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]