The Leviathan is mentioned six times in the Hebrew Bible, with Job 41:1-41:34 being dedicated to describing him in detail:[1]
- 1 Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope?
- 2 Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?
- 3 Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words?
- 4 Will he make an agreement with you for you to take him as your slave for life?
- 5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?
- 6 Will traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?
- 7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?
- 8 If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
- 9 Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering.
- 10 No-one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me?
- 11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.
- 12 I will not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and his graceful form.
- 13 Who can strip off his outer coat? Who would approach him with a bridle?
- 14 Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth?
- 15 His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;
- 16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
- 17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
- 18 His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
- 19 Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
- 20 Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
- 21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth.
- 22 Strength resides in his neck; dismay goes before him.
- 23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
- 24 His chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.
- 25 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing.
- 26 The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
- 27 Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
- 28 Arrows do not make him flee, sling stones are like chaff to him.
- 29 A club seems to him but a piece of straw, he laughs at the rattling of the lance.
- 30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing-sledge.
- 31 He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
- 32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had white hair.
- 33 Nothing on earth is his equal— a creature without fear.
- 34 He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud.
