41 [a] “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?
Or[b] can you tie down its mouth with a cord?[c]
2 Can you put a rope in its nose?
Or[d] can you pierce its jawbone with a hook?
3 Will it make numerous pleas for mercy to you?
Or will it speak gentle words to you?
4 Will it make a covenant with you?
Will you take it as a slave forever?
5 Will you play with it as with birds
and put it on a leash for your girls?
6 Will guildsmen bargain over it?
Will they divide it between tradesmen?
7 Can you fill its kin with harpoons
or[e] its head with fish spears?
8 Lay your hands on it;
think about the battle—you will not do it again!
9 “Look, the hope of capturing it[f] is false.
Will one be hurled down even at its sight?
10 Is it not fierce when somebody stirs it?
Who then is he who would stand before it?[g]
11 Who has come to confront me, that[h] I should repay him?
Under all the heavens, it belongs to me.[i]
12 “I will not keep quiet concerning its limbs
or[j] concerning the extent of its might and the gracefulness of its frame.
13 Who can strip off its outer covering?[k]
Who can penetrate its double harness?
14 Who can open the doors of its face?
Its teeth all around are fearsome.
15 Its back[l] has scales of shields;
it is shut up closely as with a seal.
16 They are close to one another—[m]
even[n] the air cannot come between them.
17 They are joined one to another;[o]
they cling together and cannot be separated.
18 “Its snorting flashes forth light,
and its eyes are red like dawn.[p]
19 Torches go from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke comes from its nostrils
as from a kettle boiling and burning bulrushes.
21 Its breath kindles charcoal,
and a flame comes from its mouth.
22 “Strength abides in its neck,
and dismay[q] dances before it.[r]
23 Its flesh’s folds of skin cling together;
it is cast on it—it will not be moved.
24 Its heart is cast as stone;
yes,[s] it is cast as the lower millstone.
25 When it raises itself,[t] the mighty ones are terrified;
they retreat because of its thrashing.
26 Reaching it with the sword does not avail,
nor with the spear, the dart, or[u] the javelin.
27 It regards iron as straw,
bronze as rotten wood.
28 An arrow[v] will not make it flee;
sling stones are turned to stubble for it.
29 Clubs are regarded as stubble,
and it laughs at the short sword’s rattle.
30 “Its underparts are shards of a potsherd;
it moves over mud like a threshing sledge.
31 It makes the deep boil like a cooking pot;
it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 Behind it, it leaves a glistening wake;[w]
one would think that the deep has gray hair.
33 “On the ground it has no equal[x]—
a[y] creature without fear.
34 It observes all the lofty;
it is king over all that are proud.”[z]
Footnotes
- Job 41:1 Job 41:1–34 in the English Bible is 40:25–41:26 in the Hebrew Bible
- Job 41:1 Hebrew “And”
- Job 41:1 Literally “with a cord can you press down its tongue”
- Job 41:2 Hebrew “And”
- Job 41:7 Hebrew “and”
- Job 41:9 Literally “its hope”
- Job 41:10 Or “Who is he thenwho could stand before me?”; literally “to the face of me”
- Job 41:11 Hebrew “and”
- Job 41:11 Literally “to me”
- Job 41:12 Hebrew “and”
- Job 41:13 Literally “the surface of its garment”
- Job 41:15 LXX; or “pride”
- Job 41:16 Literally “one to one”
- Job 41:16 Hebrew “and”
- Job 41:17 Literally “a man to his brother”
- Job 41:18 Literally “like eyelids of dawn”
- Job 41:22 Or “strength”
- Job 41:22 Literally “to the face of him/it”
- Job 41:24 Hebrew “and”
- Job 41:25 Literally “From his/its rising up”
- Job 41:26 Hebrew “and”
- Job 41:28 Literally “A son of a bow”
- Job 41:32 Literally “it lights up the path”
- Job 41:33 Literally “There is not on the ground its likeness”
- Job 41:33 Hebrew “the”
- Job 41:34 Literally “over all sons of pride”