41 ^[a]“Can you pull in Leviathan^(A) with a fishhook^(B)
    or tie down its tongue with a rope?
² Can you put a cord through its nose^(C)
    or pierce its jaw with a hook?^(D)
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy?^(E)
    Will it speak to you with gentle words?
⁴ Will it make an agreement with you
    for you to take it as your slave for life?^(F)
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird
    or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
⁶ Will traders barter for it?
    Will they divide it up among the merchants?
⁷ Can you fill its hide with harpoons
    or its head with fishing spears?^(G)
8 If you lay a hand on it,
    you will remember the struggle and never do it again!^(H)
9 Any hope of subduing it is false;
    the mere sight of it is overpowering.^(I)
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it.^(J)
    Who then is able to stand against me?^(K)
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?^(L)
    Everything under heaven belongs to me.^(M)

¹² “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,^(N)
    its strength^(O) and its graceful form.
¹³ Who can strip off its outer coat?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of armor^[b]?^(P)
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,^(Q)
    ringed about with fearsome teeth?
¹⁵ Its back has^[c] rows of shields
    tightly sealed together;^(R)
16 each is so close to the next
    that no air can pass between.
¹⁷ They are joined fast to one another;
    they cling together and cannot be parted.
¹⁸ Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
    its eyes are like the rays of dawn.^(S)
19 Flames^(T) stream from its mouth;
    sparks of fire shoot out.
²⁰ Smoke pours from its nostrils^(U)
    as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
²¹ Its breath^(V) sets coals ablaze,
    and flames dart from its mouth.^(W)
22 Strength^(X) resides in its neck;
    dismay goes before it.
²³ The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
    they are firm and immovable.
²⁴ Its chest is hard as rock,
    hard as a lower millstone.^(Y)
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;^(Z)
    they retreat before its thrashing.^(AA)
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect,
    nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.^(AB)
27 Iron it treats like straw^(AC)
    and bronze like rotten wood.
²⁸ Arrows do not make it flee;^(AD)
    slingstones are like chaff to it.
²⁹ A club seems to it but a piece of straw;^(AE)
    it laughs^(AF) at the rattling of the lance.
³⁰ Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
    leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.^(AG)
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron^(AH)
    and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.^(AI)
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
    one would think the deep had white hair.
³³ Nothing on earth is its equal^(AJ)—
    a creature without fear.
³⁴ It looks down on all that are haughty;^(AK)
    it is king over all that are proud.^(AL)”

² “I know that you can do all things;^(AM)
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.^(AN)
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’^(AO)
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.^(AP)

⁴ “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’^(AQ)
5 My ears had heard of you^(AR)
    but now my eyes have seen you.^(AS)
6 Therefore I despise myself^(AT)
    and repent^(AU) in dust and ashes.”^(AV)

² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”^(C)

³ What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?^(D)
4 Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.^(E)
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
    and hurries back to where it rises.^(F)
6 The wind blows to the south
    and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
    ever returning on its course.
⁷ All streams flow into the sea,
    yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
    there they return again.^(G)
8 All things are wearisome,
    more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,^(H)
    nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹ What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;^(I)
    there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say,
    “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
    it was here before our time.
¹¹ No one remembers the former generations,^(J)
    and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
    by those who follow them.^(K)

¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened;^(Q)
    what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;^(U)
    the more knowledge, the more grief.^(V)

¹⁰ I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.
¹¹ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;^(AI)
    nothing was gained under the sun.^(AJ)

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”^(AP)
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶ For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;^(AQ)
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.^(AR)
Like the fool, the wise too must die!^(AS)