I will not keep silence concerning his limbs begins a detailed description of Leviathan. Will not keep silence may be rendered positively; for example, “I will tell you about” or “I will describe to you.” Limbs is the same word used in 18.13 and is best translated as “legs,” as in Good News Translation and others. However, Pope connects the word for limbs with “boasting,” as in 11.3 (“mocking”), but this removes the line as an introduction to the physical description of Leviathan.

Or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame is literally “and the word of might and the grace of arrangement.” The first of these two phrases may be rendered, according to Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, as “the details of his exploits,” which we may translate as “the great deeds he has done” or “the brave things he has done.” The second description seems to apply to the frame or form of the animal. The word translated as goodly occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament, but it is generally thought to be connected to a similar word meaning “grace.” Dhorme changes the expression to get “his incomparable might,” and New Jerusalem Bible follows this with “his matchless strength.” Interpreters have questioned the idea that a crocodile could be considered graceful (if Leviathan is a crocodile). However, the important thing is what the poet thought, whether he had ever seen a crocodile or not. Good News Translation combines the two statements into line b as “how great and strong he is.” New International Version may be closer to the poet’s intention, with “his strength and his graceful form.” Verse 12 may also be expressed, for example, “I will tell you about Leviathan’s legs, and about the great things he has done, and how graceful he is.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .