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God’s Power Shown in Leviathan

¹ Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?² Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?³ Will he beg you for mercy or speak to you softly?⁴ Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life?⁵ Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens?⁶ Will traders barter for him or divide him among the merchants?⁷ Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?⁸ If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the battle and never repeat it!⁹ Surely hope of overcoming him is false. Is not the sight of him overwhelming?¹⁰ No one is ferocious enough to rouse Leviathan. Then who is able to stand against Me?

¹¹ Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.¹² I cannot keep silent about his limbs, his power and his graceful form.^{13 (a)}Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can approach him with a bridle?¹⁴ Who can open his jaws, ringed by his fearsome teeth?¹⁵ His rows of scales are his pride, tightly sealed together.¹⁶ One scale is so near to another that no air can pass between them.¹⁷ They are joined to one another; they clasp and cannot be separated.¹⁸ His snorting flashes with light, and his eyes are like the rays of dawn.¹⁹ Firebrands stream from his mouth; fiery sparks shoot forth!²⁰ Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.²¹ His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour out of his mouth.²² Strength resides in his neck, and dismay leaps before him.²³ The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.²⁴ His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!²⁵ When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw before his thrashing.²⁶ The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or dart or arrow.²⁷ He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.²⁸ No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like chaff to him.²⁹ A club is regarded as straw, and he laughs at the sound of the lance.³⁰ His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.³¹ He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.³² He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!³³ Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature devoid of fear!³⁴ He looks down on all the haughty; he is king over all the proud.”