41 ^[a] ‘Can you draw out Leviathan^[b] with a fish-hook,
    or press down its tongue with a cord?
² Can you put a rope in its nose,
    or pierce its jaw with a hook?
³ Will it make many supplications to you?
    Will it speak soft words to you?
⁴ Will it make a covenant with you
    to be taken as your servant for ever?
⁵ Will you play with it as with a bird,
    or will you put it on a leash for your girls?
⁶ Will traders bargain over it?
    Will they divide it up among the merchants?
⁷ Can you fill its skin with harpoons,
    or its head with fishing-spears?
⁸ Lay hands on it;
    think of the battle; you will not do it again!
^9 [c] Any hope of capturing it^[d] will be disappointed;
    were not even the gods^[e] overwhelmed at the sight of it?
¹⁰ No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up.
    Who can stand before it?^[f]
11 Who can confront it^[g] and be safe?^[h]
    —under the whole heaven, who?^[i]

¹² ‘I will not keep silence concerning its limbs,
    or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame.
¹³ Who can strip off its outer garment?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?^[j]
14 Who can open the doors of its face?
    There is terror all around its teeth.
¹⁵ Its back^[k] is made of shields in rows,
    shut up closely as with a seal.
¹⁶ One is so near to another
    that no air can come between them.
¹⁷ They are joined one to another;
    they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
¹⁸ Its sneezes flash forth light,
    and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
¹⁹ From its mouth go flaming torches;
    sparks of fire leap out.
²⁰ Out of its nostrils comes smoke,
    as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
²¹ Its breath kindles coals,
    and a flame comes out of its mouth.
²² In its neck abides strength,
    and terror dances before it.
²³ The folds of its flesh cling together;
    it is firmly cast and immovable.
²⁴ Its heart is as hard as stone,
    as hard as the lower millstone.
²⁵ When it raises itself up the gods are afraid;
    at the crashing they are beside themselves.
²⁶ Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail,
    nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
²⁷ It counts iron as straw,
    and bronze as rotten wood.
²⁸ The arrow cannot make it flee;
    slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.
²⁹ Clubs are counted as chaff;
    it laughs at the rattle of javelins.
³⁰ Its underparts are like sharp potsherds;
    it spreads itself like a threshing-sledge on the mire.
³¹ It makes the deep boil like a pot;
    it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
³² It leaves a shining wake behind it;
    one would think the deep to be white-haired.
³³ On earth it has no equal,
    a creature without fear.
³⁴ It surveys everything that is lofty;
    it is king over all that are proud.’