Job 41:1-34
41 Will you pull Leviathan about with a fishhookand press its tongue down with a line?
2 Will you run a rush through its noseand punch its gills with a thorn?
3 Will it give you profuse appeals for grace,or speak submissively to you?
4 Will it make terms with youand you take it as permanent slave?
5 Will you play with it as you would with a birdand tie it up for your girls,
6 Cooperators bargain over it,divide it between dealers?
7 Will you fill its skin with darts,its head with fish-harpoons?
8 Lay your hand on it, think of fighting—do not try it again.
9 ** Here his expectation has been belied,at the very sight of it he is sent flying,
10 He is not fierce enough to rouse it—and who will stand his ground before me?
11 * Who has confronted me and come off safe and sound?under all the sky mine he is.
12 I will not be silent as to its members,and the matter of powerfulness, and the symmetry of its build.
13 * Who uncovers the surface of its coat?who will get inside its double coat of mail?
14 * Who opens the doors of its mouth?the circuit of its teeth is a terror.
15 * Its back is ridged with shields,closed in tight sealing,
16 * One coming up to anotherwith no gap intervening,
17 * Each keeping contact with the next,inseparably linked.
18 Its sneezing sends beams of lightand its eyes are like the eyelashes of the dawn;
19 Out of its mouth fly torches,sparks of fire escape;
20 * Out of its nostrils smoke streams outlike that from a heated pot and rushes.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze,and a flame comes out of its mouth.
22 Force lodges on its neckand despair bounds before it.
23 * The underparts of its flesh cling fast,are immovably welded on.
24 * Its heart is solid as a stoneand solid as a lower millstone.
25 ** At its rearing up heroes quail,at bone-breaking strokes they fall into dismay.
26 * One who hits it with a sword finds that that does not bite,a spear nor a bolt nor a mail-piercer.
27 It thinks iron is threshed strawand bronze rotten wood.
28 A shaft from a bow will not put it to flight;stones from a sling turn to straw for it.
29 * A club counts as a straw for it,and it laughs at the vibration of a javelin.
30 Under it are sharp chips of crockery;it runs a toothed plank over mud.
31 It makes ooze boil up like a pot,makes sea like a perfumer’s saucepan.
32 * It leaves a shining wake behind it;one thinks the deep is gray-haired.
33 Over the earth there is nothing that masters it,it that is made to be without dismay.
34 * Every high one fears it;it is king over all proud beasts.?
Footnotes
^ 41:9 Codd. is he sent flying at the very sight of it?
^ 41:9-12 Susp.
^ 41:11 Or mine it is
^ 41:13 Or takes off the surface
^ 41:14 Var. of its face
^ 41:15 Lit. Is channels of shields
^ 41:16 Codd.* no air coming in between them
^ 41:17 Var. omits this verse
^ 41:20 (last half) Susp.
^ 41:23 Lit. immovably cast on
^ 41:24 (solid, twice) Lit. cast
^ 41:25 Unc., susp.
^ 41:25 (fall into dismay) Codd. cleanse themselves from sin (supposed here to mean go wrong)
^ 41:26 Var. A sword that hits it does not bite
^ 41:29 Codd. A club are counted like straw, and
^ 41:32 Lit. It sets a path to shining behind it or A path shines behind it
^ 41:34 Codd. Everything high it sees
