章 |
41:1 |
"Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord?
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41:2 |
Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook?
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41:3 |
Will it make many supplications to you? Will it speak soft words to you?
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41:4 |
Will it make a covenant with you to be taken as your servant forever?
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41:5 |
Will you play with it as with a bird, or will you put it on leash for your girls?
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41:6 |
Will traders bargain over it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?
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41:7 |
Can you fill its skin with harpoons, or its head with fishing spears?
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41:8 |
Lay hands on it; think of the battle; you will not do it again!
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41:9 |
Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed; were not even the gods overwhelmed at the sight of it?
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41:10 |
No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up. Who can stand before it?
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41:11 |
Who can confront it and be safe?-- under the whole heaven, who?
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41:12 |
"I will not keep silence concerning its limbs, or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame.
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41:13 |
Who can strip off its outer garment? Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?
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41:14 |
Who can open the doors of its face? There is terror all around its teeth.
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41:15 |
Its back is made of shields in rows, shut up closely as with a seal.
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41:16 |
One is so near to another that no air can come between them.
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41:17 |
They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
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41:18 |
Its sneezes flash forth light, and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
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41:19 |
From its mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap out.
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41:20 |
Out of its nostrils comes smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
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41:21 |
Its breath kindles coals, and a flame comes out of its mouth.
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41:22 |
In its neck abides strength, and terror dances before it.
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41:23 |
The folds of its flesh cling together; it is firmly cast and immovable.
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41:24 |
Its heart is as hard as stone, as hard as the lower millstone.
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41:25 |
When it raises itself up the gods are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves.
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41:26 |
Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail, nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
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41:27 |
It counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
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41:28 |
The arrow cannot make it flee; slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.
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41:29 |
Clubs are counted as chaff; it laughs at the rattle of javelins.
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41:30 |
Its underparts are like sharp potsherds; it spreads itself like a threshing sledge on the mire.
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41:31 |
It makes the deep boil like a pot; it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
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41:32 |
It leaves a shining wake behind it; one would think the deep to be white-haired.
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41:33 |
On earth it has no equal, a creature without fear.
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41:34 |
It surveys everything that is lofty; it is king over all that are proud."
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