1[a] “Can you draw out Leviathan[b] with a fishhook,
    or press down its tongue with a cord?
2Can you put a rope in its nose,
    or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3Will it make many supplications to you?
    Will it speak soft words to you?
4Will it make a covenant with you
    to be taken as your servant forever?
5Will you play with it as with a bird,
    or will you put it on leash for your girls?
6Will traders bargain over it?
    Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7Can you fill its skin with harpoons,
    or its head with fishing spears?
8Lay 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?
10No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up.
    Who can stand before it?[f]
11Who 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.
13Who can strip off its outer garment?
    Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?[j]
14Who can open the doors of its face?
    There is terror all around its teeth.
15Its back[k] is made of shields in rows,
    shut up closely as with a seal.
16One is so near to another
    that no air can come between them.
17They are joined one to another;
    they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
18Its sneezes flash forth light,
    and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
19From its mouth go flaming torches;
    sparks of fire leap out.
20Out of its nostrils comes smoke,
    as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21Its breath kindles coals,
    and a flame comes out of its mouth.
22In its neck abides strength,
    and terror dances before it.
23The folds of its flesh cling together;
    it is firmly cast and immovable.
24Its heart is as hard as stone,
    as hard as the lower millstone.
25When it raises itself up the gods are afraid;
    at the crashing they are beside themselves.
26Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail,
    nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
27It counts iron as straw,
    and bronze as rotten wood.
28The arrow cannot make it flee;
    slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.
29Clubs are counted as chaff;
    it laughs at the rattle of javelins.
30Its underparts are like sharp potsherds;
    it spreads itself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
31It makes the deep boil like a pot;
    it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32It leaves a shining wake behind it;
    one would think the deep to be white-haired.
33On earth it has no equal,
    a creature without fear.
34It surveys everything that is lofty;
    it is king over all that are proud.”