Thomson(i)
1 Canst thou draw out Dragon with a hook, or put a bandage round his nostrils?
2 Or canst thou fasten a ring in his snout, or bore his lip for a jewel?
3 Will he speak to thee with entreaties; with soothing supplications?
4 Will he make a covenant with thee? And wilt thou take him for a perpetual servant?
5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird, or bind him as a sparrow for a child?
6 Do the nations feed upon him, or the Phoenicians divide him among them?
7 With their whole fleet they could not carry the first skin of his tail, nor his head in their fishing barks.
8 Wilt thou lay thine hand on him, recollecting the battle made by his mouth? Do not so again.
9 Hast thou not seen him? Hast thou not been amazed at what is said of him? Hast thou not been afraid that he was prepared against me?
10 But who is there, who hath risen up against me;
11 or who can rise up against me and stand to it? If the whole world is mine,
12 I cannot be put to silence by him. On the account of his power one may pity his equal.
13 Who can strip off his outer robe, or who can come within the folds of his breast plate?
14 Who can open the doors of his mouth? His teeth are encompassed with terror.
15 His scales are shields of brass; and his ligature, like a smyrite stone.
16 They are glued one to another, so that no air may pass through to him.
17 They are to adhere close to each other; they stick so close that they cannot be torn asunder.
18 At his sneezing lightnings flash: and his eyes have the lustre of the morning star.
19 Out of his mouth issue as it were burning lamps; and flaky flames, in appearance, are belched out.
20 From his nostrils issueth the smoke of a furnace,
21 flaming with a fire of burning coals. His animal life is glowing coals; and a flame proceedeth out of his mouth.
22 In his neck, strength maketh its abode; and destruction runneth before him.
23 The flesh of his body is glued together; it is so abundant that he cannot be shaken.
24 His heart is hard as a stone, and firm as an immoveable anvil.
25 When he turneth himself about, all the four footed beasts on the earth shrink with fear. Though spears oppose him,
26 they effect nothing; for with regard to the lance and the breast plate,
27 he considereth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
28 The bow of steel cannot wound him; and stones from a sling he considereth as grass.
29 Battering rams are accounted as stubble; and he laugheth at the shock of eruptive fire.
30 His bed is sharp pointed obelisks; and all the gold in the sea under him, is but as dirt.
31 He causeth the deep to boil like a cauldron; and considereth the sea as a pot of ointment.
32 The deepest gulf of the sea he accounteth his captive; and reckoneth the abyss itself as his parade.
33 Upon the earth there is not his fellow; made to be insulted only by my angels.
34 He beholdeth every thing that is high; and he is king over all that are in the waters.