1 ¶ Can you draw out leviathan with a hook? or tie down his tongue with a rope?

2 Can you put a ring in his nose? or pierce his jaw with a spike?

3 Will he plead with you for mercy? will he speak soft words to you?

4 Will he make a contract with you? will you take him as your servant forever?

5 Will you play with him as with a bird? or will you put him on a leash for your maidens?

6 Will the traders make a banquet of him? will they divide him among the merchants?

7 Can you fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

8 If you put your hand upon him, remember the struggle, and you will not do it again.

9 Any hope of capturing him proves false: is there anyone who is not overwhelmed at the sight of him?

10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

11 ¶ Who has preceded me, that I should repay him? everything under the heavens belongs to me.

12 Can I not silence his boasting, his power, and his bold manner.

13 Who can strip off his outer hide? or who can penetrate his double armor?

14 Who dares open his jaws? surrounded by his terrifying teeth.

15 His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close 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 When he sneezes a light flashes, and his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

19 Out of his mouth shoot flames, and sparks of fire fly from him.

20 Out of his nostrils goes smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.

22 Strength resides in his neck, and despair dances before him.

23 The folds of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

24 His heart is as hard as a rock; yea, as hard as a piece of the lower millstone.

25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid: they panic because of his thrashings.

26 Even if one strikes at him with the sword it will have no effect: nor will the spear, the dart, or the arrow.

27 He regards iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.

28 The arrow cannot make him flee: sling stones are treated by him as stubble.

29 Clubs are like straw to him: he laughs at the shaking of a spear.

30 His underside is like sharp pieces of broken pottery: he leaves groves like a threshing sledge in the mire.

31 He makes the deep boil like a pot: and the sea like a mixture of ointment.

32 Behind him he leaves a foaming wake; one would think the deep to be white because of foam.

33 On earth there is nothing like him, who was made without fear.

34 He looks down on the haughty: he is a king over all the children of pride.