God Plays With Leviathan

Human limitations; God’s boundless knowledge, power and care

There go the ships, and Leviathan whom you formed to play with. (Psalm 104:26)
Leviathan in the Bible has been convincingly identified with the monstrous seven-headed sea serpent LTN (Lotan) of Canaanite mythology.[1] In Job 41:5 God speaks of playing with Leviathan.

Will you play with him as with a bird? (English Standard Version [ESV], v.5a)

The whole of Job chapter 41 is about Leviathan as monstrous, terrifying, and impossible for mortals to approach safely, whereas God has no such difficulty:

Lay your hands on him;
remember the battle - you will not do it again!
. . .
No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. [vv.8, 10a, ESV]

Another relevant passage is Psalm 104:25-27, referring to God and the sea, as at the beginning of this page, and also to God's care for all he has made:

Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things, hoth small and great.
There go the ships,
and Leviathan whom you formed to play with.

These all look to you,
to give themn their food in due season. (ESV, n., cf. [1], p.72; New English Bible; Jerusalem Bible)

The alternative translation “to play in it” is less likely because in Job, as we have seen, God speaks of playing with Leviathan.

This is poetic imagery, and it has many applications. I like to apply it to God's knowledge of mathematics. All infinite classes, which the human mind cannot penetrate - and which may be difficult for some to think about - are fully open to God's unlimited mind. God is then able to perform any related mathematical procedure.

God's care for all his creation is shown at the end of the quotation from Psalm 104.

[1] John Day, God’s Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea. (Cambridge: CUP, 1985; reprint, 1988}, pp. 62-75 and passim.

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Version 1. Copyright (C) Anthony P. Stone 2008. This material may be freely used, provided the author is acknowledged.
Last updated: 25 November 2008