Job 41

1 Can you pull in Leviathan  * 41:1 Jb 3:8; Ps 104:26; Is 27:1 with a hook  * 41:1 Is 19:8; Hab 1:15

or tie his tongue down with a rope?

2 Can you put a cord  * 41:2 Lit reed through his nose

or pierce his jaw with a hook?  * 41:2 2Kg 19:28; Jb 40:24; Is 37:29

3 Will he beg you for mercy

or speak softly to you?

4 Will he make a covenant with you

so that you can take him as a slave forever?  * 41:4 Ex 21:6; Dt 15:17; 1Sm 27:12

5 Can you play with him like a bird

or put him on a leash  * 41:5 Lit or bind him for your girls?

6 Will traders bargain for him

or divide him among the merchants?

7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons

or his head with fishing spears?

8 Lay a  * 41:8 Lit your hand on him.

You will remember the battle

and never repeat it!

9 Any hope of capturing him proves false.

Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?

10 No one is ferocious enough to rouse Leviathan;  * 41:10 Jb 3:8; Jr 50:44

who then can stand against me?

11 Who confronted me, that I should repay him?

Everything under heaven belongs to me.  * 41:11 Ps 24:1; Rm 11:35; 1Co 10:26

12 I cannot be silent about his limbs,

his power, and his graceful proportions.

13 Who can strip off his outer covering?

Who can penetrate his double layer of armor?  * 41:13 LXX; MT reads double bridle,* 41:13 Jr 46:4; 51:3

14 Who can open his jaws,  * 41:14 Lit open the doors of his face

surrounded by those terrifying teeth?

15 His pride is in his rows of scales,

closely sealed together.

16 One scale is so close to another  * 41:16 Lit One by one they approach

that no air can pass between them.

17 They are joined to one another,

so closely connected  * 41:17 Lit another; they cling together and they cannot be separated.

18 His snorting  * 41:18 Or sneezing flashes with light,

while his eyes are like the rays  * 41:18 Lit eyelids of dawn.

19 Flaming torches shoot from his mouth;

fiery sparks fly out!

20 Smoke billows from his nostrils  * 41:20 2Sm 22:9; Jb 39:20; Ps 18:8

as from a boiling pot or burning reeds.

21 His breath sets coals ablaze,

and flames pour out of his mouth.

22 Strength resides in his neck,

and dismay dances before him.

23 The folds of his flesh are joined together,

solid as metal  * 41:23 Lit together, hard on him and immovable.

24 His heart is as hard as a rock,

as hard as a lower millstone!

25 When Leviathan rises, the mighty  * 41:25 Or the divine beings are terrified;

they withdraw because of his thrashing.

26 The sword that reaches him will have no effect,

nor will a spear, dart, or arrow.

27 He regards iron as straw,

and bronze as rotten wood.

28 No arrow can make him flee;

slingstones become like stubble to him.

29 A club is regarded as stubble,

and he laughs  * 41:29 2Ch 30:10; Jb 39:7,18; Hab 1:10 at the sound of a javelin.

30 His undersides are jagged potsherds,

spreading the mud like a threshing sledge.  * 41:30 Is 41:15; Am 1:3

31 He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;

he makes the sea like an ointment jar.

32 He leaves a shining wake behind him;  * 41:32 Lit a path

one would think the deep had gray hair!

33 He has no equal on earth —

a creature devoid of fear!

34 He surveys everything that is haughty;

he is king over all the proud beasts.  * 41:34 Lit the children of pride