What Does Job 41:15 Mean?
His shields are his rising, shut close together, pressed tight like a seal.
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
His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.THE KEY
What the KJV calls Leviathan’s “scales” are Hebrew “shields”: its pride is a body armored so completely that every part guards the next.
THE MEANING
The creature’s covering is its displayed strength: the verse pictures its shields closed tightly together, like a seal. Nothing in the image hangs loose; the defense is built into a surface that seals itself.
THE ROOT
מָגִנִּים
māginnîm
GROWS FROM
מגן
Shield; to shield or protect.
English “scales” foregrounds anatomy, while Hebrew מָגִנִּים (māginnîm, shields) foregrounds defense. The verse presents Leviathan’s surface as an array of shields joined so closely that its protection becomes a sealed covering.
ALSO GROWS
māgēn: Shield; protective covering.
מָגֵן
This singular form makes explicit the defensive image carried by the plural in the verse.
miggen: To shield, protect, or defend.
מִגֵּן
The same consonants describe both the protective object and the act it performs: Leviathan’s covering is a defense.
סָגוּר
sāgûr
GROWS FROM
סגר
To shut, close, or enclose.
“shut close together” in this verse is sāgûr. The verse does more than describe separate shields: סָגוּר (sāgûr, closed) makes their joined edges part of the defense. The covering holds together as a closure, leaving no visible opening between its parts.
ALSO GROWS
sāgar: To shut or close.
סָגַר
This verb names the closing action that the verse depicts as already complete.
hisgîr: To shut in or hand over.
הִסְגִּיר
The same root can describe being enclosed within another’s power, echoing how tightly the creature’s covering is closed.
THE PATTERN
Protection appears as a covering that closes the gap between exposure and shelter.
He covers you with his feathers, and beneath his wings you take shelter; his steadiness is your shield and your encircling buckler.Every word of God is refined. He is a shield to those who shelter in him.Over all, taking up the shield of trust, with which you will be able to put out all the burning arrows of the evil one.THE THREAD
Every word of God is refined. He is a shield to those who shelter in him.Both verses use the Hebrew shield word מָגֵן (māgēn, shield), from the root מגן (māgan, to shield or protect). Job shows shields joined as Leviathan’s own covering; Proverbs presents God as the shield for those who trust in him.
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