The LORD’s Power Shown in Leviathan 1 UST { And now I want you to think about another great animal that I created, Leviathan.} You cannot catch Leviathan with a fishhook, and you cannot tie rope around its jaws to hold them closed! BSB BSB: “Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?
2 UST You cannot hook its jaws to catch it and then put cords through its nose to control it. BSB BSB: Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 UST Leviathan would certainly not plead with you to act mercifully toward it! It would not use sweet talk to try to get you not to harm it! BSB BSB: Will he beg you for mercy or speak to you softly?
4 UST Leviathan would certainly not make an agreement to work for you as your slave for as long as it lived! BSB BSB: Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life?
5 UST You could not turn it into a pet, as people do with birds! You could not put a leash around its neck so that the young women in your household could take it for walks! BSB BSB: Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens?
6 UST People who work together to catch fish could never catch Leviathan and then decide what share of it belonged to each of them. They would never get the chance to cut Leviathan into pieces and then sell its meat! BSB BSB: Will traders barter for him or divide him among the merchants?
7 UST People cannot throw harpoons hard enough at Leviathan to pierce its hide! People cannot throw fishing spears into its head! BSB BSB: Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?
8 UST If you try to fight with Leviathan, it will give you a battle that you will never forget! You will never try to do that again! BSB BSB: If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the battle and never repeat it!
9 UST It is useless even to hope to subdue Leviathan. Just the sight of it is enough to make a person become so afraid that he falls down. BSB BSB: Surely hope of overcoming him is false. Is not the sight of him overwhelming?
10 UST No one is so foolhardy that he would wake up Leviathan if it were sleeping.{ It would angrily attack him.} Since that is true, it is even more foolhardy to challenge me{, as you have done}. BSB BSB: No one is so fierce as to rouse Leviathan. Then who is able to stand against Me?
11 UST { Even if people are righteous,} they have not done anything for me that obligates me to make only good things happen to them. Everything in the created world belongs to me{, so no one can give me anything that I have to repay.} BSB BSB: Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.
12 UST And now I want to speak to you further.{ You said that you wanted to wake up Leviathan! As I said, that would be very foolish.} It has agile legs and great strength and a graceful shape. BSB BSB: I cannot keep silent about his limbs, his power and graceful form.
13 UST It has a tough hide that no one can strip off. It has powerful jaws. BSB BSB: Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can approach him with a bridle?
14 UST Those jaws have terrible teeth in them! No one can pry them open when they are closed{, and no one can release them when they bite onto something.} BSB BSB: Who can open his jaws, ringed by his fearsome teeth?
15 UST It has rows of scales on its back with no gaps between them. BSB BSB: His rows of scales are his pride, tightly sealed together.
16 UST Those scales are so close together that it seems as if not even air can get between them. BSB BSB: One scale is so near to another that no air can pass between them.
17 UST Those scales join very closely to each other and they do not pull apart. BSB BSB: They are joined to one another; they clasp and cannot be separated.
18 UST When Leviathan makes a loud sound, fire comes out of its mouth as well as noise. It has bright, scary eyes that seem to glow with fire. BSB BSB: His snorting flashes with light, and his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 UST When it breathes, it shoots out flames and fiery sparks. BSB BSB: Firebrands stream from his mouth; fiery sparks shoot forth!
20 UST Smoke pours out of its nostrils the way steam pours out of a pot of boiling water over a hot fire. BSB BSB: Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 UST Flames shoot out from its mouth, so when it breathes on wood, the wood catches fire. BSB BSB: His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour from his mouth.
22 UST Its neck is very strong. Wherever it goes, it makes people very afraid. BSB BSB: Strength resides in his neck, and dismay leaps before him.
23 UST Leviathan does not have a soft belly as other animals do. Scales wrap around its belly and hold it tightly to its body. BSB BSB: The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
24 UST It does not feel any compassion, any more than a stone would feel compassion or the lower millstone on which people grind grain would feel compassion. BSB BSB: His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!
25 UST When Leviathan rises up out of the ocean, the bravest people become terrified. When sailors see it churning up the water, they sail away as fast as they can. BSB BSB: When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw before his thrashing.
26 UST People cannot injure it with swords. They cannot injure it with spears, arrows, or other weapons that have sharp points, either. BSB BSB: The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or dart or arrow.
27 UST An iron weapon could not hurt it any more than straw could. A bronze weapon could not hurt it any more than a weapon made of rotten wood. BSB BSB: He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.
28 UST Shooting arrows at it does not cause it to flee. Hurling stones at it from a sling is like hurling bits of chaff at it. BSB BSB: No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like chaff to him.
29 UST A club that someone might use against it would not hurt it any more than chaff would. It can ignore any spear that someone might throw at it. BSB BSB: A club is regarded as straw, and he laughs at the sound of the lance.
30 UST Scales as sharp as broken pieces of pottery cover its belly. When it drags itself through the mud, these scales tear up the ground. BSB BSB: His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 UST As it swims through the deep water of the ocean, it churns it into foam, as if it were boiling water or ointment that someone was stirring. BSB BSB: He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.
32 UST As it swims through the water, it creates a glistening wake. The churning water is like white hair on top of the deep sea. BSB BSB: He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!
33 UST There is nothing in the world like Leviathan. I created it in such a way that it would not be afraid of anything. BSB BSB: Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature devoid of fear!
34 UST Nothing else scares it, no matter how powerful that thing may be. It is greater than the greatest of other creatures.” BSB BSB: He looks down on all the haughty; he is king over all the proud.”
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