On Leviathan

1 a “Can you draw Leviathanb out of the waterc with a hook,

or tie downd his tongue with a rope?

2Can you attach a bridlee to his snout,

or pierce his jaw with a hook?

3Will he make many supplications to you,

or will he beg you for mercy?f

4Will he try to make a deal with you,

so that you may take him in servitude forever?

5“Will you play with him like a pet bird?

Will you put a leash on him for your little girls?

6Will your business be able to buy him,

Will you divide him among your merchant friends?

7Will you fill his flesh with harpoons,

or his head with lances?

8Lay your hand on him,

and you’ll remember the struggle.

You’ll never do that again!

9“Look! Anyone’s hope to capture himg will prove itself false;

anyone would be terrifiedh just by looking at him.

10No one is fierce enough to dare to arouse him.

“Who, then, can stand in my presence and face me?

11Who can take me to court and be reconciled to me?

All of heaven is mine.

12“I won’t be silent concerning his limbs,

his mighty strength, and orderly frame.

13Who can strip off his outer armor?i

Who can approach him with a bridle?

14Who dares to open his mouth,j

since it is ringed with his terrible teeth!

15His protective scales are his pride,

they lie sealed tightly together.

16Each one is so close to the other

that not even air comes in between them.

17Each is attached to the other,k

grasping each other so they cannot be separated.

18“His snorting releases flashes of light;

his eyes are like the raysl of the dawn.

19Flames blaze from his mouth;

streams of sparking fire fly out.

20Smoke billows from his nostrils;

like a boiling pot or burning reeds.

21His breath can ignite coal;

and flames proceed from his mouth.

22“His neck is so powerful

that all who meet him are terrified.

23There is no flaw in his body’s armor;

it is firmly fixed on him and unbreachable.

24His heart is as strong as stone,

it is as hard as a lower millstone.

25When he rears up, the mighty are terrified;

they are bewildered as he thrashes about.

26“Thrusting at him with a sword won’t be effective,

nor will spears, darts, or javelins.

27He regards iron like straw,

and hardened bronze like a dead tree.

28Arrows won’t make him flee;

stones from a sling are only pebbles to him.

29Clubs are like twigs;m

he laughs at the whoosh of the javelin.

30“Beneath him he is armored as with sharp potsherds;

he tears through muddy ground

like a threshing sledge through grain.n

31He causes the deep to boil like water ino a pot,

and churns the sea like one stirs ointment.

32The sea is luminescent behind him;

his wake turns the sea white, like those with gray hair.

33“There’s nothing like him on earth;

he was created without the ability to fear.

34He looks down on everything that is high;

he rules over every kindp of pride.”