1Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook
or tie his tongue down 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 softly to you?
4Will he make a covenant with you
so that you can take him as a slave forever?
5Can you play with him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?
6Will traders bargain for him
or divide him among the merchants?
7Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8Lay a hand on him.
You will remember the battle
and never repeat it!
9Any hope of capturing him proves false.
Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?
10No one is ferocious enough to rouse Leviathan;
who then can stand against me?
11Who confronted me, that I should repay him?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12I cannot be silent about his limbs,
his power, and his graceful proportions.
13Who can strip off his outer covering?
Who can penetrate his double layer of armor?
14Who can open his jaws,
surrounded by those terrifying teeth?
15His pride is in his rows of scales,
closely sealed together.
16One scale is so close to another
that no air can pass between them.
17They are joined to one another,
so closely connected they cannot be separated.
18His snorting flashes with light,
while his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19Flaming torches shoot from his mouth;
fiery sparks fly out!
20Smoke billows from his nostrils
as from a boiling pot or burning reeds.
21His breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames pour out of his mouth.
22Strength resides in his neck,
and dismay dances before him.
23The folds of his flesh are joined together,
solid as metal and immovable.
24His heart is as hard as a rock,
as hard as a lower millstone!
25When Leviathan rises, the mighty are terrified;
they withdraw because of his thrashing.
26The sword that reaches him will have no effect,
nor will a spear, dart, or arrow.
27He regards iron as straw,
and bronze as rotten wood.
28No arrow can make him flee;
slingstones become like stubble to him.
29A club is regarded as stubble,
and he laughs at the sound of a javelin.
30His undersides are jagged potsherds,
spreading the mud like a threshing sledge.
31He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;
he makes the sea like an ointment jar.
32He leaves a shining wake behind him;
one would think the deep had gray hair!
33He has no equal on earth —
a creature devoid of fear!
34He surveys everything that is haughty;
he is king over all the proud beasts.