What Does Job 41:21 Mean in the King James?

His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

Job 41:21 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The word KJV renders “breath” is ⁨נַפְשׁוֹ⁩ (nafsho), “his living soul”, the fire is pictured as coming from Leviathan’s living being itself.

THE MEANING

You meet a living creature whose nefesh, its living soul, kindles coals, while flame issues from its mouth. The verse holds life and destruction in one image: the fire is the creature’s own outward force.

THE ROOT

נַפְשׁוֹ

nafsho

GROWS FROM

נפש

n-p-sh

Living being; life as the living self.

The word rendered “breath” here is ⁨נַפְשׁוֹ⁩ (nafsho), “his living soul” or “his life,” from ⁨נפש⁩ (nefesh). Genesis uses the same root when the formed human becomes a “living soul”; here, the creature’s living being is itself pictured as kindling coals.

ALSO GROWS

nefesh: Living soul; living being or person.

נֶפֶשׁ

Genesis 2:7 calls the formed human a living soul, showing that this word names a living being, not merely a detachable inner part.

naphash: To refresh oneself; to rest.

נָפַשׁ

The related verb connects this life-word with renewal; Job’s image shows that the living creature can also be a source of fierce, consuming force.

THE PATTERN

An unseen force within becomes visible as fire issuing through the mouth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

Psalm 18:8 · KJVThe hidden force is pictured as smoke and consuming fire emerging from the mouth, kindling coals.

My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

Psalm 39:3 · KJVInner heat becomes outward speech, linking what is held within to what emerges from the mouth.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

James 3:6 · KJVThe tongue is directly pictured as fire that spreads through the whole body and its course.

THE THREAD

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 · KJV

The word rendered “breath” in Job is ⁨נַפְשׁוֹ⁩ (nafsho), from the root ⁨נפש⁩ (nefesh); Genesis uses that same root when the human becomes a “living soul.” The shared word places Leviathan’s fire in its living being itself, rather than in a separate force.

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