CLV(i)
1 Can you draw out the leviathan with a fishhook, Or hold down his tongue with a line?
2 Can you place a rush rope in his nose, Or pierce his cheek with a gaff?
3 Would he make many supplications to you, Or speak to you with tender words?
4 Would he contract a covenant with you That you may take him as a servant for the eon?
5 Can you sport with him as with a bird, Or tie him up for your maidens?
6 Would partners bargain over him That they may divide him up among traffickers?
7 Can you fill his skin with barbs Or his head with the fishing spear?
8 Place your palm on him; Remember the battle; you would certainly not do it again!
9 Behold, one's hope is proved a lie; Even at the sight of him one is hurled down.
10 Is he not too cruel for one to rouse him? Who then is he who can station himself before Me?
11 Who can confront Me and would fare well? Whatever is under the entire heavens, it is Mine.
12 I shall not keep silence about his constitution Or the matter of his grand mastery that is without appraisal.
13 Who has rolled back his surface garment? Who can enter through his double cuirass?
14 Who has opened the doors of his face? All around his teeth is dread.
15 His body is made of channels of shields, Closed by a constricting seal.
16 One to the other, they are so close That the wind cannot enter between them.
17 They are clung together each to its fellow; They seize each other and cannot be parted.
18 His sneezings make the light irradiate, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
19 Flaming torches go out from his mouth; Darts of fire escape forth.
20 Out from his snorting nostrils smoke goes forth As from a steaming pannier or burning rushes.
21 His soul sets embers aflame, And a blaze goes forth from his mouth.
22 In his neck lodges strength, And consternation romps before him.
23 The flaps of his flesh cling together, Solidly set upon him; it is immovable.
24 His heart is solidly set like stone, Even solidly set like the nether grindstone.
25 At his lifting up, the subjectors shrink back; At his breaking forth, they recede.
26 Though the sword overtakes him, it does not avail, As also the spear, the dagger and the short arrow.
27 He reckons iron as crushed straw, Copper as rotten wood.
28 The son of the bow cannot make him run away; Sling stones are turned to straw for him.
29 The bludgeon is reckoned by him as straw, And he ridicules the whizzing of the dart.
30 His under parts are sharp pieces of shard; He strews spike marks on the mud.
31 He makes the shadowy deep boil like a pot; He makes the sea appear like foaming ointment.
32 Behind him he makes his track resplendent; One would reckon the abyss to be greyhaired.
33 There is no one on the soil comparable to him, Who was made to be without dismay.
34 He stares down on every haughty creature; He is king over every strutting beast.