Job 41 / 42
- 1
"Can you draw out LeviathanA large sea animal, exact identity unknown with a fishhook
or press down his tongue with a cord?
- 2
Can you put a rope in his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
- 3
Will he make many pleas to you?
Will he speak to you soft words?
- 4
Will he make a covenant with you
to take him for your servant forever?
- 5
Will you play with him as with a bird,
or will you put him on a leash for your girls?
- 6
Will traders bargain over him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
- 7
Can you fill his skin with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
- 8
Lay your hands on him;
remember the battle--you will not do it again!
- 9
Behold, the hope of a man is false;
he is laid low even at the sight of him.
- 10
No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.
Who then is he who can stand before me?
- 11
Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.
- 12
"I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.
- 13
Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who would come near him with a bridle?
- 14
Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror.
- 15
His back is made of rows of shields,
shut up closely as with a seal.
- 16
One is so near to another
that no air can come between them.
- 17
They are joined one to another;
they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
- 18
His sneezings flash forth light,
and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
- 19
Out of his mouth go flaming torches;
sparks of fire leap forth.
- 20
Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,
as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
- 21
His breath kindles coals,
and a flame comes forth from his mouth.
- 22
In his neck abides strength,
and terror dances before him.
- 23
The folds of his flesh stick together,
firmly cast on him and immovable.
- 24
His heart is hard as a stone,
hard as the lower millstone.
- 25
When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid;
at the crashing they are beside themselves.
- 26
Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail,
nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
- 27
He counts iron as straw,
and bronze as rotten wood.
- 28
The arrow cannot make him flee;
for him sling stones are turned to stubble.
- 29
Clubs are counted as stubble;
he laughs at the rattle of javelins.
- 30
His underparts are like sharp potsherds;
he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
- 31
He makes the deep boil like a pot;
he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
- 32
Behind him he leaves a shining wake;
one would think the deep to be white-haired.
- 33
On earth there is not his like,
a creature without fear.
- 34
He sees everything that is high;
he is king over all the sons of pride."