The LORD’s Power Shown in Leviathan

1Can you draw out the leviathan with a hook, and can you bind his tongue with a cord?

2Can you place a ring in his nose, or bore through his jaw with an arm band?

3Will he offer many prayers to you, or speak to you quietly?

4Will he form a covenant with you, and will you accept him as a servant forever?

5Will you play with him as with a bird, or tether him for your handmaids?

6Will your friends cut him into pieces, will dealers distribute him?

7Will you fill up bags with his hide, and let his head be used as a home for fishes?

8Place your hand upon him; remember the battle and speak no more.

9Behold, his hope will fail him, and in the sight of all, he will be thrown down.

10I will not rouse him, as the cruel would do, for who is able to withstand my countenance?

11Who has given to me beforehand, so that I should repay him? All things that are under heaven are mine.

12I will not spare him, nor his powerful words and counterfeit attempts at supplication.

13Who can reveal the beauty of his garment? And who can enter the middle of his mouth?

14Who can open the doors of his face? I gave fear to the circle of his teeth.

15His body is like shields fused together, like dense scales pressed over one another.

16One is joined to another, and not even air can pass between them.

17They adhere to one another, and they hold themselves in place and will not be separated.

18His sneezing has the brilliance of fire, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19Lamps proceed from his mouth, like torches of fire burning brightly.

20Smoke passes out of his nostrils, like a pot that is heated and boiling.

21His breath causes coal to burn, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.

22Strength dwells in his neck, and destitution goes before his presence.

23The parts of his body work in harmony together. He will send lightning bolts against him, and they will not be carried to another place.

24His heart will be as hard as a stone and as dense as a blacksmith’s anvil.

25When he will be raised up, the angels will be afraid, and, because they are terrified, they will purify themselves.

26When a sword catches up with him, it will not be able to settle in, nor a spear, nor a breastplate.

27For he will consider iron as if it were chaff, and brass as if it were rotten wood.

28The archer will not cause him to flee; the stones of the sling have been turned into stubble for him.

29He will treat the hammer as if it were stubble, and he will ridicule those who brandish the spear.

30The beams of the sun will be under him, and he will dispense gold to them as if it were clay.

31He will make the depths of the sea boil like a pot, and he will set it to bubble just as ointments do.

32A path will shine after him; he will esteem the abyss as if it were weakening with age.

33There is no power on the earth that is being compared to him, who has been made so that he fears no one.

34He sees every prominent thing; he is king over all the sons of arrogance.