The LORD’s Power Shown in Leviathan

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.”