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Journey of a Passage

Job 41:1 (Hebrew 40:25)

Canst thou draw out Leviathan?

English 41:1 is Hebrew 40:25 and Greek/Latin 40:20. The library's Greek calls the creature "the dragon"; the Vulgate and KJV keep "Leviathan."

Read Job 41:1 (Hebrew 40:25) in every edition

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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 it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original JobPoem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Job
Aramaic
    Greek and its daughters
    1. Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)Printed Septuagint; translated 1872Translated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen
    Latin
    1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 390s, from HebrewTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Poem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)

      Original Job

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. Small Hebrew fragments of Job are known from Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99–101).

    2. c. AD 390s, from Hebrew

      Jerome's Vulgate

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

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

      An extrahere poteris Leviathan hamo, et fune ligabis linguam ejus?

      Vulgate verse 40:20.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Job

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

      תִּמְשֹׁ֣ךְ לִוְיָתָ֣ן בְּחַכָּ֑ה וּ֝בְחֶ֗בֶל תַּשְׁקִ֥יעַ לְשֹׁנֽוֹ׃

      Hebrew 40:25.

    4. 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).

      Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

    5. Printed Septuagint; translated 1872

      Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen

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

      Prendras-tu le dragon à l’hameçon? Passerastu autour de sa tête un licou?

      Greek via Giguet's French (filled-out printed text); not checked against Ziegler's critical edition. Its verse 40:20.

    What changed, and why

    Crocodile, whale and mythic serpent readings all have defenders. The numbering differences mean the reader must line up chapters 40–41 carefully; the site's reader shows each edition's own numbers.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedHebrew 40:25 = English 41:1.
    • Independently documentedThe library's Greek has "the dragon."

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Canst Thou Draw Out Leviathan? →Can Job catch Leviathan with a hook, make it beg, make a covenant with it, play with it like a bird, sell it to merchants? Lay a hand on it once and you will not do it again. Its scales are shields sealed together; its sneezes flash light, its eyes are like the dawn, flames and smoke pour from its mouth. Its heart is hard as stone; swords and spears are useless; it makes the deep boil like a pot. "Upon earth there is not his like… he is a king over all the children of pride."
      • Investigation: Behemoth and Leviathan →God's second speech ends with two creatures. Behemoth eats grass, lies in the reeds and is unbothered by the Jordan in flood; most scholars identify it as the hippopotamus. Leviathan has impenetrable scales, terrible teeth, breathes fire and makes the deep boil; it has been read as the crocodile, the whale, or the mythic sea-serpent known from Ugarit (Lotan). Later Jewish tradition made them primeval monsters. Some modern readers propose dinosaurs. The evidence, read whole, supports real animals painted with mythic colour, and no single identification should be made dogma.