God’s Power Shown in Creatures
1 “Can you catch the Leviathan with a fish hook
or tie his tongue with a cord?
2 Can you put a rope into his nose
or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
3 Will he make many petitions to you,
or will he speak soft words to you?
4 Will he make a covenant with you,
that you should take him for a servant forever?
5 Will you play with him as with a bird?
Or will you bind him for your girls?
6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they part him among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his skin with barbed irons
or his head with fish spears?
8 Lay your hand on him,
and you will remember the battle
and never do it again.
9 Any hope of capturing him is in vain.
Is one not overwhelmed at the very sight of him?
10 None is so fierce that he dare stir him up.
Who then is he who can stand before me?
11 Who has first given to me,
that I should repay him?
Everything under the heavens is mine.
12 I will not remain silent concerning his limbs,
nor his mighty strength, nor his graceful form.
13 Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who will come within his jaws?
14 Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror.
15 Strong scales are his pride,
shut up together with a close seal.
16 One is so near to another,
that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined to one another.
They stick together,
so that they cannot be pulled apart.
18 His sneezing flashes out light.
His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning torches.
Sparks of fire leap out.
20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goes,
as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21 His breath kindles coals.
A flame goes out of his mouth.
22 There is strength in his neck.
Terror dances before him.
23 The folds of his flesh are joined together.
They are firmly cast and immovable.
24 His heart is as hard as a stone,
yes, hard as the lower millstone.
25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.
They retreat before his thrashing.
26 If one attacks him with the sword, it cannot prevail,
nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
27 He considers iron as straw,
and bronze as rotten wood.
28 The arrow cannot make him flee.
Sling stones are like chaff to him.
29 Clubs are considered stubble.
He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.
30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 He makes the deep boil like a pot.
He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He makes a path shine after him.
One would think the deep had white hair.
33 On earth he has no equal,
a creature without fear.
34 He sees everything that is high.
He is king over all who are proud.”