Not P but Moby-Dick (62)

Tue Jan 30 09:29:07 UTC 2024

I do understand the context here. It's the exact meaning of that
exclamation I'm having trouble with.

On Mon, Jan 29, 2024 at 11:17 PM Michael Bailey <
michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:

> Pretty sure that “canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook?” is from the
> Book of Job in the Old Testament of the Bible.
>
>
> Job 41:
>
> “
>
> Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
>     or tie down its tongue with a rope?
> 2 Can you put a cord through its nose
>     or pierce its jaw with a hook?
> 3 Will it keep begging you for mercy?
>     Will it speak to you with gentle words?
> 4 Will it make an agreement with you
>     for you to take it as your slave for life?
> 5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird
>     or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
> 6 Will traders barter for it?
>     Will they divide it up among the merchants?
> 7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
>     or its head with fishing spears?
> 8 If you lay a hand on it,
>     you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
> 9 Any hope of subduing it is false;
>     the mere sight of it is overpowering.
> 10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
>     Who then is able to stand against me?
> 11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
>     Everything under heaven belongs to me.
>
> 12
>
>
>
> The Book of Job is (imho) kinda grim.
>
> The Devil makes a bet with God to mess with Job so God kills off his family
> -
>
> Cutting to the chase -
> Job waxes wroth with God, and God finally answers him, like “who are you to
> question me”
>
> God goes on about the mighty Leviathan (huge sea-dwelling monster) & how
> powerless people are against it - the lesson being that God is even more
> so.
>
> It’s quite ironic that these mariners are doing what God is quoted as
> saying is not doable.
>
>
> I think I’m on the right track here.
> Many gems of Scriptural references stud _Moby-Dick_  & this one I think
> needs explicit context to make it understandable in a translation
>
> Unlike some Biblical quotes which are more or less “wisdom of the ages”
> this one is unique in dwelling on a huge sea-monster
>
> It even goes on further to say -
>
> 12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
>     its strength and its graceful form.
> 13 Who can strip off its outer coat?
>     Who can penetrate its double coat of armor[b
> <
> https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2041&version=NIV#fen-NIV-13902b
> >
> ]?
> 14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
>     ringed about with fearsome teeth?
> 15 Its back has[c
> <
> https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2041&version=NIV#fen-NIV-13904c
> >
> ] rows of shields
>     tightly sealed together;
> 16 each is so close to the next
>     that no air can pass between.
> 17 They are joined fast to one another;
>     they cling together and cannot be parted.
> 18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
>     its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
> 19 Flames stream from its mouth;
>     sparks of fire shoot out.
> 20 Smoke pours from its nostrils
>     as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
> 21 Its breath sets coals ablaze,
>     and flames dart from its mouth.
> 22 Strength resides in its neck;
>     dismay goes before it.
> 23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
>     they are firm and immovable.
> 24 Its chest is hard as rock,
>     hard as a lower millstone.
> 25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
>     they retreat before its thrashing.
> 26 The sword that reaches it has no effect,
>     nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
> 27 Iron it treats like straw
>     and bronze like rotten wood.
> 28 Arrows do not make it flee;
>     slingstones are like chaff to it.
> 29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
>     it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
> 30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
>     leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
> 31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
>     and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
> 32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
>     one would think the deep had white hair.
> 33 Nothing on earth is its equal—
>     a creature without fear.
> 34 It looks down on all that are haughty;
>     it is king over all that are proud.”
>
>
> Then Job humbles himself -
>
> “
>
> 42 Then Job replied to the Lord:
>
> 2 “I know that you can do all things;
>     no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
> 3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
>     Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
>     things too wonderful for me to know.
>
> 4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
>     I will question you,
>     and you shall answer me.’
> 5 My ears had heard of you
>     but now my eyes have seen you.
> 6 Therefore I despise myself
>     and repent in dust and ashes.”
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 29, 2024 at 9:15 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > From Chapter 81:
> >
> > Is this the creature of whom it was once so triumphantly said—“Canst thou
> > fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish-spears? The sword
> of
> > him that layeth at him cannot hold, the spear, the dart, nor the
> habergeon:
> > he esteemeth iron as straw; the arrow cannot make him flee; darts are
> > counted as stubble; he laugheth at the shaking of a spear!” This the
> > creature? this he? Oh! that unfulfilments should follow the prophets. For
> > with the strength of a thousand thighs in his tail, Leviathan had run his
> > head under the mountains of the sea, to hide him from the Pequod’s
> > fish-spears!
> >
> > What exactly does "Oh! that unfulfilments should follow the prophets."
> mean
> > here? What would be a more explicit paraphrase?
> > --
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> >
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