41 “Can you catch a crocodile^[a] with a hook and line? Or put a noose around his tongue? ² Can you tie him with a rope through the nose, or pierce his jaw with a spike? ³ Will he beg you to desist or try to flatter you from your intentions? ⁴ Will he agree to let you make him your slave for life? ⁵ Can you make a pet of him like a bird, or give him to your little girls to play with? ⁶ Do fishing partners sell him to the fishmongers? ⁷ Will his hide be hurt by darts, or his head with a harpoon?

⁸ “If you lay your hands upon him, you will long remember the battle that ensues and you will never try it again! ⁹ No, it’s useless to try to capture him. It is frightening even to think about it! ¹⁰ No one dares to stir him up, let alone try to conquer him. And if no one can stand before him, who can stand before me? ¹¹ I owe no one anything. Everything under the heaven is mine.

¹² “I should mention, too, the tremendous strength in his limbs and throughout his enormous frame. ¹³ Who can penetrate his hide, or who dares come within reach of his jaws? ¹⁴ For his teeth are terrible. ^15-17 His overlapping scales are his pride, making a tight seal so no air can get between them, and nothing can penetrate.

¹⁸ “When he sneezes, the sunlight sparkles like lightning across the vapor droplets. His eyes glow like sparks. ¹⁹ Fire leaps from his mouth. ²⁰ Smoke flows from his nostrils, like steam from a boiling pot that is fired by dry rushes. ²¹ Yes, his breath would kindle coals—flames leap from his mouth.

²² “The tremendous strength in his neck strikes terror wherever he goes. ²³ His flesh is hard and firm, not soft and fat. ²⁴ His heart is hard as rock, just like a millstone. ²⁵ When he stands up, the strongest are afraid. Terror grips them. ²⁶ No sword can stop him, nor spear nor dart nor pointed shaft. ^27-28 Iron is nothing but straw to him, and brass is rotten wood. Arrows cannot make him flee. Sling stones are as ineffective as straw. ²⁹ Clubs do no good, and he laughs at the javelins hurled at him. ³⁰ His belly is covered with scales as sharp as shards; they tear up the ground as he drags through the mud.

^31-32 “He makes the water boil with his commotion. He churns the depths. He leaves a shining wake of froth behind him. One would think the sea was made of frost! ³³ There is nothing else so fearless anywhere on earth. ³⁴ Of all the beasts, he is the proudest—monarch of all that he sees.”