Job 41

^[a]“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
    or tie down its tongue with a rope?

Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

Can you put a cord through its nose
    or pierce its jaw with a hook?

Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

Will it keep begging you for mercy?
    Will it speak to you with gentle words?

Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?

Will it make an agreement with you
    for you to take it as your slave for life?

Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

Can you make a pet of it like a bird
    or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?

Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

Will traders barter for it?
    Will they divide it up among the merchants?

Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?

Can you fill its hide with harpoons
    or its head with fishing spears?

Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

If you lay a hand on it,
    you will remember the struggle and never do it again!

Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.

Any hope of subduing it is false;
    the mere sight of it is overpowering.

Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
    Who then is able to stand against me?

None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
    Everything under heaven belongs to me.

Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

“I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
    its strength and its graceful form.

I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.

Who can strip off its outer coat?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of armor^[b]?

Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?

Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
    ringed about with fearsome teeth?

Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.

Its back has^[c] rows of shields
    tightly sealed together;

His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

each is so close to the next
    that no air can pass between.

One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.

They are joined fast to one another;
    they cling together and cannot be parted.

They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
    its eyes are like the rays of dawn.

By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

Flames stream from its mouth;
    sparks of fire shoot out.

Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

Smoke pours from its nostrils
    as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

Its breath sets coals ablaze,
    and flames dart from its mouth.

His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

Strength resides in its neck;
    dismay goes before it.

In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.

The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
    they are firm and immovable.

The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

Its chest is hard as rock,
    hard as a lower millstone.

His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
    they retreat before its thrashing.

When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

The sword that reaches it has no effect,
    nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.

The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

Iron it treats like straw
    and bronze like rotten wood.

He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.

Arrows do not make it flee;
    slingstones are like chaff to it.

The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.

A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
    it laughs at the rattling of the lance.

Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
    leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.

Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
    and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.

He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
    one would think the deep had white hair.

He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.

Nothing on earth is its equal—
    a creature without fear.

Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.

It looks down on all that are haughty;
    it is king over all that are proud.”