1“Job, can you pull Leviathan out of the sea with a fishhook?
Can you tie down its tongue with a rope?
2Can you put a rope through its nose?
Can you stick a hook through its jaw?
3Will it keep begging you for mercy?
Will it speak gently to you?
4Will it make an agreement with you?
Can you make it your slave for life?
5Can you make a pet out of it like a bird?
Can you put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6Will traders offer you something for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7Can you fill its body with harpoons?
Can you throw fishing spears into its head?
8If you touch it, it will fight you.
Then you will remember never to touch it again!
9No one can possibly control Leviathan.
Just looking at it will terrify you.
10No one dares to wake it up.
So who can possibly stand up to me?
11Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything on earth belongs to me.
12“Now I will speak about the Leviathan’s legs.
I will talk about its strength and its graceful body.
13Who can strip off its outer coat?
Who would try to pierce its double coat of armor?
14Who dares to open its jaws?
Its mouth is filled with terrifying teeth.
15Its back has rows of shields
that are close together.
16Each one is so close to the next one
that not even air can pass between them.
17They are joined tightly to one another.
They stick together and can’t be forced apart.
18Leviathan’s snorting throws out flashes of light.
Its eyes shine like the first light of day.
19Flames spray out of its mouth.
Sparks of fire shoot out.
20Smoke pours out of its nose.
It is like smoke from a boiling pot over burning grass.
21Its breath sets coals on fire.
Flames fly out of its mouth.
22Its neck is very strong.
People run to get out of its way.
23Its rolls of fat are close together.
They are firm and can’t be moved.
24Its chest is as hard as rock.
It is as hard as a lower millstone.
25When Leviathan rises up,
even mighty people are terrified.
They run away when it moves around wildly.
26A sword that strikes it has no effect.
Neither does a spear or dart or javelin.
27It treats iron as if it were straw.
It crushes bronze as if it were rotten wood.
28Arrows do not make it run away.
Stones that are thrown from slings are like straw hitting it.
29A club seems like a piece of straw to it.
It laughs when it hears a javelin rattling.
30Its undersides are like broken pieces of pottery.
It leaves a trail in the mud like a threshing sled.
31It makes the ocean churn like a boiling pot.
It stirs up the sea like perfume someone is making.
32It leaves a shiny trail behind it.
You would think the ocean had white hair.
33Nothing on earth is equal to Leviathan.
That creature is not afraid of anything.
34It looks down on proud people.
It rules over all those who are proud.”
Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version ™️, NIrV ™️
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.
Used with permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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