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Behemoth is a powerful animal that appears to be herbivorous; in fact this can be used to describe any large or powerful creature as well.

Behemoth can be interpreted as a mythical animal. However, some have attempted to identify it with real-life animals.

Leviathan and Behemoth by the artist-poet William Blake


Name

Behemoth is the name of a creature mentioned in the Book of Job, 40:15-24.

In Hebrew can be translated as áäîåú, Bəhēmôth, Behemot, B'hemot; in Arabic ÈåíãæË (Bahīmūth) or ÈåãæÊ (Bahamut or Bahamūt) .


Etymology

The word is most likely a plural form of áäîä (bəhēmāh (animal)). It may be an example of pluralis excellentiae, a Hebrew method of expressing greatness by pluralizing a noun; it thus indicates that Behemoth is the largest and most powerful animal.



Description

In Jewish belief, it’s the primal unconquerable monster of the land, as the Leviathan is the primal monster of the waters of the sea.

There is a legend that the Leviathan and the Behemoth shall hold the battle of the end of the world. They shall kill each other and a huge number of other creatures in the big battle. The two will finally kill each other, and the surviving men will feast on their meat. According to midrash recording traditions, it is impossible for anyone to kill a behemoth except for the person who created it, in this case. A later Jewish haggadic tradition furthermore holds that at the banquet at the end of the world, the behemoth will be served up along with the Leviathan and ziz.


Main Belief

In the book of Job, both Behemoth and Leviathan are listed alongside a number of mundane animals, such as goats, eagles, and hawks, leading many Christian scholars to surmise that Behemoth and Leviathan may also be mundane creatures.

Suggested animals include the water buffalo and the elephant, but the most common suggestion is the hippopotamus. Some readers also identify a hippopotamus in Book of Isaiah's bahamot negeb or "beasts of the south" (30:6).

Although the animal's tail moves like a cedar (40:17), an unlikely description for any of these animals, tail could be a euphemism for an elephant's trunk. (Mitchell, 1987). Others disagree, pointing to the fact that Behemoth is called chief of the ways of God (40:19), indicating that it is not a mere animal.

A rather less popular proposal is that the Behemoth is a dinosaur. The Apatosaurus is usually proposed since the large sauropods had tails "like a cedar". One weakness of this view is that the Bible does not say that Behemoth's tail is as large as a cedar, only that its tail moves like a cedar. However some Christians would argue that this was God speaking to Job, and God was not necessarily going into detail and the original Hebrew Bible should be studied. Furthermore God clearly indicated that this was a very large and powerful animal in the surrounding passages.

Behemoth rules over the domain of gluttony, and is said to be butler and high cupbearer of Hell. Bodin thought he was the Egyptian Pharaoh who persecuted the Israelites. Others believe he is a species that no longer exists. Urbain Brandier wrote that he was definitely a demon, whereas Delancre sees him as a monstrous animal, who can disguise himself as a dog, elephant, fox, or wolf. The Book of Job describes him as a monstrous creature.

Behemoth is not listed in Wierus' hierarchy of demons, though Wierus does admit that Behemoth could be Satan himself.

It is also said(The Book of Job, chapter 40) that rabbis make him a great roast on the festival of their Messiah because he can eat as much hay as beef. They make the roast large enough so that Behemoth must gobble up the hay of a thousand mountains a day, which he has eaten since the beginning of the world.

He never leaves these mountains, for if he did, time would be disrupted. The rabbis also claim that God killed the female of the species so that they could never reproduce.


In the Old Testament

Behemoth, a spirit of the desert, possibly derives from the Egyptian for "water buffalo" or from the Egyptian deity, Taueret, about whom the Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote. The term Behemoth in the Hebrew is the plural form of the very common behemah referring to a beast of use to humans or a dumb animal. It is being used here, however, as a single entity.


Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch, second century BCE - first century CE) gives the following description of this demon's origins: 'And that day will two monsters be parted, one monster, a female named Leviathan in order to dwell in the abyss of the ocean over the fountains of water; and the other, a male called Behemoth, which holds his chest in an invisible desert whose name is Dundayin, east of the garden of Eden.' - 1 Enoch 60:7-8


Other cultures

The Hebrew behemoth is sometimes equated with the Persian Hadhayosh, as the Leviathan is with the Kar and the ziz with the Simurgh.


References

  • Bamberger, Bernard, 1952. Fallen Angels - The Soldiers of Satan's Realm. ISBN: 156619850X [1]
  • Langton, Edward, 1977. Satan, a Portrait. ISBN: 0848215621 [2]
  • Mitchell, Steven, 1987. The Book of Job. San Francisco: North Point Press. [3]


Fiction

Links

Part of this article consists of modified text from Wikipedia, and the article is therefore licensed under GFDL.