Job 41:1–34

¹ “Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope? ² Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? ³ Will he beg you for mercy or speak to you softly? ⁴ Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life? ⁵ Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens? ⁶ Will traders barter for him or divide him among the merchants? ⁷ Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? ⁸ If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the battle and never repeat it! ⁹ Surely hope of overcoming him is false. Is not the sight of him overwhelming? ¹⁰ No one is so fierce as to rouse Leviathan. Then who is able to stand against Me? ¹¹ Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine. ¹² I cannot keep silent about his limbs, his power and graceful form. ¹³ Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can approach him with a bridle? ¹⁴ Who can open his jaws, ringed by his fearsome teeth? ¹⁵ His rows of scales are his pride, tightly sealed together. ¹⁶ One scale is so near to another that no air can pass between them. ¹⁷ They are joined to one another; they clasp and cannot be separated. ¹⁸ His snorting flashes with light, and his eyes are like the rays of dawn. ¹⁹ Firebrands stream from his mouth; fiery sparks shoot forth! ²⁰ Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. ²¹ His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour from his mouth. ²² Strength resides in his neck, and dismay leaps before him. ²³ The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. ²⁴ His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone! ²⁵ When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw before his thrashing. ²⁶ The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or dart or arrow. ²⁷ He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood. ²⁸ No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like chaff to him. ²⁹ A club is regarded as straw, and he laughs at the sound of the lance. ³⁰ His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge. ³¹ He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment. ³² He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair! ³³ Nothing on earth is his equal— a creature devoid of fear! ³⁴ He looks down on all the haughty; he is king over all the proud.”