1 "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
2 Can you thread a rope through his nose, or bore through his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he plead with you at length? Will he speak gently to you?
4 Will he strike a covenant with you, for you to take him as a servant for life?
5 Will you make a pet of him like a bird, or tie him up for your girls?
6 Will partners haggle over him? Will they portion him out among the merchants?
7 Can you riddle his hide with harpoons, or his head with fish spears?
8 Put your hand on him once; think of the fight, and you will never do it again!
9 Look, any hope of mastering him is false; is a man not laid flat by the mere sight of him?
10 None is fierce enough to stir him up. Who then can take his stand before me?
11 Who has given me anything first, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.
12 I will not be silent about his limbs, his mighty power and the beauty of his build.
13 Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can come within a double bridle?
14 Who can pry open the doors of his face? His teeth are ringed with terror.
15 His pride is his rows of shields, closed up with a tight seal.
16 They are set so close to one another that no breath can get between them.
17 Each is joined fast to the next; they grip one another and cannot be parted.
18 His sneezing flashes out light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of dawn.
19 Flaming torches pour from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke streams from his nostrils, as from a seething pot over burning reeds.
21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flame issues from his mouth.
22 Strength resides in his neck, and dismay leaps ahead of him.
23 The folds of his flesh are welded together, firmly set on him and immovable.
24 His heart is solid as stone, solid as a nether millstone.
25 When he rears up, the mighty are terrified; at the crashing they are beside themselves.
26 A sword that strikes him has no effect, nor spear, nor dart, nor lance.
27 He regards iron as straw, and bronze as wood gone rotten.
28 No arrow will put him to flight; sling stones become chaff to him.
29 A club seems to him like chaff; he laughs at the whirring of the javelin.
30 His underside is jagged potsherds; he leaves a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 He sets the depths churning like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He leaves a glistening path behind him; one would take the deep for white-haired.
33 Nothing on the earth is his equal, a creature made without fear.
34 He looks on all that is lofty; he is king over all the sons of pride."