1 “Can you draw out uLeviathan2 with a fishhook

or press down his tongue with a cord?

2  Can you put va rope in his nose

or pierce his jaw with va hook?

3  Will he make many pleas to you?

Will he speak to you soft words?

4  Will he make a covenant with you

to take him for wyour servant forever?

5  Will you play with him as with a bird,

or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

6  Will traders bargain over him?

Will they divide him up among the merchants?

7  Can you fill his skin with harpoons

or his head with fishing spears?

8  Lay your hands on him;

remember the battle—you will not do it again!

9  3 Behold, the hope of a man is false;

he is laid low even at the sight of him.

10  No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before me?

11  xWho has first given to me, that I should repay him?

yWhatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12  “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,

or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

13  Who can strip off his outer garment?

Who would come near him with a bridle?

14  Who can open the doors of his face?

Around his teeth is terror.

15  His back is made of4 rows of shields,

shut up closely as with a seal.

16  One is so near to another

that no air can come between them.

17  They are zjoined one to another;

they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

18  His sneezings flash forth light,

and his eyes are like athe eyelids of the dawn.

19  Out of his mouth go flaming torches;

sparks of fire leap forth.

20  Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,

as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.