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BEHEMOTH.—The hippopotamus (Job_40:15), as leviathan (Job_41:1) is the crocodile. It has been suggested that the ancient Babylonian Creation-myth underlies the poet’s description of the two animals (Gunkel, Schöpf. u. Chaos, 61 ff.). This is doubtful, but the myth undoubtedly reappears in later Jewish literature: ‘And in that day will two monsters be separated, a female named Leviathan to dwell in the abyss over the fountains of waters. But the male is called Behemoth, which occupies with its breast [?] an immeasurable desert named Dendain’ (En 60:7, 8; cf. 2Es_6:49-51, Apoc. [Note: Apocalypse, Apocalyptic.] Bar 29:4, Baba bathra 74b). Behemoth is rendered by ‘beasts’ in Isa_30:6. This may be correct, but the oracle which follows says nothing about the ‘beasts of the south’; either the text is corrupt or the title may have been prefixed because Rahab, another name for the chaos-monster, occurs in v. 7. The psalmist confesses, ‘Behemoth was I with thee’ (Psa_73:22). The LXX [Note: Septuagint.] understood this to be an abstract noun, ‘Beast-like was I with thee’; others substitute the sing., and render ‘a beast,’ etc.
J. Taylor.