Yahweh: Leviathan
1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord? 2 Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his jaw through with a hook? 3 Will he make many petitions to you, or will he speak soft words to you? 4 Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever? 5 Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls? 6 Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants? 7 Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears? 8 Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more. 9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him? 10 None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? 11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine. 12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame. 13 Who can strip off his outer garment? Who will come within his jaws? 14 Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. 15 Strong scales are his pride, shut up together with a close seal. 16 One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. 17 They are joined to one another. They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart. 18 His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. 19 Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out. 20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. 21 His breath kindles coals. A flame goes out of his mouth. 22 There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him. 23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can’t be moved. 24 His heart is as firm as a stone, yes, firm as the lower millstone. 25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing. 26 If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail; nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. 27 He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. 28 The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him. 29 Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin. 30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. 31 He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 32 He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair. 33 On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear. 34 He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.”
The longest description in the book is of a creature nobody can face, and its point is a question about who can stand before its maker.
Thirty-four verses, the longest sustained description of anything in the poem, and it begins with fishing tackle. Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord? Job 41:1.
The opening questions are all about domestication, and they are increasingly absurd. Will he beg? Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird, or tie him up for your daughters? Will traders divide him among the merchants? Job 41:3–6.
Every relationship a human being can have with an animal — pet, servant, livestock, merchandise, prey — is proposed and dismissed. And the advice about trying is grimly practical: lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more Job 41:8. You will only attempt it once.
Then the hinge of the whole speech, and everything before it has been building to this sentence. None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? Job 41:10.
The argument runs upward. Nobody is reckless enough to provoke the creature; the creature was made; therefore the question of standing before its maker answers itself. Job had asked for a hearing and said he would approach like a prince Job 31:37. He is being shown the animal first.
The next verse is God's only direct statement about obligation in the whole speech: who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine Job 41:11. Nobody has advanced God anything, so nobody is owed a return — which is the accuser's transaction denied from the other end, and which the New Testament quotes at the close of its longest argument about God's freedom Romans 11:35.
The description that follows is deliberately excessive. Scales shut up together with a close seal, so tight that no air can come between them Job 41:15–16. Sneezing that flashes out light; eyes like the eyelids of the morning; smoke from the nostrils as of a boiling pot; breath that kindles coals Job 41:18–21. A heart firm as the lower millstone Job 41:24.
The weapons list is an inventory of futility: sword, spear, dart, shaft, arrow, sling stone, club, javelin — iron counted as straw, bronze as rotten wood, and he laughs at the rushing of the javelin Job 41:26–29.
As with the previous creature, the text supplies every marker and no name. Readers have long proposed identifications and the passage settles none of them; what it establishes is a profile of something unassailable, and the argument works from the profile alone.
The last two verses are where the description stops being natural history. On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear. And: he sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride Job 41:33–34.
God had told Job to look at everyone who is proud and bring him low Job 40:11. The speech ends by pointing at the one creature that is sovereign over the proud, that fears nothing, and that Job cannot touch — and then it stops. Nothing is applied, and nothing further is said.
held with reason What this mark means