Job 41  Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

41 Can you draw out the leviathan (the crocodile) with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord?

² Can you put a rope into his nose? Or pierce his jaw through with a hook or a spike?

³ Will he make many supplications to you [begging to be spared]? Will he speak soft words to you [to coax you to treat him kindly]?

⁴ Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?

⁵ Will you play with [the crocodile] as with a bird? Or will you put him on a leash for your maidens?

⁶ Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?

⁷ Can you fill his skin with harpoons? Or his head with fishing spears?

⁸ Lay your hand upon him! Remember your battle with him; you will not do [such an ill-advised thing] again!

⁹ Behold, the hope of [his assailant] is disappointed; one is cast down even at the sight of him!

¹⁰ No one is so fierce [and foolhardy] that he dares to stir up [the crocodile]; who then is he who can stand before Me [the beast’s Creator, or dares to contend with Me]?

¹¹ Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heavens is Mine. [Therefore, who can have a claim against God, God Who made the unmastered crocodile?]^(A)

¹² I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.

¹³ Who can strip off [the crocodile’s] outer garment? [Who can penetrate his double coat of mail?] Who shall come within his jaws?

¹⁴ Who can open the doors of his [lipless] mouth? His [extended jaws and bare] teeth are terrible round about.

¹⁵ His scales are [the crocodile’s] pride, [for his back is made of rows of shields] shut up together [as with] a tight seal;

¹⁶ One is so near to another that no air can come between them.

¹⁷ They are joined one to another; they stick together so that they cannot be separated.

¹⁸ His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the [reddish] eyelids of the dawn.

¹⁹ Out of his mouth go burning torches, [and] sparks of fire leap out.

²⁰ Out of his nostrils goes forth smoke, as out of a seething pot over a fire of rushes.

²¹ His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes forth from his mouth.

²² In [the crocodile’s] neck abides strength, and terror dances before him.

²³ The folds of his flesh cleave together; they are firm upon him, and they cannot shake [when he moves].

²⁴ His heart is as firm as a stone, indeed, as solid as a nether millstone.

²⁵ When [the crocodile] raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; because of terror and the crashing they are beside themselves.

²⁶ Even if one strikes at him with the sword, it cannot get any hold, nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

²⁷ He counts iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸ The arrow cannot make [the crocodile] flee; slingstones are treated by him as stubble.

²⁹ Clubs [also] are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rushing and the rattling of the javelin.

³⁰ His underparts are like sharp pieces of broken pottery; he spreads [grooves like] a threshing sledge upon the mire.

³¹ He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a [foaming] pot of ointment.

³² [His swift darting] makes a shining track behind him; one would think the deep to be hoary [with foam].

³³ Upon earth there is not [the crocodile’s] equal, a creature made without fear and he behaves fearlessly.

³⁴ He looks all mighty [beasts of prey] in the face [without terror]; he is monarch over all the sons of pride. [And now, Job, ^[a]who are you who dares not arouse the unmastered crocodile, yet who dares resist Me, the beast’s Creator, to My face? Everything under the heavens is Mine; therefore, who can have a claim against God?]