VerseAI

NIV

Job 41

  1. 1<pb/><t><f>[76]</f>“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook</t> <t>or tie down its tongue with a rope?</t>
  2. 2<t>Can you put a cord through its nose</t> <t>or pierce its jaw with a hook?</t>
  3. 3<t>Will it keep begging you for mercy?</t> <t>Will it speak to you with gentle words?</t>
  4. 4<t>Will it make an agreement with you</t> <t>for you to take it as your slave for life?</t>
  5. 5<t>Can you make a pet of it like a bird</t> <t>or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?</t>
  6. 6<t>Will traders barter for it?</t> <t>Will they divide it up among the merchants?</t>
  7. 7<t>Can you fill its hide with harpoons</t> <t>or its head with fishing spears?</t>
  8. 8<t>If you lay a hand on it,</t> <t>you will remember the struggle and never do it again!</t>
  9. 9<t>Any hope of subduing it is false;</t> <t>the mere sight of it is overpowering.</t>
  10. 10<t>No one is fierce enough to rouse it.</t> <t>Who then is able to stand against me?</t>
  11. 11<t>Who has a claim against me that I must pay?</t> <t>Everything under heaven belongs to me. <pb/></t>
  12. 12<t>“I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,</t> <t>its strength and its graceful form.</t>
  13. 13<t>Who can strip off its outer coat?</t> <t>Who can penetrate its double coat of armor<f>[77]</f>?</t>
  14. 14<t>Who dares open the doors of its mouth,</t> <t>ringed about with fearsome teeth?</t>
  15. 15<t>Its back has<f>[78]</f> rows of shields</t> <t>tightly sealed together;</t>
  16. 16<t>each is so close to the next</t> <t>that no air can pass between.</t>
  17. 17<t>They are joined fast to one another;</t> <t>they cling together and cannot be parted.</t>
  18. 18<t>Its snorting throws out flashes of light;</t> <t>its eyes are like the rays of dawn.</t>
  19. 19<t>Flames stream from its mouth;</t> <t>sparks of fire shoot out.</t>
  20. 20<t>Smoke pours from its nostrils</t> <t>as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.</t>
  21. 21<t>Its breath sets coals ablaze,</t> <t>and flames dart from its mouth.</t>
  22. 22<t>Strength resides in its neck;</t> <t>dismay goes before it.</t>
  23. 23<t>The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;</t> <t>they are firm and immovable.</t>
  24. 24<t>Its chest is hard as rock,</t> <t>hard as a lower millstone.</t>
  25. 25<t>When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;</t> <t>they retreat before its thrashing.</t>
  26. 26<t>The sword that reaches it has no effect,</t> <t>nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.</t>
  27. 27<t>Iron it treats like straw</t> <t>and bronze like rotten wood.</t>
  28. 28<t>Arrows do not make it flee;</t> <t>slingstones are like chaff to it.</t>
  29. 29<t>A club seems to it but a piece of straw;</t> <t>it laughs at the rattling of the lance.</t>
  30. 30<t>Its undersides are jagged potsherds,</t> <t>leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.</t>
  31. 31<t>It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron</t> <t>and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.</t>
  32. 32<t>It leaves a glistening wake behind it;</t> <t>one would think the deep had white hair.</t>
  33. 33<t>Nothing on earth is its equal—</t> <t>a creature without fear.</t>
  34. 34<t>It looks down on all that are haughty;</t> <t>it is king over all that are proud.”</t>