Fishing spear, harpoon

The fishing spear/harpoon was a wooden rod about the length of a man. To one end of the spear was attached a metal or bone point with barbs. It is likely that a rope was attached to the other end, so that the spear could be pulled back to the thrower.

The spear was thrown at fish or aquatic animals. The barbs prevented the point from falling out easily. The rope attached to the end opposite the point enabled the thrower to retrieve the spear quickly and easily to prepare for another throw, or to prevent the wounded animal from swimming away with the embedded spear.

A Handbook on The Book of Job notes that the Hebrew word choach in JOB 40:26 indicates a kind of hook, but one “much larger than the fishhook in the previous verse” (page 752). The word occurs most often in descriptions of the treatment of prisoners, and this is the way it is used of Leviathan in JOB 40:25; JOB 40:31.

The meaning of the Hebrew word masa‘ in JOB 41:18 is uncertain. From the context it is clear that it is some sort of weapon, perhaps a throwing weapon, for hunting a large animal. The Hebrew text has three words at the end of the verse, which CEV simply combines as “spear.” The word masa‘ is most often rendered “dart” (RSV, NIV, NASB, NCV, REB), but also “missile” (NJPSV), “javelin” (NJB), and “arrow” (GNT). The English word “dart,” despite its popularity in modern translations, will only mean one thing to the modern reader unschooled in the English of King James or Shakespeare, that is, the very small pointed, feathered missile thrown at a board in the game of darts.