Behemoth

The Hebrew word behemoth has the same form as the plural of the Hebrew noun בהמה behemah meaning 'beast', suggesting an augmentative meaning 'great beast'. However, some theorize that the word might originate from an Egyptian word of the form pꜣ jḥ mw 'the water-ox' meaning 'hippopotamus', altered by folk etymology in Hebrew to resemble behemah.{{cite encyclopedia|title=behemoth, n.|dictionary=OED Online|url=http://oed.com/view/Entry/17209|access-date=September 29, 2020}} However, this phrase with this meaning is unattested at any stage of Egyptian.{{Cite web|title=Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae - Login|url=http://aaew2.bbaw.de/tla/servlet/BwlBrowser?f=0&l=0&off=0&csz=-1&lcd=&tcd=hippo&etr=1&scd=&pn0=1&db=Egyptian&bc=Start|access-date=2021-03-03|website=aaew2.bbaw.de}} Even before the decipherment of Ancient Egyptian in the early 19th century there was widespread identification of the biblical behemoth with the hippopotamus. The word for hippopotamus in Russian remains derivative of behemoth (бегемот), a meaning that entered the language in the mid-18th century.{{Cite web |title=бегемот translations, 6 examples and declension |url=https://en.openrussian.org/ru/%D0%B1%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%82 |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=en.openrussian.org}}{{Cite web |title=Словарь Академии Российской |url=https://runivers.ru/bookreader/book10107/#page/123/mode/1up |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=runivers.ru}}

File:Behemoth3.jpg from his Illustrations of the Book of Job (1826).]]

File:Lev-Beh-Ziz.jpg the sea-monster, with Behemoth the land-monster and Ziz the air-monster. "And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters. But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Duidain." (1 Enoch 60:7–8)]]

The Hebrew word behemoth is mentioned only once in Biblical text, in a speech from the mouth of God in the Book of Job. It is a primeval creature created by God and so powerful that only God can overcome him:{{sfn|Dell|2003|p=362}}

{{blockquote|

Take now behemoth, whom I made as I did you;

He eats grass, like the cattle.

His strength is in his loins,

His might in the muscles of his belly.

He makes his tail stand up like a cedar;

The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

His bones are like tubes of bronze,

His limbs like iron rods.

He is the first of God’s works;

Only his Maker can draw the sword against him.

The mountains yield him produce,

Where all the beasts of the field play.

He lies down beneath the lotuses,

In the cover of the swamp reeds.

The lotuses embower him with shade;

The willows of the brook surround him.

He can restrain the river from its rushing;

He is confident the stream will gush at his command.

Can he be taken by his eyes?

Can his nose be pierced by hooks?

|Job 40:15-24{{cite web |title=Job 40:15–16 |url=https://www.sefaria.org/Job.40.15-24?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en |website=www.sefaria.org}}}}

The passage later pairs Behemoth with the sea-monster Leviathan, both composite mythical creatures with enormous strength that humans could not hope to control, yet both are reduced to the status of divine pets.{{sfn|Coogan|2004|p=33}}

In Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, such as the 2nd century BC Book of Enoch (60:7–10), Behemoth is the unconquerable male land-monster, living in an invisible desert (Duidain) east of the Garden of Eden, as Leviathan is the primeval female sea-monster, dwelling in "the Abyss", and Ziz the primordial sky-monster. Similarly, in the most ancient section of the Second Book of Esdras ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2_Esdras_6:47-52&version=NRSV&interface=print 6:47–52]), written around AD 100 (3:1), the two are described as inhabiting the mountains and the seas, respectively, after being separated from each other, due to the sea's insufficiency to contain them both. Likewise, in the contemporary Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch ([http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/pseudepigrapha/2Baruch.html 29:4]), it is stated that Behemoth will come forth from his seclusion on land, and Leviathan out of the sea, and that the two gigantic monsters, created on the fifth day, will serve as food for the elect, who will survive in the days of the Messiah.{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841|website=Jewish Encyclopedia|title=Leviathan and Behemoth|first1=Emil G.|last1=Hirsch|first2=Kaufmann|last2=Kohler|first3=Solomon|last3=Schechter|first4=Isaac|last4=Broydé}}

A Jewish rabbinic legend describes a great battle that will take place between them at the end of time: "they will interlock with one another and engage in combat, with his horns the Behemoth will gore with strength, the fish [Leviathan] will leap to meet him with his fins, with power. Their Creator will approach them with his mighty sword [and slay them both];" then, "from the beautiful skin of the Leviathan, God will construct canopies to shelter the righteous, who will eat the meat of the Behemoth and the Leviathan amid great joy and merriment." In the Haggadah, Behemoth's strength reaches its peak on the summer solstice of every solar year (around 21 June). At this time of year, Behemoth lets out a loud roar that makes all animals tremble with fear, and thus renders them less ferocious for a whole year. As a result, weak animals live in safety away from the reach of wild animals. This mythical phenomenon is shown as an example of divine mercy and goodness. Without Behemoth's roar, traditions narrate, animals would grow more wild and ferocious, and hence go around butchering each other and humans.{{sfn|Ginzberg|2006|p=43–49}}

Modern interpretations of Behemoth tend to fall into several categories:

1. Behemoth is an animal of the modern natural world, most often the hippopotamus (e.g. in Russian where the word {{transliteration|ru|begemot}} refers more often to hippopotamus rather than the Biblical animal), although the elephant and water buffalo could also be candidates. All three consume grass and chew it as an ox would, and the elephant and water buffalo both have mobile, sprucy tails that sway in a similar manner to a Lebanese cedar-tree sapling (though the text does not specify a sapling).
2. Behemoth was an invention of the poet who wrote the Book of Job.
3. Behemoth and Leviathan were both separate mythical chaos-beasts.{{sfn|Uehlinger|1999|p=166–167}}

Additionally, some creationist fundamentalists, such as the Christian organization Answers in Genesis, claim that the Behemoth is some species of sauropod or other dinosaur based on the comparison of the tail to a cedar tree.{{Cite web |title=Could Behemoth Have Been a Dinosaur? |first1=Allan|last1=Steel|date=1 August 2001|url=https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/could-behemoth-have-been-a-dinosaur/ |access-date=2022-11-13 |website=Answers in Genesis |language=en}}

{{more footnotes|section|date=April 2024}}

The 17th-century political philosopher Thomas Hobbes named the Long Parliament 'Behemoth' in his book Behemoth. It accompanies his book of political theory that draws on the lessons of English Civil War, the rather more famous Leviathan.

The Dictionnaire Infernal version of Behemoth is a demon that resembles a round-bellied humanoid elephant. He works as the infernal watchman for Satan and oversees the banquets in Hell while having a good singing voice.

The Behemoth is also mentioned in the opera, Nixon in China, composed by John Adams, and written by Alice Goodman. At the beginning of the first act, the chorus sings "The people are the heroes now, Behemoth pulls the peasants' plow" several times.{{cite report |author1-link=Alice Goodman |first1=Alice |last1=Goodman