Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
God, having in the foregoing verses shown Job how unable he was to deal with the leviathan, here sets forth his own power in that massy mighty creature. Here is, I. God's sovereign dominion and independency laid down, Job 41:11. 1. That he is indebted to none of his creatures.
Commenting on Job 41:11-34
He esteemeth iron as straw,.... You may as well cast a straw at him as a bar of iron; it will make no impression on his steeled back, which is as a coat of mail to him; so Eustathius affirms (d) that the sharpest iron is rebounded and blunted by him; and brass as rotten wood; or steel, any instrument made of it, though ever so strong or piercing.
cannot hold--on his hard skin. habergeon--coat of mail; avail must be taken by zeugma out of "hold," as the verb in the second clause: "hold" cannot apply to the "coat of mail."