Job 41:32

Filipino Cebuano Bible

32 Sa iyang likod nagapadan-ag siya ug usa ka dalan; Bisan kinsa makahunahuna nga ang kahiladman sa dagat ubanon.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

By his rapid passage through the water he makes it white with foam; and by his tail he causes the waves behind him to sparkle like a trail of light.

to shine: Genesis 1:15

deep: Job 28:14, Job 38:16, Job 38:30, Genesis 1:2

hoary: Genesis 15:15, Genesis 25:8, Genesis 42:38, Proverbs 16:31, Proverbs 20:29

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He maketh a path to shine after him,.... Upon the sea, by raising a white from upon it, through its vehement motion as it passes along, or by the spermaceti it casts out and leaves behind it. It is said s that whales will cut and plough the sea in such a manner, as to leave a shining glittering path behind them, the length of a German mile, which is three of ours;

[one] would think the deep [to be] hoary; to be old and grey headed, or white like the hair of the head of an old man, a figure often used of the sea by poets t; and hence "Nereus" u, which is the sea, is said to be an old man, because the froth in the waves of it looks like white hair.

s Vid. Scheuchzer. ibid. (vol. 4.) p. 853. t πολιης αλος, Homer. Iliad. 1. v. 350. πολιης θαλασσης, Iliad. 4. v. 248. "incanuit unda", Catullus. u Phurnutus de Natura Deorum, p. 63.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He maketh a path to shine after him - This refers doubtless to the white foam of the waters through which he passes. If this were spoken of some monster that commonly resides in the ocean, it would not be unnatural to suppose that it refers to the phosphoric light such as is observed when the waters are agitated, or when a vessel passes rapidly through them. If it refers, however, to the crocodile, the allusion must be understood of the hoary appearance of the Nile or the lake where he is found.

One would think the deep to be hoary - Homer often speaks of the sea as πολιὴν θάλασσαν poliēn thalassan - “the hoary sea.” So Apollonius, speaking of the Argonauts, Lib. i. 545:

- μακραὶ δ ̓ αἰὲν ἐλευκαίνοντο κέλευθοι -

- makrai d' aien eleukainonto keleuthoi -

“The long paths were always white”

So Catullus, in Epith. Pelei:

Totaque remigio spumis incanuit unda.

And Ovid, Epis. Oeno:

- remis eruta canet aqua.

The rapid motion of an aquatic animal through the water will produce the effect here referred to.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 41:32. He maketh a path to shine after him — In certain states of the weather a rapid motion through the water disengages many sparks of phosphoric fire. I have seen this at sea; once particularly, on a fine clear night, with a good breeze, in a fast-sailing vessel, I leaned over the stern, and watched this phenomenon for hours. The wake of the vessel was like a stream of fire; millions of particles of fire were disengaged by the ship's swift motion through the water, nearly in the same way as by the electric cushion and cylinder; and all continued to be absorbed at a short distance from the vessel. Whether this phenomenon takes place in fresh water or in the Nile, I have had no opportunity of observing.

The deep to be hoary. — By the frost and foam raised by the rapid passage of the animal through the water.