God introduces the final creature: 'Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord?' This verse begins the description of Leviathan, a sea creature of immense power. The questions about drawing the creature out with a fishhook or controlling its tongue with a cord establish that Leviathan is not subject to human capture or control. The specific mention of fishhook and cord suggests tools of human hunting and fishing; these tools are useless against Leviathan. Job is invited to contemplate a creature so powerful that the instruments of human hunting are futile. The introduction of Leviathan after Behemoth suggests a progression to even greater power or to a power of a different kind (water rather than land).

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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