The Description of Leviathan
41:1 (40:25)30
Can you pull in31
Leviathan with a hook,
and tie down32
his tongue with a rope?
41:2 Can you put a cord through his nose,
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
41:3 Will he multiply supplications to you,33
will he speak to you with tender words?34
41:4 Will he make a pact35
with you,
that you to take him36
as your slave for life?
41:5 Can you play37
with him, like a bird,
or tie him up38
for your girls?
41:6 Will partners39
bargain40
for him?
will they divide him up41
among the merchants?
41:7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing hooks?
41:8 If you lay your hand on him,
you will remember42
the struggle,
and you will not do it again!
41:9 (41:1)43
See, his expectation is wrong,44
he is laid low even at the sight of him.45
41:10 Is he not fierce46
when he is awakened?
Who is he, then, who can stand before him?47
41:11 Who has confronted48
me that I should repay?49
Everything under heaven belongs to me.50
41:12 I will not keep silent about his limbs,
and the word of might,
and the grace of his arrangement.51
41:13 Who can uncover his outer garment?52
Who can penetrate to the inside of his armor?53
41:14 Who can open the doors of his mouth,54
his teeth all around are fearsome.
41:15 His back55
has rows of shields,
shut up closely56
as with a seal;
41:16 each one is so close to the next57
that no air can come between them.
41:17 They cleave tightly together, one to the
next,58
they cling together and cannot be parted.
41:18 His snorting throws out flashes of light,
his eyes are like the rays59
of dawn.
41:19 Out of his mouth flames60
go,
sparks of fire shoot forth!
41:20 Smoke streams from his nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning61
rushes.
41:21 His breath sets coals ablaze
and a flame darts from his mouth.
41:22 Strength lodges in his neck;
and dismay62
runs before him.
41:23 The folds63
of his flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm on him, immovable.64
41:24 His heart65
is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone
41:25 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified,
at his thrashing about they withdraw.66
41:26 Whoever strikes him with a sword67
will have no effect,68
nor with the spear, arrow, or dart.
41:27 He regards iron as straw,
and bronze as rotten wood.
41:28 Arrows69
do not make him flee,
slingstones become like chaff to him.
41:29 A club is counted70
as a piece of straw;
he laughs at the rattling of the lance.
41:30 His underparts71
are the sharp points of potsherds,
he leaves his mark in the mud
like a threshing sledge.72
41:31 He makes the deep churn like a cauldron,
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment,73
41:32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake;
one would think the deep to be a hoary head.
41:33 There is not the likes of him on earth,
a creature74
without fear.
41:34 He looks on every haughty being,
he is king over all that are proud.75