Clubs translates a word found only here. A similar word in Arabic has the same meaning. It refers to a wooden weapon used for beating or striking. It is usually tapered toward the handheld end. Dhorme takes the word to refer to the shaft of an arrow. Are counted as translates the same expression used at the beginning of verse 27. Stubble is again as in verse 28b.

Just as the ostrich was said to “laugh at any horse and rider” (39.18, Good News Translation), so Leviathan laughs at the rattle of javelins. Rattle seems to refer to the whir or noise made by the javelin or spear as it sails through the air toward its target. Javelin translates a different word than the one used in verse 26b but is the word found in 39.23. Good News Translation makes it general: “He laughs when men throw spears.” His laughing is to show how futile are their attempts to kill him. In some languages this line may have to be adjusted to say, for example, “He pays no attention when people throw spears at him” or “He doesn’t even notice when spears are thrown at him.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .