Job

41 
[a] “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?

Or[b] can you tie down its mouth with a cord?[c]

Can you put a rope in its nose?

Or[d] can you pierce its jawbone with a hook?

Will it make numerous pleas for mercy to you?

Or will it speak gentle words to you?

Will it make a covenant with you?

Will you take it as a slave forever?

Will you play with it as with birds

and put it on a leash for your girls?

Will guildsmen bargain over it?

Will they divide it between tradesmen?

Can you fill its kin with harpoons

or[e] its head with fish spears?

Lay your hands on it;

think about the battle—you will not do it again!

“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

  1. Job 41:1 Job 41:1–34 in the English Bible is 40:25–41:26 in the Hebrew Bible
  2. Job 41:1 Hebrew “And”
  3. Job 41:1 Literally “with a cord can you press down its tongue”
  4. Job 41:2 Hebrew “And”
  5. Job 41:7 Hebrew “and”
  6. Job 41:9 Literally “its hope”
  7. Job 41:10 Or “Who is he thenwho could stand before me?”; literally “to the face of me”
  8. Job 41:11 Hebrew “and”
  9. Job 41:11 Literally “to me”
  10. Job 41:12 Hebrew “and”
  11. Job 41:13 Literally “the surface of its garment”
  12. Job 41:15 LXX; or “pride”
  13. Job 41:16 Literally “one to one”
  14. Job 41:16 Hebrew “and”
  15. Job 41:17 Literally “a man to his brother”
  16. Job 41:18 Literally “like eyelids of dawn”
  17. Job 41:22 Or “strength”
  18. Job 41:22 Literally “to the face of him/it”
  19. Job 41:24 Hebrew “and”
  20. Job 41:25 Literally “From his/its rising up”
  21. Job 41:26 Hebrew “and”
  22. Job 41:28 Literally “A son of a bow”
  23. Job 41:32 Literally “it lights up the path”
  24. Job 41:33 Literally “There is not on the ground its likeness”
  25. Job 41:33 Hebrew “the”
  26. Job 41:34 Literally “over all sons of pride”