What Does Job 41:8 Mean?
Lay your hand upon him. Remember the battle; add no more.
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
Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.THE KEY
When the hand meets Leviathan, the battle itself becomes the warning that ends further action.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you as your hand reaches toward a force you cannot master: the struggle makes its limit unmistakable. Remembering that battle is enough to stop the next attempt.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that persistence always means progress; some encounters reveal that continuing is no longer strength.
THE ROOT
מִלְחָמָה
milḥāmāh
GROWS FROM
לחם
to fight, contend
The noun for battle grows from the same root as the verb to fight, placing your hand inside an active struggle rather than at a safe distance from it. In Exodus 14:14, this root names the LORD as the one who fights while the people hold their peace; here, the remembered encounter ends your further action.
ALSO GROWS
lāḥam: to fight or contend
לָחַם
The root turns battle from a label for danger into the act of engaging it.
yillāḥēm: he will fight
יִלָּחֵם
This form appears in Exodus 14:14, where the LORD fights for the people while they hold their peace.
אַל־תֹּסֶף
ʾal-tōsep̄
GROWS FROM
יסף
to add, increase, continue
“add no more” in this verse is ʾal-tōsep̄. The final command uses a root that means add or continue: the instruction is to add no further action to this battle. The stopping point is built into the verb itself.
ALSO GROWS
yāsap̄: to add, increase, or continue
יָסַף
This is the base verb beneath the command not to continue.
ʾāsîp̄: I will add
אָסִיף
The same root can describe adding something further; here the command closes that possibility.
זְכֹר
zekhor
GROWS FROM
זכר
to remember, call to mind
“remember” in this verse is zekhor. Remembering here brings the battle back into present awareness, where it can shape what happens next. The word’s family also includes a memorial and the act of mentioning, so memory is something carried forward, not a passing thought.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: memorial, remembrance
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps an encounter present; remembering the battle gives the command its force.
hizkir: to mention, call to mind
הִזְכִּיר
The related verb makes remembrance an act of bringing something into awareness.
THE PATTERN
Overwhelming power marks the boundary where human action stops.
The LORD will fight for you, and you will hold your tongue.Release your grip, and perceive that I AM God; I am lifted high among the nations, I am lifted high in the earth.And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.THE THREAD
The LORD will fight for you, and you will hold your tongue.Job’s word for battle, מִלְחָמָה (milḥāmāh), and Exodus’s word for fight, יִלָּחֵם (yillāḥēm), share the root לחם (l-ḥ-m), to fight. In Job, your hand reaches into the battle and stops; in Exodus, the LORD takes up the fighting while the people hold their peace.
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