Job 41
Leviathan
1Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, restrain his tongue with a rope?2Can you put a cord through his nose, pierce his jaw with a barb?
3Will he beg you at length or speak gentle words to you?
4Will he make a pact with you so that you will take him as a permanent slave?
5Can you play with him like a bird, put a leash on him for your girls?
6Will merchants sell him; will they divide him among traders?
7Can you fill his hide with darts, his head with a fishing spear?
8Should you lay your hand on him, you would never remember the battle.
9Such hopes would be delusional; surely the sight of him makes one stumble.
10Nobody is fierce enough to rouse him; who then can stand before me?
11Who opposes me that I must repay? Everything under heaven is mine.
12I’m not awed by his limbs, his strength, and impressive form.
13Who can remove his outer garment; who can come with a bridle for him?
14Who can open the doors of his mouth, surrounded by frightening teeth?
15His matching scales are his pride, closely locked and sealed.
16One touches another; even air can’t come between them.
17Each clings to its pair; joined, they can’t be separated.
18His sneezes emit flashes of light; his eyes are like dawn’s rays.
19Shafts of fire shoot from his mouth; like fiery sparks they fly out.
20Smoke pours from his nostrils like a boiling pot over reeds.
21His breath lights coals; a flame shoots from his mouth.
22Power resides in his neck; violence dances before him.
23The folds of his flesh stick together; on him they are tough and unyielding.
24His heart is solid like a rock, hard like a lower millstone.
25The divine beings dread his rising; they withdraw before his thrashing.
26The sword that touches him won’t prevail; neither will the dart, spear, nor javelin.
27He treats iron as straw, bronze as rotten wood.
28Arrows can’t make him flee; slingstones he turns to straw.
29He treats a club like straw; he laughs at the lance’s rattle.
30His abdomen is like jagged pottery shards; its sharp edges leave a trail in the mud.
31He causes the depths to churn like a boiling pot, stirs up the sea like a pot of scented oils,
32leaves a bright wake behind him; the frothy deep seems white-haired.
33None on earth can compare to him; he is made to be without fear.
34He looks on all the proud; he is king over all proud beasts.