A reading from the Book of Job.

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook or press down his tongue with a cord?

Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he make many pleas to you?

Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your

servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with

fishing spears? Lay your hands on him. Remember the battle. You will not do it again. Behold,

the hope of a man is false. He has laid low even at the sight of him.

No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before me?

Who has first given to me that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. I will not keep

silence concerning his limbs or his mighty strength or his goodly frame. Who can strip off his

outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.

His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely, as with a seal. One is so near to another

that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another. They clasp each other and cannot be separated.

His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

Out of his mouth go flaming torches. Sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth

smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning

rushes. His breath kindles coals and a flame comes forth from his mouth. In his neck abides strength

and terror dances before him. The folds of his flesh stick together firmly cast on him and immovable.

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