Chapter 41

The LORD’s Power Shown in Leviathan

¹“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook

or tie down his tongue with a rope?

²Can you put a cord through his nose

or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he beg you for mercy

or speak to you softly?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you

to take him as a slave for life?

⁵Can you pet him like a bird

or put him on a leash for your maidens?

⁶Will traders barter for him

or divide him among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his hide with harpoons

or his head with fishing spears?

⁸If you lay a hand on him,

you will remember the battle and never repeat it!

⁹Surely hope of overcoming him is false.

Is not the sight of him overwhelming?

¹⁰No one is so fierce as to rouse Leviathan.

Then who is able to stand against Me?

¹¹Who has given to Me that I should repay him?^a

Everything under heaven is Mine.

¹²I cannot keep silent about his limbs,

his power and graceful form.

¹³Who can strip off his outer coat?

Who can approach him with a bridle?^b

¹⁴Who can open his jaws,

ringed by his fearsome teeth?

¹⁵His rows of scales are his pride,

tightly sealed together.

¹⁶One scale is so near to another

that no air can pass between them.

¹⁷They are joined to one another;

they clasp and cannot be separated.

¹⁸His snorting flashes with light,

and his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

¹⁹Firebrands stream from his mouth;

fiery sparks shoot forth!

²⁰Smoke billows from his nostrils

as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

²¹His breath sets coals ablaze,

and flames pour from his mouth.

²²Strength resides in his neck,

and dismay leaps before him.

²³The folds of his flesh are tightly joined;

they are firm and immovable.

²⁴His chest is as hard as a rock,

as hard as a lower millstone!

²⁵When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified;

they withdraw before his thrashing.

²⁶The sword that reaches him has no effect,

nor does the spear or dart or arrow.

²⁷He regards iron as straw

and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸No arrow can make him flee;

slingstones become like chaff to him.

²⁹A club is regarded as straw,

and he laughs at the sound of the lance.^c

³⁰His undersides are jagged potsherds,

spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.

³¹He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;

he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

³²He leaves a glistening wake behind him;

one would think the deep had white hair!

³³Nothing on earth is his equal—

a creature devoid of fear!

³⁴He looks down on all the haughty;

he is king over all the proud.”