This edition follows the Hebrew versification; the traditional number is given in brackets.
No one is fierce enough to rouse him
1[41:9]See, any hope of him proves a lie; one is thrown down at the mere sight of him. 2[41:10]No one is fierce enough to rouse him. And who is it that can stand before me? 3[41:11]Who has faced me first, that I should repay him? Everything under the whole sky is mine. 4[41:12]I will not keep quiet about his limbs, about his mighty strength, the grace of his frame.* 5[41:13]Who has stripped off his outer coat? Who can get inside his double armor? 6[41:14]Who has opened the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. 7[41:15]His pride is rows of shields, shut tight as with a close seal. 8[41:16]Each one touches the next; not a breath of air gets between them. 9[41:17]Each clings to its brother; they grip and cannot be pried apart.
Fire out of his mouth, smoke from his nostrils
10[41:18]His sneezes flash out light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of dawn. 11[41:19]Out of his mouth go torches; sparks of fire escape. 12[41:20]From his nostrils comes smoke, as from a pot blown up over rushes. 13[41:21]His breath sets coals ablaze, and a flame goes out of his mouth. 14[41:22]Strength lodges in his neck, and dismay goes dancing before him. 15[41:23]The folds of his flesh cling together, cast hard on him, and will not move. 16[41:24]His heart is cast hard as stone, hard as the lower millstone. 17[41:25]When he heaves up, the mighty are afraid; at the crash of him they lose themselves. 18[41:26]The sword that reaches him does not hold, nor spear, nor dart, nor javelin.
Iron he counts as straw
19[41:27]He counts iron as straw, bronze as rotten wood. 20[41:28]No arrow makes him run; slingstones turn to chaff for him. 21[41:29]A club he counts as chaff; he laughs at the rattle of the javelin. 22[41:30]Underneath him are jagged potsherds; he drags a threshing sledge across the mud. 23[41:31]He makes the deep boil like a pot; he turns the sea into a jar of ointment. 24[41:32]Behind him he lights up a path; you would think the abyss had white hair. 25[41:33]On the dust there is nothing like him, a thing made without fear. 26[41:34]He looks on everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.
Notes
- 41:4 — The Hebrew is written “not” and read “of him”. Here, and nowhere else in the book, ZARZA follows the written form: with the reading, the verse would announce silence just before the twenty-two verses that describe Leviathan.
