Job 41
1 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?
Can you draw out the leviathan with a hook, and can you bind his tongue with a cord?
2 Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Can you place a ring in his nose, or bore through his jaw with an arm band?
3 Will he beg you for mercy or speak to you softly?
Will he offer many prayers to you, or speak to you quietly?
4 Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life?
Will he form a covenant with you, and will you accept him as a servant forever?
5 Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens?
Will you play with him as with a bird, or tether him for your handmaids?
6 Will traders barter for him or divide him among the merchants?
Will your friends cut him into pieces, will dealers distribute him?
7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?
Will you fill up bags with his hide, and let his head be used as a home for fishes?
8 If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the battle and never repeat it!
Place your hand upon him; remember the battle and speak no more.
9 Surely hope of overcoming him is false. Is not the sight of him overwhelming?
Behold, his hope will fail him, and in the sight of all, he will be thrown down.
10 No one is so fierce as to rouse Leviathan. Then who is able to stand against Me?
I will not rouse him, as the cruel would do, for who is able to withstand my countenance?
11 Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.
Who has given to me beforehand, so that I should repay him? All things that are under heaven are mine.
12 I cannot keep silent about his limbs, his power and graceful form.
I will not spare him, nor his powerful words and counterfeit attempts at supplication.
13 Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can approach him with a bridle?
Who can reveal the beauty of his garment? And who can enter the middle of his mouth?
14 Who can open his jaws, ringed by his fearsome teeth?
Who can open the doors of his face? I gave fear to the circle of his teeth.
15 His rows of scales are his pride, tightly sealed together.
His body is like shields fused together, like dense scales pressed over one another.
16 One scale is so near to another that no air can pass between them.
One is joined to another, and not even air can pass between them.
17 They are joined to one another; they clasp and cannot be separated.
They adhere to one another, and they hold themselves in place and will not be separated.
18 His snorting flashes with light, and his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
His sneezing has the brilliance of fire, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Firebrands stream from his mouth; fiery sparks shoot forth!
Lamps proceed from his mouth, like torches of fire burning brightly.
20 Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
Smoke passes out of his nostrils, like a pot that is heated and boiling.
21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour from his mouth.
His breath causes coal to burn, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
22 Strength resides in his neck, and dismay leaps before him.
Strength dwells in his neck, and destitution goes before his presence.
23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
The parts of his body work in harmony together. He will send lightning bolts against him, and they will not be carried to another place.
24 His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!
His heart will be as hard as a stone and as dense as a blacksmith’s anvil.
25 When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw before his thrashing.
When he will be raised up, the angels will be afraid, and, because they are terrified, they will purify themselves.
26 The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or dart or arrow.
When a sword catches up with him, it will not be able to settle in, nor a spear, nor a breastplate.
27 He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.
For he will consider iron as if it were chaff, and brass as if it were rotten wood.
28 No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like chaff to him.
The archer will not cause him to flee; the stones of the sling have been turned into stubble for him.
29 A club is regarded as straw, and he laughs at the sound of the lance.
He will treat the hammer as if it were stubble, and he will ridicule those who brandish the spear.
30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.
The beams of the sun will be under him, and he will dispense gold to them as if it were clay.
31 He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.
He will make the depths of the sea boil like a pot, and he will set it to bubble just as ointments do.
32 He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!
A path will shine after him; he will esteem the abyss as if it were weakening with age.
33 Nothing on earth is his equal— a creature devoid of fear!
There is no power on the earth that is being compared to him, who has been made so that he fears no one.
34 He looks down on all the haughty; he is king over all the proud.”
He sees every prominent thing; he is king over all the sons of arrogance.
