Add parallel Print Page Options

Chapter 41

“Any hope you have in this regard would be futile;
    just the mere sight of it would convince you to retreat.
How ferocious it is when aroused!
    No one could ever stand up to confront it.[a]
Who has attacked it and remained unscathed?
    There has never been anyone under the heavens.
“Nor will I keep silence about its limbs,
    or its strength, or its magnificent frame.
Who can strip off its outer garment
    or pierce the reinforced armor of its breastplate?
Who has ever managed to force open the doors of its mouth
    and beheld the teeth that leave one in terror?
“Rows of shields adorn its back
    and are tightly sealed together.
One presses so close to the next
    that no air can pass between them.
Each is so joined, one to another,
    that they hold fast and cannot be separated.
10 “When it sneezes, sprays of light[b] flash forth,
    and its eyes are like the rays of the dawn.
11 Fiery torches emerge from its mouth
    and sparks come flying out.
12 Smoke issues forth from its nostrils
    as from a boiling pot on the fire.
13 Its breath sets coals ablaze,
    and flames pour forth from its mouth.
14 “Strength resides in its neck,
    causing terror to all who behold it.
15 The folds of its flesh are joined together,
    firmly set in place and immovable.
16 Its heart is as hard as stone,
    as unyielding as the lower millstone.
17 When it rears up, strong men become terrified,
    and the waves of the sea retreat.
18 “Even though the sword reaches it, there is no penetration,
    nor is there with the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
19 It regards iron as straw
    and bronze as rotting wood.
20 No arrow can force it to flee;
    slingstones it regards as nothing but chaff.
21 To it a club is like a splinter,
    and it laughs at the javelins that are hurled at it.
22 “Its lower parts are protected with jagged potsherds,
    and it moves across the mire like a threshing sledge.
23 It causes the depths to boil like a cauldron;
    it churns the sea like a pot of ointment.
24 Behind it there is left a shining trail,
    and in its wake the deep appears to be white-haired.
25 It has no equal upon the earth;
    it is a creature that is utterly fearless.
26 It looks down upon all, even the highest;
    it is king over all wild beasts.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 41:2 Confront it: some translate: “confront me.”
  2. Job 41:10 Light: a vapor that gleams in the light of the sun. Its eyes: in Egyptian hieroglyphics, the irridescent red in the eye of the crocodile symbolizes the dawn.