Job 41:9–34

⁹No one can possibly control the leviathan.

Just looking at it will terrify you.

¹⁰No one dares to wake it up.

So who can possibly stand up to me?

¹¹Who has a claim against me that I must pay?

Everything on earth belongs to me.

¹²“Now I will speak about the leviathan’s legs.

I will talk about its strength and its graceful body.

¹³Who can strip off its outer coat?

Who would try to put a bridle on it?

¹⁴Who dares to open its jaws?

Its mouth is filled with terrifying teeth.

¹⁵Its back has rows of shields

that are close together.

¹⁶Each one is so close to the next one

that not even air can pass between them.

¹⁷They are joined tightly to one another.

They stick together and can’t be forced apart.

¹⁸The leviathan’s snorting throws out flashes of light.

Its eyes shine like the first light of day.

¹⁹Fire seems to spray out of its mouth.

Sparks of fire shoot out.

²⁰Smoke pours out of its nose.

It is like smoke from a boiling pot over burning grass.

²¹Its breath sets coals on fire.

Flames fly out of its mouth.

²²Its neck is very strong.

People run to get out of its way.

²³Its rolls of fat are close together.

They are firm and can’t be moved.

²⁴Its chest is as hard as rock.

It is as hard as a lower millstone.

²⁵When the leviathan rises up,

even mighty people are terrified.

They run away when it moves around wildly.

²⁶A sword that strikes it has no effect.

Neither does a spear or dart or javelin.

²⁷It treats iron as if it were straw.

It crushes bronze as if it were rotten wood.

²⁸Arrows do not make it run away.

Stones that are thrown from slings are like straw hitting it.

²⁹A club seems like a piece of straw to it.

It laughs when it hears a javelin rattling.

³⁰Its undersides are like broken pieces of pottery.

It leaves a trail in the mud like a threshing sled.

³¹It makes the ocean churn like a boiling pot.

It stirs up the sea like perfume someone is making.

³²It leaves a shiny trail behind it.

You would think the ocean had white hair.

³³Nothing on earth is equal to the leviathan.

That creature is not afraid of anything.

³⁴It looks down on proud people.

It rules over all those who are proud.”