[1] “Can you catch Leviathan with a hook or put a noose around its jaw?
[2] Can you tie it with a rope through the nose or pierce its jaw with a spike?
[3] Will it beg you for mercy or implore you for pity?
[4] Will it agree to work for you, to be your slave for life?
[5] Can you make it a pet like a bird, or give it to your little girls to play with?
[6] Will merchants try to buy it to sell it in their shops?
[7] Will its hide be hurt by spears or its head by a harpoon?
[8] If you lay a hand on it, you will certainly remember the battle that follows. You won’t try that again!
[9] No, it is useless to try to capture it. The hunter who attempts it will be knocked down.
[10] And since no one dares to disturb it, who then can stand up to me?
[11] Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine.
[12] “I want to emphasize Leviathan’s limbs and its enormous strength and graceful form.
[13] Who can strip off its hide, and who can penetrate its double layer of armor?
[14] Who could pry open its jaws? For its teeth are terrible!
[15] The scales on its back are like rows of shields tightly sealed together.
[16] They are so close together that no air can get between them.
[17] Each scale sticks tight to the next. They interlock and cannot be penetrated.
[18] “When it sneezes, it flashes light! Its eyes are like the red of dawn.
[19] Lightning leaps from its mouth; flames of fire flash out.
[20] Smoke streams from its nostrils like steam from a pot heated over burning rushes.
[21] Its breath would kindle coals, for flames shoot from its mouth.
[22] “The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck strikes terror wherever it goes.
[23] Its flesh is hard and firm and cannot be penetrated.
[24] Its heart is hard as rock, hard as a millstone.
[25] When it rises, the mighty are afraid, gripped by terror.
[26] No sword can stop it, no spear, dart, or javelin.
[27] Iron is nothing but straw to that creature, and bronze is like rotten wood.
[28] Arrows cannot make it flee. Stones shot from a sling are like bits of grass.
[29] Clubs are like a blade of grass, and it laughs at the swish of javelins.
[30] Its belly is covered with scales as sharp as glass. It plows up the ground as it drags through the mud.
[31] “Leviathan makes the water boil with its commotion. It stirs the depths like a pot of ointment.
[32] The water glistens in its wake, making the sea look white.
[33] Nothing on earth is its equal, no other creature so fearless.
[34] Of all the creatures, it is the proudest. It is the king of beasts.”