Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Job 40:16
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Lo now, his strength [is] in his loins, etc.] The strength of the elephant is well known, being able to carry a castle on its back, with a number of men therein; but what follows does not seem so well to agree with it; and his force [is] in the navel of his belly; since the belly of the elephant is very tender; by means of which the rhinoceros, its enemy, in its fight with it, has the advantage of it, by getting under its belly, and ripping it up with its horn f1459. In like manner Eleazar the Jew killed one of the elephants of Antiochus, by getting between its legs, and thrusting his sword into its navel f1460; which fell and killed him with the weight of it. On the other hand, the “river horse” is covered with a skin all over, the hardest and strongest of all creatures f1461, as not to be pierced with spears or arrows f1462 ; and of it dried were made helmets, shields, spears, and polished darts f1463 . That which Monsieur Thevenot f1464 saw had several shot fired at it before it fell, for the bullets hardly pierced through its skin. We made several shot at him, says another traveller f1465, but to no purpose; for they would glance from him as from a wall. And indeed the elephant is said to have such a hard scaly skin as to resist the spear f1466: and Pliny f1467, though he speaks of the hide of the river horse being so thick that spears are made of it; yet of the hide of the elephant, as having targets made of that, which are impenetrable.
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