41 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook
or snare his tongue with a line which you let down?
2 Can you put a cord into his nose,
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he make many supplications to you?
Will he speak soft words to you?
4 Will he make a covenant with you?
Will you take him for a servant forever?
5 Will you play with him as with a bird?
Or will you put him on a leash for your maidens?
6 Will your companions make a banquet of him?
Will they divide him among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8 Lay your hand on him;
remember the battle—you will do it no more.
9 Notice, any hope of overcoming him is in vain;
shall not one be overwhelmed at the sight of him?
10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.
Who then is able to stand before Me?
11 Who has preceded Me that I should repay him?
Everything under heaven is Mine.
12 “I will not conceal his limbs,
nor his power, nor his graceful proportions.
13 Who can remove his outer garment?
Or who can approach him with a double bridle?
14 Who can open the jaws of his face?
His teeth are terrible all around.
15 His scales are his pride,
shut up tightly as with a seal.
16 One is so near to another
that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined to each other;
they stick together that they cannot be separated.
18 His sneezing flashes forth light,
and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning lights,
and sparks of fire leap out.
20 Out of his nostrils goes smoke
as out of a seething pot or cauldron.
21 His breath kindles coals,
and a flame goes out of his mouth.
22 In his neck remains strength,
and sorrow is turned into joy before him.
23 The folds of his flesh are joined together;
they are firm on him; they cannot be moved.
24 His heart is as firm as a stone,
yes, as hard as a piece of the lower millstone.
25 When he raises up himself even the gods are afraid;
because of his crashings they are beside themselves.
26 The sword that reaches him cannot avail,
nor does the spear, the arrow, or the javelin.
27 He counts iron as straw,
and brass as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make him flee;
slingstones are turned into stubble by him.
29 Arrows are counted as straw;
he laughs at the shaking of a spear.
30 Sharp stones are his underside;
he leaves a mark in the mire like a sharp threshing sledge.
31 He makes the deep to boil like a pot;
he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He leaves a shining wake behind him;
one would think the deep had white hair.
33 On earth there is nothing like him,
a creature made without fear.
34 He beholds all high things;
he is a king over all the children of pride.”
Footnotes
- Job 41:1
