“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?
Whether this leviathan be a whale or a crocodile is a great dispute among the learned, which I will not undertake to determine; some of the particulars agree more easily to the one, others to the other; both are very strong and fierce, and the power of the Creator appears in them.
Commenting on Job 41:1-10
Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?.... That is, draw it out of the sea or river as anglers draw out smaller fishes with a line or hook? the question suggests it cannot be done; whether by the "leviathan" is meant the whale, which was the most generally received notion; or the crocodile, as Bochart, who has been followed by many; or the "orca"...
Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord [which] thou lettest down? (l) Meaning the whale.