The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Job
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Chapter 41
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It is in mercy that I forbear to make him a plague for mankind. But indeed, there is no resisting me,
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nor can any deserve my thanks by lending me the aid I lacked; nothing on earth but is at my disposal.
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I give him no quarter, for all his boastful, all his flattering words.✻
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Who can strip the skin of him, who can penetrate into the cavern of his mouth,
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forcing the gates that guard it, the terrors of his teeth?
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The body of him is like shields of cast metal, scale pressing on scale,
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so close to one another as to leave no vent between;
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so well joined that nothing will part them.
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Let him but sneeze, the fire flashes out; let him open his eyes, it is like the glimmer of dawn;
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flames come from his jaws, bright as a burning torch,
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smoke from his nostrils, thick as the fumes of a seething pot;
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his very breath will set coals aflame, such fire issues from that mouth.
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What strength dwells in that neck of his, what terrors play about him!
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Firm-set are the folds of his flesh, unyielding though a thunder-bolt should strike them;✻
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firm-set, too, is the heart of him, firm as ever stone was, or smith’s anvil.
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Rises he up, angels themselves are afraid, and take sanctuary in their dread.✻
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Sword-thrust, nor spear, nor breast-plate can hold their own against him;
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to him, steel is but chaff, bronze but touch-wood,
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nor fears he the archer; sling-stones he counts as straw,
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as straw the hammer-blow, laughs at the brandished spear.
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Sunlight flashes beneath him as he goes, a path of gold through the slime;✻
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he makes the deep sea boil like a pot where ointment simmers;
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how it shines in his wake, as though ocean itself had grown hoary with age!
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He has not his like among the strong things of earth, that fearless nature,
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that heaven-confronting eye. Over all the pride of earth he reigns supreme.
