Job Chapter 40 verse 21 Holy Bible
He lieth under the lotus-trees, In the covert of the reed, and the fen.
read chapter 40 in ASV
Will you put a cord into his nose, or take him away with a cord round his tongue?
read chapter 40 in BBE
He lieth under lotus-bushes, in the covert of the reed and fen:
read chapter 40 in DARBY
He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
read chapter 40 in KJV
Canst thou put a hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
read chapter 40 in WBT
He lies under the lotus trees, In the covert of the reed, and the marsh.
read chapter 40 in WEB
Under shades he lieth down, In a secret place of reed and mire.
read chapter 40 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - He listh under the shady trees; or, under the lotus trees (Revised Version). The Lotus sylvestris or Lotus Cyrenaiea "grows abundantly an the hot banks of the Upper Nile" (Cook). and is thought to be the tree here intended (Schultens. Cook, Houghton, and others). But the identification is very doubtful. The dense shade of trees is sought alike by the hippopotamus and the elephant. In the covert of the reed, and fens. This is exactly descriptive of the hippopotamus; far less so of the elephant. Gordon Cumming says, "At every turn there occurred deep still pools, and occasional sandy islands, densely clad with lofty reeds Above and beyond these reeds stood trees of immense age. beneath which grew a rank kind of grass, on which the sea-cow (hippopotamus) delights to pasture" ('Lion-Hunter of South Africa,' p. 297).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) He lieth under the shady trees.--If this description applies to any one animal, it seems on the whole more appropriate to the elephant than the hippopotamus. No doubt the judgment of critics has been biased by their pre-conceived notions about the circumstances under which they suppose the Book of Job to have been written; and the author was more likely, it is thought, to have been acquainted with the river-horse of Egypt than with the elephant of India, though, to be sure, elephants abound also in Africa, and may very well have been known to the writer of Job from that quarter, if the other is less likely.
