Behemoth - Description

Description

Job 40:15-24 describes Behemoth, and then the sea-monster Leviathan, to demonstrate to Job the futility of questioning God, who alone has created these beings and who alone can capture them. Both beasts are chaos monsters destroyed by the deity at the time of creation, although such a conflict is not found in the creation account.

Leviathan is identified figuratively with both the primeval sea (Job 3:8, Psalms 74:13) and in apocalyptic literature - describing the end-time - as that adversary, the Devil, from before creation who will finally be defeated. In the divine speeches in Job, Behemoth and Leviathan may both be seen as composite and mythical creatures with enormous strength, which humans like Job could not hope to control. But both are reduced to the status of divine pets, with rings through their noses and Leviathan on a leash.

Behold now the behemoth that I have made with you; he eats grass like cattle.
Behold now his strength is in his loins and his power is in the navel of his belly.
His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His limbs are as strong as copper, his bones as a load of iron.
His is the first of God's ways; only his Maker can draw His sword.
For the mountains bear food for him, and all the beasts of the field play there.
Does he lie under the shadows, in the cover of the reeds and the swamp?
Do the shadows cover him as his shadow? Do the willows of the brook surround him?
Behold, he plunders the river, and does not harden; he trusts that he will draw the Jordan into his mouth.
With His eyes He will take him; with snares He will puncture his nostrils.