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41^*‘Can you draw out Leviathan^* 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 *}Any hope of capturing it^* will be disappointed;
   were not even the gods^* overwhelmed at the sight of it?
¹⁰ No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up.
   Who can stand before it?^*
11 Who can confront it^* and be safe?^*
   —under the whole heaven, who?^*

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?^*
14 Who can open the doors of its face?
   There is terror all around its teeth.
¹⁵ Its back^* 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.’