is heard.
גְּבוּרֹת
gevurot
GROWS FROM
גבר
Be strong, prevail, prove mighty.
“word of his might” in this verse is gevurot. The word for Leviathan’s power comes from a root of prevailing: its force is what can hold its ground. In this family, might is not abstract; it is embodied in the mighty one.
ALSO GROWS
gibbôr: Mighty one; warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This branch names a being marked by the same prevailing strength the verse assigns to Leviathan.
gevurah: Might; strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This form names the quality itself, joining the creature’s visible body to the force it carries.
עֶרְכוֹ
ʿerkō
GROWS FROM
ערך
Arrange, set in order.
“favor of his frame” in this verse is ʿerkō. The phrase rendered “comely proportion” includes the sense of Leviathan’s ordered arrangement. Its form is not merely imposing; the verse sees a body whose parts belong to a measure and design.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārakh: Arrange; set in order.
עָרַךְ
This root sense opens “proportion” onto the creature’s ordered structure.
maʿărākhāh: Arrangement; formation; array.
מַעֲרָכָה
This branch uses the same root for an ordered array, reinforcing that the verse sees form and proportion as a patterned whole.
THE PATTERN
Scripture brings overwhelming creatures into view by naming their form, force, and place in creation.
Look now at Behemoth, which I made with you; he eats grass like an ox.There the ships go, and this leviathan you shape to laugh in it.In that day the LORD will visit with his hard and great and strong sword upon Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and upon Leviathan, the crooked serpent, and he will slay the sea-dragon that is in the sea.THE THREAD
A Song or Psalm of Asaph. God, do not hush yourself. Do not be mute, and do not settle into stillness, O God.The root חָרַשׁ (ḥāraš, “be silent”) links Job’s declaration that God will speak about Leviathan with the Psalm’s plea that God not keep silent. The shared word connects an open description of the creature with the cry for a voice.
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