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| William Blake, Leviathan and Behemoth |
Job 40:25 - 41:25
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?
