The LORD’s Power Shown in Leviathan

1“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook

or tie down his tongue with a rope?

2Can you put a cord through his nose

or pierce his jaw with a hook?

3Will he beg you for mercy

or speak to you softly?

4Will he make a covenant with you

to take him as a slave for life?

5Can you pet him like a bird

or put him on a leash for your maidens?

6Will traders barter for him

or divide him among the merchants?

7Can you fill his hide with harpoons

or his head with fishing spears?

8If you lay a hand on him,

you will remember the battle and never repeat it!

9Surely hope of overcoming him is false.

Is not the sight of him overwhelming?

10No one is so fierce as to rouse Leviathan.

Then who is able to stand against Me?

11Who has given to Me that I should repay him?a

Everything under heaven is Mine.

12I cannot keep silent about his limbs,

his power and graceful form.

13Who can strip off his outer coat?

Who can approach him with a bridle?b

14Who can open his jaws,

ringed by his fearsome teeth?

15His rows of scales are his pride,

tightly sealed together.

16One scale is so near to another

that no air can pass between them.

17They are joined to one another;

they clasp and cannot be separated.

18His snorting flashes with light,

and his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

19Firebrands stream from his mouth;

fiery sparks shoot forth!

20Smoke billows from his nostrils

as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

21His breath sets coals ablaze,

and flames pour from his mouth.

22Strength resides in his neck,

and dismay leaps before him.

23The folds of his flesh are tightly joined;

they are firm and immovable.

24His chest is as hard as a rock,

as hard as a lower millstone!

25When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified;

they withdraw before his thrashing.

26The sword that reaches him has no effect,

nor does the spear or dart or arrow.

27He regards iron as straw

and bronze as rotten wood.

28No arrow can make him flee;

slingstones become like chaff to him.

29A club is regarded as straw,

and he laughs at the sound of the lance.c

30His undersides are jagged potsherds,

spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.

31He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;

he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

32He leaves a glistening wake behind him;

one would think the deep had white hair!

33Nothing on earth is his equal—

a creature devoid of fear!

34He looks down on all the haughty;

he is king over all the proud.”