Book of Job, Chapter 41
Job 41 NWT - New World TranslationChapter 41 of Job—New World Translation (NWT)
- ¶ “Can you draw out Le·viʹa·than[a]1 with a fishhook,
Or with a rope can you hold down its tongue? - ¶ Can you put a rush in its nostrils,2
Or with a thorn can you bore its jaws? - ¶ Will it make many entreaties to you,
Or will it say soft words to you? - ¶ Will it conclude a covenant with you,
That you may take it as a slave to time indefinite? - ¶ Will you play with it as with a bird,
Or will you tie it for your young girls? - ¶ Will partners barter for it?[b]
Will they divide it up among tradesmen?[c] - ¶ Will you fill its skin with harpoons,3
Or its head with fish spears? - ¶ Put your hand upon it.
Remember the battle. Do not do it again.[d] - ¶ Look! One’s expectation about it will certainly be disappointed.
One will also be hurled down at the mere sight of it. - ¶ None is so audacious that he should stir it up.
And who is it that can hold his ground before me?4 - ¶ Who has given me something first, that I ought to reward him?5
Under the whole heavens it is mine.6 - ¶ I shall not keep silent about its parts
Or the matter of [its] mightiness and the grace of its proportions. - ¶ Who has uncovered the face of its clothing?
Into its double jaw[e] who will enter? - ¶ The doors of its face[f] who has opened?
Its teeth round about are frightful. - ¶ Furrows of scales are its haughtiness,
Closed as with a tight seal. - ¶ One to the other they fit closely,
And not even air can come in between them. - ¶ Each one to the other[g] they are stuck together;
They grasp one another and cannot be separated. - ¶ Its very sneezings flash forth light,
And its eyes are like the beams of dawn. - ¶ Out of its mouth there go lightning flashes,
Even sparks of fire make their escape. - ¶ Out of its nostrils smoke goes forth,
Like a furnace set aflame even with rushes. - ¶ Its soul[h] itself sets coals ablaze,
And even a flame goes forth out of its mouth. - ¶ In its neck lodges strength,
And before it despair leaps.[i] - ¶ The folds of its flesh do cling together;
They are as a casting upon it, immovable. - ¶ Its heart is cast like stone,
Yes, cast like a lower millstone. - ¶ Due to its rising up the strong get frightened;7
Due to consternation they get bewildered. - ¶ Overtaking it, the sword itself does not prove equal,
Nor spear, dart or arrowhead.8 - ¶ It regards iron9 as mere straw,
Copper as mere rotten wood. - ¶ An arrow[j] does not chase it away;
The slingstones10 have been changed for it into mere stubble. - ¶ A club has been regarded [by it] as mere stubble,11
And it laughs at the rattling of a javelin. - ¶ As pointed earthenware fragments[k] are its underparts;
It spreads out a threshing instrument12 upon the mire. - ¶ It causes the depths to boil just like a pot;
It makes the very sea like an ointment pot. - ¶ Behind itself it makes a pathway shine;[l]
One would regard the watery deep as gray-headedness.[m] - ¶ Upon the dust there is not the like of it,
The one made to be without terror. - ¶ Everything high it sees.
It is king over all majestic wild beasts.”[n]
FOOTNOTES
- ^ “Leviathan,” M(Heb., liw·ya·thanʹ)Vg; LXX, “a dragon.”
- ^ Or, “make a feast over it.”
- ^ Lit., “Canaanites.” Heb., kena·ʽanimʹ.
- ^ MLXX end chapter 40 here.
- ^ Lit., “bridle,” M; LXX, “scale armor [coat of mail].”
- ^ “Face,” M; Sy, “mouth.”
- ^ Lit., “to its brother.”
- ^ “Its soul.” Heb., naph·shohʹ; Gr., psy·kheʹ.
- ^ “Despair leaps,” M; LXX, “destruction runs.”
- ^ Lit., “A son of a bow.”
- ^ Or, “The most pointed (sharpest) of earthenware fragments,” according to the Heb. idiom.
- ^ “And the Tartarus of the abyss as a captive,” LXX. See App 4D.
- ^ “As gray-headedness,” M; LXX, “as a place to walk”; Sy, “as the dry land.”
- ^ Lit., “all the sons of pride (dignity).”
REFERENCES
- ^ Jb 3:8; Ps 104:26
- ^ Is 37:29
- ^ Jb 41:26
- ^ 2Ch 20:6; Da 4:35; Ac 11:17; Ro 9:19
- ^ Ro 11:35
- ^ Ex 19:5; De 10:14; Ps 24:1; 50:12; 1Co 10:26
- ^ Jb 41:9
- ^ Jb 41:7
- ^ Jos 17:16
- ^ Jg 20:16; 2Ch 26:14
- ^ Pr 25:18; Eze 9:2
- ^ Is 41:15
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