Make a covenant with you is literally “cut a covenant with you,” as in 31.1. See there for comments on this idiom as well as on the term covenant. Servant for ever, as in Deuteronomy 15.17; 1 Samuel 27.12, requires that Leviathan give up his freedom for all time to serve his captor. The idea is well expressed by Good News Translation as “and promise to serve you forever?” We may also say, for example, “Will he promise always to be your faithful servant?” or “Will he agree with you to serve you forever? Certainly not!”

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 .