Font Size
Job 41
The Message
Job 41
The Message
I Run This Universe
41 1-11 “Or can you pull in the sea beast, Leviathan, with a fly rod
and stuff him in your creel?
Can you lasso him with a rope,
or snag him with an anchor?
Will he beg you over and over for mercy,
or flatter you with flowery speech?
Will he apply for a job with you
to run errands and serve you the rest of your life?
Will you play with him as if he were a pet goldfish?
Will you make him the mascot of the neighborhood children?
Will you put him on display in the market
and have shoppers haggle over the price?
Could you shoot him full of arrows like a pin cushion,
or drive harpoons into his huge head?
If you so much as lay a hand on him,
you won’t live to tell the story.
What hope would you have with such a creature?
Why, one look at him would do you in!
If you can’t hold your own against his glowering visage,
how, then, do you expect to stand up to me?
Who could confront me and get by with it?
I’m in charge of all this—I run this universe!
12-17 “But I’ve more to say about Leviathan, the sea beast,
his enormous bulk, his beautiful shape.
Who would even dream of piercing that tough skin
or putting those jaws into bit and bridle?
And who would dare knock at the door of his mouth
filled with row upon row of fierce teeth?
His pride is invincible;
nothing can make a dent in that pride.
Nothing can get through that proud skin—
impervious to weapons and weather,
The thickest and toughest of hides,
impenetrable!
18-34 “He snorts and the world lights up with fire,
he blinks and the dawn breaks.
Comets pour out of his mouth,
fireworks arc and branch.
Smoke erupts from his nostrils
like steam from a boiling pot.
He blows and fires blaze;
flames of fire stream from his mouth.
All muscle he is—sheer and seamless muscle.
To meet him is to dance with death.
Sinewy and lithe,
there’s not a soft spot in his entire body—
As tough inside as out,
rock-hard, invulnerable.
Even angels run for cover when he surfaces,
cowering before his tail-thrashing turbulence.
Javelins bounce harmlessly off his hide,
harpoons ricochet wildly.
Iron bars are so much straw to him,
bronze weapons beneath notice.
Arrows don’t even make him blink;
bullets make no more impression than raindrops.
A battle ax is nothing but a splinter of kindling;
he treats a brandished harpoon as a joke.
His belly is armor-plated, inexorable—
unstoppable as a barge.
He roils deep ocean the way you’d boil water,
he whips the sea like you’d whip an egg into batter.
With a luminous trail stretching out behind him,
you might think Ocean had grown a gray beard!
There’s nothing on this earth quite like him,
not an ounce of fear in that creature!
He surveys all the high and mighty—
king of the ocean, king of the deep!”
Job 41
New International Version
Job 41
New International Version
41 [a]“Can you pull in Leviathan(A) with a fishhook(B)
or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose(C)
or pierce its jaw with a hook?(D)
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy?(E)
Will it speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you
for you to take it as your slave for life?(F)
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird
or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6 Will traders barter for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?(G)
8 If you lay a hand on it,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!(H)
9 Any hope of subduing it is false;
the mere sight of it is overpowering.(I)
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it.(J)
Who then is able to stand against me?(K)
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?(L)
Everything under heaven belongs to me.(M)
12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,(N)
its strength(O) and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat?
Who can penetrate its double coat of armor[b]?(P)
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,(Q)
ringed about with fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has[c] rows of shields
tightly sealed together;(R)
16 each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the rays of dawn.(S)
19 Flames(T) stream from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils(U)
as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath(V) sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from its mouth.(W)
22 Strength(X) resides in its neck;
dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.(Y)
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;(Z)
they retreat before its thrashing.(AA)
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.(AB)
27 Iron it treats like straw(AC)
and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee;(AD)
slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw;(AE)
it laughs(AF) at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.(AG)
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron(AH)
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.(AI)
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal(AJ)—
a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty;(AK)
it is king over all that are proud.(AL)”
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.