New International Version NIV
New Living Translation NLT
1 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope?
1
“Can you catch Leviathan with a hook or put a noose around its jaw?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?
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Can you tie it with a rope through the nose or pierce its jaw with a spike?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words?
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Will it beg you for mercy or implore you for pity?
4 Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life?
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Will it agree to work for you, to be your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
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Can you make it a pet like a bird, or give it to your little girls to play with?
6 Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?
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Will merchants try to buy it to sell it in their shops?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?
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Will its hide be hurt by spears or its head by a harpoon?
8 If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
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If you lay a hand on it, you will certainly remember the battle that follows. You won’t try that again!
9 Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering.
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No, it is useless to try to capture it. The hunter who attempts it will be knocked down.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me?
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And since no one dares to disturb it, who then can stand up to me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.
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Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine.
12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form.
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“I want to emphasize Leviathan’s limbs and its enormous strength and graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor ?
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Who can strip off its hide, and who can penetrate its double layer of armor?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?
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Who could pry open its jaws? For its teeth are terrible!
15 Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;
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The scales on its back are like rows of shields tightly sealed together.
16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
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They are so close together that no air can get between them.
17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
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Each scale sticks tight to the next. They interlock and cannot be penetrated.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
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“When it sneezes, it flashes light! Its eyes are like the red of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
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Lightning leaps from its mouth; flames of fire flash out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
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Smoke streams from its nostrils like steam from a pot heated over burning rushes.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth.
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Its breath would kindle coals, for flames shoot from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it.
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“The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck strikes terror wherever it goes.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
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Its flesh is hard and firm and cannot be penetrated.
24 Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.
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Its heart is hard as rock, hard as a millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing.
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When it rises, the mighty are afraid, gripped by terror.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
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No sword can stop it, no spear, dart, or javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
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Iron is nothing but straw to that creature, and bronze is like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it.
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Arrows cannot make it flee. Stones shot from a sling are like bits of grass.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
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Clubs are like a blade of grass, and it laughs at the swish of javelins.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
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Its belly is covered with scales as sharp as glass. It plows up the ground as it drags through the mud.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
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“Leviathan makes the water boil with its commotion. It stirs the depths like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair.
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The water glistens in its wake, making the sea look white.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal— a creature without fear.
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Nothing on earth is its equal, no other creature so fearless.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”
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Of all the creatures, it is the proudest. It is the king of beasts.”
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.