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Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 27:1

Leviathan, the fleeing serpent and the twisting serpent

"The Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." The Hebrew witnesses agree (1QIsa-a; 4QIsa-b partly). The titles match a Ugaritic text about Lotan, "the fleeing serpent… the twisting serpent" (KTU 1.5 I 1–3). The library's Greek has "the fleeing dragon… the twisting dragon"; the Vulgate keeps Leviathan and turns the sea dragon into a whale (cetus).

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The oracle as first spoken or written8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  3. 4QIsa-b (4Q56), Qumran Cave 41st century BC (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  4. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Isaiah
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 27:1. Leviathan "the fleeing serpent" and "the twisting serpent" and the dragon in the sea as in the Masoretic Text. Otherwise the differences are of spelling (fuller use of vowel letters) and small grammatical forms.

  3. 1st century BC (reported)

    4QIsa-b (4Q56), Qumran Cave 4

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 27:1. A fragmentary copy: only parts of these verses survive, and in the transcription much of the passage is restored by the editors. What survives agrees with the Masoretic Text.

  4. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    In die illa visitabit Dominus in gladio suo duro, et grandi, et forti, super Leviathan, serpentem vectem, et super Leviathan, serpentem tortuosum, et occidet cetum qui in mari est.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 27:1. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֡וּא יִפְקֹ֣ד יְהוָה֩ בְּחַרְב֨וֹ הַקָּשָׁ֜ה וְהַגְּדוֹלָ֣ה וְהֽ͏ַחֲזָקָ֗ה עַ֤ל לִוְיָתָן֙ נָחָ֣שׁ בָּרִ֔חַ וְעַל֙ לִוְיָתָ֔ן נָחָ֖שׁ עֲקַלָּת֑וֹן וְהָרַ֥ג אֶת־הַתַּנִּ֖ין אֲשֶׁ֥ר בַּיָּֽם׃

    In that day the LORD with his hard, great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon (tannin) that is in the sea

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 27:1.

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

  7. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    En ce jour-là Dieu tirera son épée sainte, sa grande et forte épée, contre le dragon fuyant, contre le dragon aux replis tortueux, et il tuera le dragon.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 27:1. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: stable text; translation differences (Leviathan → "dragon" in Greek; tannin → cetus, "sea monster/whale," in Latin); a documented comparative parallel at Ugarit.

Nachash bariach ("fleeing serpent") also in Job 26:13; Leviathan in Psalm 74:14; 104:26; Job 3:8; 41.

Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 call Satan "the great dragon… that old serpent"; they do not quote Isaiah 27:1.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe titles in 27:1 match the Ugaritic description of Lotan. Reported; KTU 1.5.
  • Independently documentedThe witnesses agree on the Hebrew.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 27: Leviathan the Crooked Serpent →"In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea" (27:1). A new vineyard song: God guards his vineyard night and day; "fury is not in me"; let thorns make peace with him; Israel will fill the world with fruit (vv. 2–6). Israel's punishment was measured; its guilt removed when the altar stones are crushed like chalk and the Asherah poles fall (vv. 7–9). The fortified city lies desolate (vv. 10–11). God will thresh from the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt and gather Israel one by one; a great trumpet will call the lost in Assyria and the outcasts in Egypt to worship on the holy mountain at Jerusalem (vv. 12–13).
    • Investigation: The Holy One and the Sea Monsters →Isaiah's God is "the Holy One of Israel," enthroned above seraphim (6), presiding over a heavenly court (6:8; 40:1–8), creator of everything including light and darkness (45:7), who once struck the sea dragon Rahab (51:9) and will slay Leviathan, "the piercing serpent… the crooked serpent" (27:1). Many of these images have close parallels in the literature and art of Israel's neighbors: winged serpents in Egyptian and Judahite art, divine assemblies at Ugarit, the Babylonian creation epic, and the Ugaritic Lotan, "the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent." This investigation sets each Isaiah text beside its closest ancient comparison and asks what the comparison shows, and what it does not.