Leviathan and Behemoth

Job 40–41 describes two mighty creatures: Behemoth, who eats grass like an ox and lies among the reeds of the river, and Leviathan, who cannot be caught with a hook. In Psalm 104 Leviathan plays in the sea, while Psalm 74 and Isaiah 27 speak of a many-headed sea serpent. The name Behemoth is a plural form of the Hebrew word for “beast” — as if to say “the beast of beasts”.

How to read them is debated. By one view, the poet describes real animals: Behemoth is the hippopotamus and Leviathan the crocodile, both well known in Egypt; others have suggested the elephant or the whale. By another view, these are poetic creatures shared with the wider ancient world: texts from Ugarit (14th–13th century BC) tell of Lotan, “the twisting serpent” with seven heads, in words very close to Isaiah 27:1. Some readers see in them extinct reptiles such as dinosaurs. Later Jewish tradition told that Leviathan and Behemoth will be served at a feast at the end of days, and Thomas Hobbes named his book on the state Leviathan (1651).