Job 41–42

41ST CHAPTER^a

The Lord Continues: Can You Conquer Leviathan, Job?

¹“Can you pull Leviathanout ⸤of the water⸥ with a fishhook 

or tie its tongue down with a rope? 

²Can you put a ring through its nose 

or pierce its jaw with a hook? 

³Will it plead with you for mercy 

or speak tenderly to you? 

⁴Will it make an agreement with you 

so that you can take it as your permanent slave? 

⁵Can you play with it like a bird 

or keep it on a leash for your girls? 

⁶Will traders bargain over it 

and divide it among the merchants? 

⁷Can you fill its hide with harpoons 

or its head with fishing spears? 

⁸Lay your hand on it. 

Think of the struggle! 

Don’t do it again! 

⁹Certainly, any hope ⸤of defeating it⸥ is a false hope. 

Doesn’t the sight of it overwhelm you? 

¹⁰No one is brave enough to provoke Leviathan. 

Then who can stand in front of me?^c

¹¹Who can confront me that I should repay him? 

Everything under heaven belongs to me! 

¹²“I will not be silent about Leviathan’s limbs, 

its strength, or its graceful form. 

¹³Who can skin its hide? 

Who can approach it with a harness? 

¹⁴Who can open its closed mouth? 

Its teeth are surrounded by terror. 

¹⁵Its back has rows of scales that are tightly sealed. 

¹⁶One is so close to the other 

that there is no space between them. 

¹⁷Each is joined to the other. 

They are locked together and inseparable. 

¹⁸When Leviathan sneezes, it gives out a flash of light. 

Its eyes are like the first rays of the dawn. 

¹⁹Flames shoot from its mouth. 

Sparks of fire fly from it. 

²⁰Smoke comes from its nostrils 

like a boiling pot heated over brushwood. 

²¹Its breath sets coals on fire, 

and a flame pours from its mouth. 

²²Strength resides in its neck, 

and power dances in front of it. 

²³The folds of its flesh stick to each other. 

They are solid and cannot be moved. 

²⁴Its chest is solid like a rock, 

solid like a millstone. 

²⁵“The mighty are afraid when Leviathan rises. 

Broken down, they draw back. 

²⁶A sword may strike it but not pierce it. 

Neither will a spear, lance, or dart. 

²⁷It considers iron to be like straw 

and bronze to be like rotten wood. 

²⁸An arrow won’t make it run away. 

Stones from a sling turn to dust against it. 

²⁹It considers clubs to be like stubble, 

and it laughs at a rattling javelin. 

³⁰Its underside is like sharp pieces of broken pottery. 

It stretches out like a threshing^dsledge on the mud. 

³¹It makes the deep sea boil like a pot. 

It stirs up the ocean like a boiling kettle. 

³²It leaves a shining path behind it 

so that the sea appears to have silvery hair. 

³³Nothing on land can compare to it. 

It was made fearless. 

³⁴It looks down on all high things. 

It is king of everyone who is arrogant.” 

42ND CHAPTER

Job Speaks

I Admit That I Was Wrong

¹Then Job answered the Lord, 

²“I know that you can do everything 

and that your plans are unstoppable. 

³“⸤You said,⸥ ‘Who is this that belittles my advice 

without having any knowledge ⸤about it⸥?’ 

Yes, I have stated things I didn’t understand, 

things too mysterious for me to know. 

⁴“⸤You said,⸥ ‘Listen now, and I will speak. 

I will ask you, and you will teach me.’ 

⁵I had heard about you with my own ears, 

but now I have seen you with my own eyes. 

⁶That is why I take back what I said, 

and I sit in dust and ashes to show that I am sorry.” 

Job’s Life Is Restored

⁷After the Lord had said those things to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz from Teman, “I’m very angry with you and your two friends because you didn’t speak what is right about me as my servant Job has done. ⁸So take seven young bulls and seven rams. Go to my servant Job, and make a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you. Then I will accept his prayer not to treat you as godless fools. After all, you didn’t speak what is right about me as my servant Job has done.” 

⁹Then Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah, and Zophar of Naama went and did what the Lord had told them to do. And the Lord accepted Job’s prayer. 

¹⁰After Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored Job’s prosperity and gave him twice as much ⸤as he had before⸥. ¹¹Then all his brothers and sisters and everyone who had previously known him came to him. They ate with him at his house, sympathized with him, and comforted him for all the evil the Lord had brought to him. Each one gave him some moneyand a gold ring. 

¹²The Lord blessed the latter years of Job’s life more than the earlier years. He had 14,000 sheep and goats, 6,000 camels, 2,000 oxen, and 1,000 donkeys. ¹³He also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴He named the first ⸤daughter⸥ Jemimah, the second Cassia, and the third Keren Happuch. ¹⁵Nowhere in the whole country could be found women who were as beautiful as Job’s daughters. Their father gave them and their brothers an inheritance. 

¹⁶Job lived 140 years after this. He saw his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.^b17Then at a very old age, Job died.