The meaning probably is,

Shall they take him before his eyes?

Or pierce through his nose with a snare?

"Before his eyes" or "in his sight" (Proverbs 1:17), that is, openly, when the animal is aware. The words might be taken ironically: Let them take him before his eyes! &c. (comp. Proverbs 1:32), but the interrogative form is more natural. Others consider the language to be a statement of fact: they take him before his eyes, &c. But with this sense the whole meaning of the introduction of the creature in this chapter disappears. Such a description might have found a place in the gallery of animal portraits in the previous chapter, but as a companion picture to that of Leviathan it is out of place.

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