Job 41

41^a“Can you pull in Leviathan^r with a fishhook^s

or tie down its tongue with a rope?

²Can you put a cord through its nose^t

or pierce its jaw with a hook?^u

³Will it keep begging you for mercy?^v

Will it speak to you with gentle words?

⁴Will it make an agreement with you

for you to take it as your slave for life?^w

⁵Can you make a pet of it like a bird

or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?

⁶Will traders barter for it?

Will they divide it up among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill its hide with harpoons

or its head with fishing spears?^x

⁸If you lay a hand on it,

you will remember the struggle and never do it again!^y

⁹Any hope of subduing it is false;

the mere sight of it is overpowering.^z

¹⁰No one is fierce enough to rouse it.^a

Who then is able to stand against me?^b

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

Everything under heaven belongs to me.^d

¹²“I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,^e

its strength^f and its graceful form.

¹³Who can strip off its outer coat?

Who can penetrate its double coat of armor^b?^g

¹⁴Who dares open the doors of its mouth,^h

ringed about with fearsome teeth?

¹⁵Its back has^c rows of shields

tightly sealed together;ⁱ

¹⁶each is so close to the next

that no air can pass between.

¹⁷They are joined fast to one another;

they cling together and cannot be parted.

¹⁸Its snorting throws out flashes of light;

its eyes are like the rays of dawn.^j

¹⁹Flames^k stream from its mouth;

sparks of fire shoot out.

²⁰Smoke pours from its nostrils^l

as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

²¹Its breath^m sets coals ablaze,

and flames dart from its mouth.ⁿ

²²Strength^o resides in its neck;

dismay goes before it.

²³The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;

they are firm and immovable.

²⁴Its chest is hard as rock,

hard as a lower millstone.^p

²⁵When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;^q

they retreat before its thrashing.^r

²⁶The sword that reaches it has no effect,

nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.^s

²⁷Iron it treats like straw^t

and bronze like rotten wood.

²⁸Arrows do not make it flee;^u

slingstones are like chaff to it.

²⁹A club seems to it but a piece of straw;^v

it laughs^w at the rattling of the lance.

³⁰Its undersides are jagged potsherds,

leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.^x

³¹It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron^y

and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.^z

³²It leaves a glistening wake behind it;

one would think the deep had white hair.

³³Nothing on earth is its equal^a—

a creature without fear.

³⁴It looks down on all that are haughty;^b

it is king over all that are proud.^c”