Canst Thou Draw Out Leviathan?

"Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?… Will he make many supplications unto thee?… Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?… Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?… Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more."

"None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine."

"His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal… By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot… The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold… He maketh the deep to boil like a pot… Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride."

Leviathan at Ugarit

Ugaritic texts (14th–13th century BC) speak of Lotan (ltn), "the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent, the mighty one with seven heads," defeated by Baal or Anat. Isaiah 27:1 uses almost the same words for Leviathan, and Psalm 74:14 has God crush "the heads of leviathan." The Baal stele above shows the storm god of Ugarit who fought the sea.

Crocodile, whale, or dragon?

Hooks, scales, impenetrable hide, a mouth full of teeth and a home in deep waters suggest the Nile crocodile, the most common modern identification. Michael V. Fox (2012) argued for the whale (sneezing light = spouting, the deep made to boil, "a path to shine after him"). Fire and smoke from the mouth suggest a mythic dragon. The poem may blend all three. No excavated object is "a Leviathan."

Merchants

"Part him among the merchants" uses kena'anim, "Canaanites," a word for traders (Phoenician merchants). The library's Greek reads "the peoples of Phoenicia divide it."

Numbering

Hebrew Bibles begin chapter 41 at English 41:9; English 41:1–8 are Hebrew 40:25–32, and Greek and Latin number them 40:20–27. The library's Hebrew (WLC) has 32 verses in chapter 40 and 26 in chapter 41; the KJV has 24 and 34. The reader lines them up and shows the edition's own numbers.

Romans 11:35

41:11 (Hebrew 41:3), "Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him?", is echoed by Paul in Romans 11:35: "Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?"

The library's Greek calls it "the dragon"

Giguet's 40:20: "Will you take the dragon with a hook?" The Greek drakōn was a large serpent; the Vulgate keeps "Leviathan." The Sahidic Coptic in the library lacks 41:26–34 (English), consistent with a shorter Old Greek ending of the poem.