Job 41King James Version
The leviathan. An eighty verse poem on the great sea creature that no man can capture. Smoke pours from his nostrils, flame from his mouth. His heart is firm as a stone. He laughs at the shaking of a spear. Who then is able to stand before me? The question has returned to where it began.
God describes Leviathan at length: a sea creature of unimaginable power. Can you put a hook in his nose? Can you make him your servant? His breath kindles coals, his heart is hard as stone, when he rises the mighty are afraid. He makes the deep boil like a pot. He leaves a shining wake in the water. He is king over all the children of pride. No one on earth is like him.
Leviathan, the great chaos creature of the ancient world, is under God's sovereignty. Every power that seems overwhelming to humans is beneath the God who made it.
34: "He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride." Leviathan dominates everything proud in the created order. And Leviathan itself is a creature, not the creator. This is the final point of the divine speech.
Leviathan draws from the ancient Near Eastern mythology of sea monsters, including the Babylonian Tiamat and Ugaritic Yam. The creature in Job 41 breathes fire and makes the deep boil, images from volcanic and storm phenomena that the ancient world associated with divine or demonic power. God claims creative authority over all of it.
God describes Leviathan as a demonstration of creative power beyond human comprehension. Job is still the listener, and this is the final exhibit in God's speech from the whirlwind.
Leviathan in the ancient Near East was a symbol of chaos and primordial terror: the monster of the deep, the enemy of order, the dragon under the sea. In Job 41, God describes Leviathan not as a defeated enemy but as a creature that still exists and that only God can face. The chaos in Job's life is not beyond divine scope.
For when what you are facing feels like something monstrous and untameable. God is describing Leviathan in a tone of pride: look what I made. Everything that is overwhelming you is something I have already measured.
1Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
2Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
3Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?
4Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
5Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
6Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?
7Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?
8Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
9Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
11Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.
12I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.
13Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?
14Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.
15His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.
16One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.
17They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.
18By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
20Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.
21His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
22In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.
23The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.
24His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.
25When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.
26The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
27He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
28The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
29Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
30Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.
31He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
32He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.
33Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
34He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.