| 1 | “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, 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 forever? |
| 5 | Will you play with it as with a bird, or will you put it on 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.” |