Behemoth
be'-he-moth, be-he'-moth (behemoth: Job 40:15): Apparently
the plural of behemah, "a beast," used of domestic or wild
animals. The same form, behemoth, occurs in other passages,
e.g. Dt 28:26; 32:24; Isa 18:6; Hab 2:17, where it is not
rendered "behemoth" but "beasts." According to some, the
word behemoth, occurring in Job 40:15, is not a Hebrew word,
the plural of behemah, but a word of Egyptian origin
signifying "water ox." This etymology is denied by Cheyne
and others. The word has by various writers been understood
to mean rhinoceros and elephant, but the description (Job
40:15-24) applies on the whole very well to the hippopotamus
(Hippopotamus arnphibius) which inhabits the Nile and other
rivers of Africa. Especially applicable are the references
to its great size, its eating grass, the difficulty with
which weapons penetrate its hide, and its frequenting of
streams.
"He lieth under the lotus-trees,
In the covert of the reed, and the fen.
The lotus-trees cover him with their shade;
The willows of the brook compass him about."
The remains of a fossil hippopotamus of apparently the same
species are found over most of Europe, so that it may have
inhabited Israel in early historical times, although we have
no record of it. There is a smaller living species in west
Africa, and there are several other fossil species in Europe
and India. The remains of Hippopotamus minutus have been
found in enormous quantities in caves in Malta and Sicily.
For an elaborate explanation of behemoth and leviathan
(which see) as mythical creatures, see Cheyne, EB, under the
word
Alfred Ely Day
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(great beasts). There can be little or no doubt that by this
word, Job 40:15-24 the hippopotamus is intended since all the
details descriptive of the behemoth accord entirely with the
ascertained habits of that animal. The hippopotamus is an
immense creature having a thick and square head, a large mouth
often two feet broad, small eyes and ears, thick and heavy
body, short legs terminated by four toes, a short tail, skin
without hair except at the extremity of the tail. It inhabits
nearly the whole of Africa, and has been found of the length
of 17 feet. It delights in the water, but feeds on herbage on
land. It is not found in Israel, but may at one time have been
a native of western Asia.
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(Job 40:15-24). Some have supposed this to be an Egyptian
word
meaning a "water-ox." The Revised Version has here in
the margin
"hippopotamus," which is probably the correct
rendering of the
word. The word occurs frequently in Scripture, but,
except here,
always as a common name, and translated "beast" or
"cattle."
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(Job 40:15-24.) The Egyptian, Coptic, pehemout, "the water
ox," Hebraized; our "river horse", hippopotamus. "Behold I
made him with thee." Yet how great the difference! "He
eateth grass as an ox;" a marvel in an animal so much in the
water, and that such a monster is not carnivorous. "His
force is in the navel (rather muscles) of his belly"; the
elephant's skin there is thin, but the hippopotamus' skin
thick. "He moveth his tail like a cedar," short indeed, but
straight and rigid as the cedar. "The sinews of his thighs
are twisted together," like a thick rope. "His bones are as
strong tubes of copper .... his spine like bars of iron." He
that made him hath furnished him with his sword" (his
sickle-like teeth). Though so armed, he lets "all the beasts
of the field play" near him, for he is herbivorous.
"He lieth under the lotus bushes," in the covert of
the reed and fens (being amphibious). "The lotus bushes
cover him with their shadow." "Behold (though) a river be
overwhelming, he is not in hasty panic (for he can live in
water as well as land); he is secure, though a Jordan swell
up to his mouth." Job cannot have been a Hebrew, or he would
not adduce Jordan, where there were no river horses. He
alludes to it as a name known only by hearsay, and
representing any river. "Before his eyes (i.e. openly) will
any take him, or pierce his nose with cords?" Nay, he can
only be taken by guile. Jehovah's first discourse (Job 38-
39) was limited to land animals and birds; this second
discourse requires therefore the animal classed with the
crocodile to be amphibious, as the river horse.
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Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass
as an ox.
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Behemoth, is generally translated by "great beasts"; in its wider signification it includes all mammals living on earth, but in the stricter sense is applied to domesticated quadrupeds at large. However in Job, xl, 10, where it is left untranslated and considered as a proper name, it indicates a particular animal. The description of this animal has long puzzled the commentators. Many of them now admit that it represents the hippopotamus, some Young Earth Creationists think it's a dinosaur like the Apatosaurus or the Brachiosaurus, so well known to the ancient Egyptians; it might possibly correspond as well to the rhinoceros.
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