Though most of the book is written in standard Hebrew metrical verse, it clearly relates actual, historical events in the life of the patriarch Job.1 After a lengthy exchange with his three “friends,” and then the shadowy figure Elihu regarding the reason(s) for Job’s suffering, God finally breaks the silence and speaks directly to Job. 30 (Hebr. An Apatosaurus femur alone was as tall as a six-foot man—with a Titanosaur femur even longer.17, Observe that the attributes selected by God to highlight the identity of Behemoth were specifically pinpointed and calculated to accentuate the unique features of this incredible creature, eliciting God’s summary statement of Behemoth: “He is the first of the ways of God” (40:19). 28); it is mentioned in the Talmud as the "unicorn ḳeresh," "ṭigras" (i.e., "thrigaṭ" = "three-legged"), the gazel of the heights (Ḥul. God’s initial response to Job (38:1-38) is to spotlight 20 features of the inanimate realm (delineated in Figure 1). 18: "By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning" (B. Rather than trying to identify these two creatures with existing animals, others suggest that the creatures are purely fictitious, mythological creatures which function as poetic vehicles for God to make His point. 8 Ferdinand Justi and Morris Jastrow (1905), A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times: Egypt and Western Asia in Antiquity (Philadelphia, PA: Lea Brothers), 1:89, https://archive.org/stream/historyofallnati01andr/historyofallnati01andr_djvu.txt. The body of the leviathan, especially his eyes, possesses great illuminating power. LXX., "thee" instead of "them"). He needed to be humbled to the extent that he no longer required an explanation or expected God to give account of Himself. ), "and the pious ones [] shall make a banquet of it," R. Johanan says that at the time of the resurrection a banquet will be given by God to the righteous, at which the flesh of the leviathan will be served (B. Despite sophisticated satellite radar mapping of the ocean floor, the “contents” of the sea are still largely unknown: “If our questions are: ‘What does it look like down there?’ or: ‘What’s going on down there?’, then the area that has been ‘explored’ is arguably even less than the 0.05% mapped so far at the very highest resolution by sonar”—Jon Copley (2014), “Just How Little Do We Know about the Ocean Floor?” Scientific American, October 9, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/just-how-little-do-we-know-about-the-ocean-floor/. (3) “His bones are like beams (tubes—NASB) of bronze, His ribs like bars (rods—NASB) of iron” (40:18). And why would the identity of these two animals be so obscure or uncertain compared to the others? (2) “He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit” (40:17).13 Why did God compare Behemoth’s tail to a cedar tree? Gabriel will be charged with the killing of the monster; but he will not be able to accomplish his task without the help of God, who will divide the monster with His sword. For example, the NIV footnote for “behemoth” reads: “Possibly the hippopotamus or the elephant,” and for “leviathan” it has: “Possibly the crocodile.”5 For “behemoth” the ASV has: “That is, the hippopotamus,” and for “leviathan” it has “That is, the crocodile.”6 In stark contrast, the ESV handles the matter more in keeping with translation rather than interpretation and personal conjecture, where “behemoth” is “A large animal, exact identity unknown” and for “leviathan” “A large sea animal, exact identity unknown.”7, Have the crocodile and the hippopotamus been recognized in antiquity as the ferocious, formidable creatures like those depicted in the book of Job? The Behemoth, unlike the Leviathan, is found only in Job 40:15 and is described in verses 15 to 24. For additional examples in the tombs of the First Dynasty in the Valley of the Kings, see www.phouka.com/pharaoh/PharoahOutline.doc. God added: “Would you indeed annul My judgment? 55b; B. 59b), and forms, under the name "Ḥarish," in Mohammedan eschatology a substitute for behemoth and leviathan (see Wolff, " Muhammedanische Eschatologie," 1872, pp.                        three friends Running Time 60 Min. For a concise refutation, see Jeff Miller (2019), “21 Reasons to Believe the Earth is Young,” Reason & Revelation, 39[1]:2-5,8-11, http://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=1287; see also NASA nuclear engineer Michael Houts (2015), “Assumptions and the Age of the Earth,” Reason & Revelation, 35[3]:26-29,32-34, http://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=1185. Behemoth and Leviathan: Figurative or Literal? 590-591, italics in orig. 11 See, for example, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary series, representing conservative scholarship, in which Smick discusses the “mythopoeic language” he thinks characterizes the book (pp. 161ff.,224-225,373ff., https://apologetcspress.page.link/The-Nile-Tributaries-of-Abyssinia. B. The leviathan is prominent in the haggadic literature in connection with the advent of the Messiah. Job had been whining that life is not fair because of the pain and suffering he was enduring (e.g., 7:12-21). In order for God’s argument to make sense or carry any weight with Job, Behemoth must be real and of such imposing, even ominous enormity, and of such immense, powerful proportions that, without hesitation, Job would acknowledge his own helpless, measly condition before God. 863ff. He needs more for it, so he goes to the Leviathan for help. And the name of the male is Behemoth who occupies with his breast an immense desert named Dendayn on the east of the Garden where the chosen and the righteous dwell. : (1) "the serpent-like Kar fish, the Arizh of the water, the greatest of the creatures of Ahuramazda," corresponding to the leviathan; (2) the three-legged ass Khara, standing in the midst of the ocean ("Yasna," xli. I am three hundred miles in length, and enter this day into the jaws of the leviathan'" (B. His abode is the Mediterranean Sea; and the waters of the Jordan fall into his mouth (Bek. 705), "behemoth" has been taken to denote the hippopotamus; and Jablonski, to make it correspond exactly with that animal, compared an Egyptian form, "p-ehe-mu" (= "water-ox"), which, however, does not exist. xxx. This creature’s skeletal structure was clearly framed to possess exceptional stability and strength. 26); or "The mountains bring him forth food; where all the beasts of the field do play" (Job xl. 14  1 Kings 7:1-3; 2 Kings 19:23; cf. 9 G. Maspero (1873), “The Instructions of King Amenemhat to His Son Usertesen I. XIIth Dynasty,” in Records of the Past: Being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons), 2:14, https://apologetcspress.page.link/RecordsofthePast. When God ordered Job to “look now at behemoth, which I made along with you,” Job would never have derived from such a forthright statement that Behemoth is imaginary. Now that we know that dinosaurs existed, and that the description of Behemoth fits their physical attributes perfectly, the more perplexing question becomes: “why are commentators insistent on maintaining the belief that the hippo and crocodile are intended?” The only answer this writer can imagine is that many theologians have been adversely influenced by evolutionary propaganda—taught throughout the American public school system now for three generations—that dinosaurs went extinct over 60 million years before humans evolved and, hence, humans did not live contemporaneously with dinosaurs, and no human ever saw a living dinosaur.