איוב, פרק מ״א, פסוק א׳

Confronting the massive power of the Leviathan shatters any human illusion of control, inspiring paralyzing terror long before a battle can even begin. The primary approach among commentators is that the shattered hope in this encounter belongs to the human. Any expectation a hunter or warrior might have of defeating this beast is doomed to fail from the very start [מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ, רמב״ן]. A person might think they can drag the Leviathan out of the water and toss it before buyers and onlookers, just as they would with ordinary fish, but such hopes will quickly be proven false [תקות אנוש, רמב״ן].

Alternatively, the lost hope might belong to the Leviathan itself. According to one perspective, the creature had always trusted that no one would dare approach or wake it. However, once God grants a person the ability to stand against it, the beast's long-held confidence is broken [מלבי״ם]. Another perspective suggests that the Leviathan's lost hope refers to its desire to mate and produce offspring, a future that God denied by preventing it from having a partner [אלשיך]. Yet, even if the creature were to somehow lose its physical strength and ability to move, the sheer terror it projects would still remain intact [רש״י].

This overwhelming dread requires no actual physical struggle. The mere sight of the Leviathan is enough to make a person collapse to the ground in trembling fear [מצודת דוד, רלב״ג, ביאור שטיינזלץ, אבן עזרא, אלשיך]. This reality raises a natural question: if a person falls to the earth simply from looking at the creature, how could they possibly survive an attempt to lay a hand on it and fight? [רמב״ן, מצודת דוד]. In contrast, a different view reads this dynamic as a question about the future. It asks whether a person will still be thrown to the ground in fear at the sight of the Leviathan now that God has intervened. The answer is no, because the creature's terrifying power ultimately fades before the will of God [מלבי״ם].