41 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?
Or can you tie down its mouth with a cord?
2 Can you put a rope in its nose?
Or can you pierce its jawbone with a hook?
3 Will it make numerous pleas for mercy to you?
Or will it speak gentle words to you?
4 Will it make a covenant with you?
Will you take it as a slave forever?
5 Will you play with it as with birds
and put it on a leash for your girls?
6 Will guildsmen bargain over it?
Will they divide it between tradesmen?
7 Can you fill its kin with harpoons
or its head with fish spears?
8 Lay your hands on it;
think about the battle—you will not do it again!
9 “Look, the hope of capturing it is false.
Will one be hurled down even at its sight?
10 Is it not fierce when somebody stirs it?
Who then is he who would stand before it?
11 Who has come to confront me, that I should repay him?
Under all the heavens, it belongs to me.
12 “I will not keep quiet concerning its limbs
or concerning the extent of its might and the gracefulness of its frame.
13 Who can strip off its outer covering?
Who can penetrate its double harness?
14 Who can open the doors of its face?
Its teeth all around are fearsome.
15 Its back has scales of shields;
it is shut up closely as with a seal.
16 They are close to one another—
even the air cannot come between them.
17 They are joined one to another;
they cling together and cannot be separated.
18 “Its snorting flashes forth light,
and its eyes are red like dawn.
19 Torches go from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke comes from its nostrils
as from a kettle boiling and burning bulrushes.
21 Its breath kindles charcoal,
and a flame comes from its mouth.
22 “Strength abides in its neck,
and dismay dances before it.
23 Its flesh’s folds of skin cling together;
it is cast on it—it will not be moved.
24 Its heart is cast as stone;
yes, it is cast as the lower millstone.
25 When it raises itself, the mighty ones are terrified;
they retreat because of its thrashing.
26 Reaching it with the sword does not avail,
nor with the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
27 It regards iron as straw,
bronze as rotten wood.
28 An arrow will not make it flee;
sling stones are turned to stubble for it.
29 Clubs are regarded as stubble,
and it laughs at the short sword’s rattle.
30 “Its underparts are shards of a potsherd;
it moves over mud like a threshing sledge.
31 It makes the deep boil like a cooking pot;
it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 Behind it, it leaves a glistening wake;
one would think that the deep has gray hair.
33 “On the ground it has no equal—
a creature without fear.
34 It observes all the lofty;
it is king over all that are proud.”
Footnotes
- Job 41:1
- Job 41:1
- Job 41:1
- Job 41:2
- Job 41:7
- Job 41:9
- Job 41:10
- Job 41:11
- Job 41:11
- Job 41:12
- Job 41:13
- Job 41:15
- Job 41:16
- Job 41:16
- Job 41:17
- Job 41:18
- Job 41:22
- Job 41:22
- Job 41:24
- Job 41:25
- Job 41:26
- Job 41:28
- Job 41:32
- Job 41:33
- Job 41:33
- Job 41:34
