41 “Can you catch Leviathan on a fishhook
or tie its tongue down with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose
or a hook in its jaw?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy
and speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you
and let you take it as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of Leviathan as you would a bird
or put it on a leash for your girls?
6 Will traders try to bargain with you for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you stick darts all over its skin
or fill its head with fishing spears?
8 If you put one hand on it,
you will never forget the battle,
and you will never do it again!
9 There is no hope of defeating it;
just seeing it overwhelms people.
10 No one is brave enough to make it angry,
so who would be able to stand up against me?
11 No one has ever given me anything that I must pay back,
because everything under the sky belongs to me.
12 “I will speak about Leviathan’s arms and legs,
its great strength and well-formed body.
13 No one can tear off its outer hide
or poke through its double armor.
14 No one can force open its great jaws;
they are filled with frightening teeth.
15 It has rows of shields on its back
that are tightly sealed together.
16 Each shield is so close to the next one
that no air can go between them.
17 They are joined strongly to one another;
they hold on to each other and cannot be separated.
18 When it snorts, flashes of light are thrown out,
and its eyes look like the light at dawn.
19 Flames blaze from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours out of its nose,
as if coming from a large pot over a hot fire.
21 Its breath sets coals on fire,
and flames come out of its mouth.
22 There is great strength in its neck.
People are afraid and run away.
23 The folds of its skin are tightly joined;
they are set and cannot be moved.
24 Its chest is as hard as a rock,
even as hard as a grinding stone.
25 The powerful fear its terrible looks
and draw back in fear as it moves.
26 The sword that hits it does not hurt it,
nor the arrows, darts, and spears.
27 It treats iron as if it were straw
and bronze metal as if it were rotten wood.
28 It does not run away from arrows;
stones from slings are like chaff to it.
29 Clubs feel like pieces of straw to it,
and it laughs when they shake a spear at it.
30 The underside of its body is like broken pieces of pottery.
It leaves a trail in the mud like a threshing board.
31 It makes the deep sea bubble like a boiling pot;
it stirs up the sea like a pot of oil.
32 When it swims, it leaves a shining path in the water
that makes the sea look as if it had white hair.
33 Nothing else on earth is equal to it;
it is a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all those who are too proud;
it is king over all proud creatures.”
Footnotes
- 41:1
