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| William Blake, Leviathan and Behemoth |
25] Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook? With rope press down his tongue? 26] Can you place a rope in his nose? And with a hook pierce his cheek? 27] Will he multiply supplications to you? Will he speak to you softly? 28] Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as an eternal slave? 29] Will you play with him like a bird? And bind him for your young girls? 30] Will partners bargain over him? Will they divide him among merchants? 31] Can you fill his skin with barbs? And with a fishing-spear his head? 32] Place your hand upon him - remember the battle, do no more.
1] Thus his hope has been made false, will he not be cast down even at the sight of him? 2] None is so fierce as to rouse him - and who before Me can stand? 3] Who has come before Me, I shall repay him - under the whole heavens, he is Mine.
4] I will not be silent over his parts, his strength and graceful form. 5] Who can strip off his outer garment? Who can penetrate his doubled jaw? 6] The doors of his mouth, who can open? ringed about by his fearsome teeth? 7] His shielding scales are his pride, tightly sealed together; 8] each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. 9] One cleaves to the other, they cling together and cannot be parted.
10] His snorting flashes light; his eyes are like the glimmerings of dawn. 11] From his mouth streams firebrands, sparks of fire shoot out. 12] From his nostrils smoke pours, as from a steaming, boiling pot. 13] His breath ignites coals, and flames come from his mouth.
14] Strength resides in his neck; power leaps before him. 15] The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. 16] His chest is cast hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. 17] When he rises up, divine beings are terrified; at his thrashing they retreat.
18] The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does spear, dart or lance. 19] He regards iron like straw, bronze like rotten wood. 20] Arrows do not make him flee; sling-stones are like chaff to him. 21] Like straw seem clubs to him, he laughs at the quivering javelin.
22] His undersides are jagged shards, leaving the mud like a threshing-sledge. 23] He makes the depths boil like a cauldron, the sea he makes like an ointment-pot. 24] Behind him is a luminous wake, he makes the deep seem white-haired.
25] Nothing on earth is his equal – made as he is,
without fear. 26] He sees all that are haughty; he is king over all
proud beasts.
Finally, at the end of the book of Job, God speaks, and reveals the horrifying mystery of creation, culminating in the mighty Leviathan that none but God can stand against.
We find here the longest, most vivid description of Leviathan in the Jewish canon, as detail after detail is poured out to create the image of the monstrous creature.
He has a "doubled jaw", "ringed about with fearsome teeth". He's covered in "shielding scales" and causes the deep to "seethe like a cauldron". Most interestingly for those of us that grew up with stories of European dragons like Smaug from the Hobbit, when the Leviathan opens its mouth "sparks of fire shoot out" and "ignite coals".
What can we learn from the idea that Leviathan breathes fire?
