The LORD’s Power Shown in Leviathan

[“] 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?[fn]

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.[fn]

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.” 42