Job 41

¹ “ Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook,

² Can you put a rope into his nose,

³ Will he make many petitions to you,

⁴ Will he make a covenant with you,

⁵ Will you play with him as with a bird?

⁶ Will traders barter for him?

⁷ Can you fill his skin with barbed irons,

⁸ Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more.

⁹ Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?

¹⁰ None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

¹¹ Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.

¹² “ I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.

¹³ Who can strip off his outer garment?

¹⁴ Who can open the doors of his face?

¹⁵ Strong scales are his pride, shut up together with a close seal.

¹⁶ One is so near to another,

¹⁷ They are joined to one another.

¹⁸ His sneezing flashes out light.

¹⁹ Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out.

²⁰ Out of his nostrils a smoke goes,

²¹ His breath kindles coals.

²² There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him.

²³ The flakes of his flesh are joined together.

²⁴ His heart is as firm as a stone, yes, firm as the lower millstone.

²⁵ When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.

²⁶ If one attacks him with the sword, it can ’t prevail;

²⁷ He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸ The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him.

²⁹ Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.

³⁰ His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.

³¹ He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³² He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair.

³³ On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear.

³⁴ He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.”