1“Can you pull out Leviathan ²⁸⁷with a hook? Can you tie its mouth shut?

2Can you thread a rope through its nose? Can you pass a hook through its jaw?

3Will it beg you to let it go? Or will it talk softly to you?

4Will it make a contract with you? Will it agree to be your slave forever?

5Will you play with it like a pet bird? Will you put it on a leash for your girls?

6Will your trading partners decide on a price for him, and divide him up among the merchants?

7Can you pierce his skin with many harpoons, its head with fishing spears?

8If you were to grab hold of it, imagine the battle you would have! You wouldn't do that again!

9Any hope to capture it is foolish. Anyone who tries is thrown to the ground.

10Since no one has the courage to provoke Leviathan, who would dare to stand up against me?

11Who has confronted me with any claim that I should repay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.

12Let me tell you about Leviathan: its powerful legs and graceful proportions.

13Who can remove its hide? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? ²⁸⁸

14Who can open its jaws? Its teeth are terrifying!

15Its pride ²⁸⁹is its rows of scales, closed tightly together.

16Its scales are so close together that no air can pass between them.

17Each scale attaches to the next; they lock together and nothing can penetrate them.

18When it sneezes light shines out. Its eyes are like the rising sun.

19Flames pour from its mouth, sparks of fire shoot out.

20Smoke comes from its nostrils, like steam from a kettle on a fire made of reeds.

21Its breath sets fire to charcoal as flames shoot from its mouth.

22Its neck is powerful, and all who face him shake with terror.

23Its body is dense and solid, as if it is made from cast metal.

24Its heart is rock-hard, like a millstone.

25When it rises, even the powerful are terrified; they retreat as it thrashes about.

26Swords just bounce off it, as do spears, darts, and javelins.

27It brushes aside iron like straw, and bronze like rotten wood.

28Arrows cannot make it run away; stones from slingshots are like pieces of stubble.

29Clubs are also treated like stubble; it laughs at the sound made by flying spears.

30Its underparts are covered with points as sharp as broken pots; when it drags itself through the mud it leaves marks like a threshing sledge. ²⁹⁰

31It churns up the sea like water in a boiling pot, like a steaming bowl when ointment is mixed.

32It leaves a glistening wake behind it as if the sea had white hair.

33There is nothing on earth like it: a creature that has no fear.

34It looks down on all other creatures. It is the proudest of all.”