Job 41

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.”