TEXT [Commentary]

  2.   Power and beauty: Behemoth (40:15-24)

15 “Take a look at Behemoth,[*]

which I made, just as I made you.

It eats grass like an ox.

16 See its powerful loins

and the muscles of its belly.

17 Its tail is as strong as a cedar.

The sinews of its thighs are knit tightly together.

18 Its bones are tubes of bronze.

Its limbs are bars of iron.

19 It is a prime example of God’s handiwork,

and only its Creator can threaten it.

20 The mountains offer it their best food,

where all the wild animals play.

21 It lies under the lotus plants,[*]

hidden by the reeds in the marsh.

22 The lotus plants give it shade

among the willows beside the stream.

23 It is not disturbed by the raging river,

not concerned when the swelling Jordan rushes around it.

24 No one can catch it off guard

or put a ring in its nose and lead it away.

NOTES

40:15 Behemoth. This animal is almost universally identified as the hippopotamus. The term behemoth [TH930, ZH990] generally refers to cattle, but in at least one other Scripture it almost certainly has reference to the hippopotamus (Isa 30:6, translated “animals” in NLT). The attempt to make it the crocodile (NEB, REB) must be judged a failure; Leviathan (41:1) is the crocodile. The identification of Leviathan as a whale (so that Behemoth can be the crocodile) requires the rearrangement of the text so that the description of it as a creature of the water (41:1-6) follows that of the eagle (39:30) as in the NEB and REB.

40:17 Its tail is as strong as a cedar. The language of this verse is obscure, in part because it contains euphemisms for sexual organs. The use of “tail” (zanab [TH2180, ZH2387]) to refer to a phallus is well known in Heb. (Jastrow 406). The reference to loins in the previous verse is an indication that the reference is to a sexual organ; in Heb. “loins” are the seat of male procreative power. The belief that this is a reference to procreative power is ancient. In the Middle Ages, Christian theologians like Albertus Magnus conceived of Behemoth as a symbol of sensuality and sin.

sinews of its thighs. The modern adoption of the meaning thighs for the otherwise unknown Heb. word pakhadayw (following the Qere in the MT) is based on Arabic. The use of Arabic as the only basis for meaning is always precarious. A study of the versions indicates that the ancients understood this to be a reference to the sexual organ parallel to that in the previous line (Wolters n.d.:4-7). The Aramaic term pakhad [TH6344, ZH7066] is attested in the Targum of Leviticus (21:20), a reference where it almost certainly means “testicle.” A second Targum translation of Job uses the word gbryh (the common word for “penis”), along with another word that appears to refer to the sexual organs generally. The Latin translation unambiguously makes pakhadayw the “testes.”

40:19 only its Creator can threaten it. In the Heb. this line makes reference to the Creator and a sword, often taken to mean only God can come near it with a sword (KJV, RSV, NRSV, NIV). It may be that instead of “sword” (khereb [TH2719, ZH2995]) we should read “companion” (khaber [TH2270, ZH2492]), an interchange of two letters. In that case the hippopotamus is said to be a tyrant among his fellows (REB, NAB). Though this change is not extensive, it hardly yields a more suitable thought since the hippopotamus is not a predator.

40:23 the swelling Jordan. The Heb. verb (‘ashaq [TH6231A, ZH6943]) usually means “to rob or oppress.” The verb has either been emended by some or given a second root based on Akkadian to mean “strong” (Koehler and Baumgartner 3:849), and the image is then assumed to be the tranquility of the hippopotamus in rushing waters (cf. NIV, NASB, CEV). The vocabulary, however, suggests a different picture of the great beast in the normally calm Jordan River: the enormous creature literally robs (‘ashaq) the stream of water as it rushes (bubbles, swells) to his mouth.

40:24 catch it off guard. The Heb. has the phrase “in his eyes,” but this is enigmatic in this context, since it is hard to know how the eyes are related to the idea of capture in the following line. “Eyes” are sometimes taken as meaning “a ring” or “a hook” (RSV, NRSV), but it is more likely that it should be read as to capture it “by its eyes,” the meaning being that since only the nose and eyes of the hippopotamus are visible in the stream, it is impossible to catch him (cf. REB, NJB, NIV).

COMMENTARY [Text]

The identity of Behemoth as the hippopotamus is generally accepted but is dependent upon the interpretation of the description. The creature can hardly be a hippopotamus if “its tail is as strong as a cedar” (40:17), but this has not been the ancient interpretation of that verse, and it seems most probable that the ancients were correct. The great beast is described in terms of its massive loins and belly (40:16) and its powerful legs (40:18), making it most unlikely that the intervening reference is to its tail. The outstretched phallus of the hippopotamus is impressive indeed, and virility is always closely associated with power (see note on 40:17). The creature is described as being in the shade of water plants (40:21-22) and is apparently submerged under the water so that only its eyes and nose are visible (40:24) as it quietly robs the stream of its water (40:23). The hippopotamus best fits this description.

The hippopotamus does not belong to the horse family, as might be suggested by the Greek derivation of the name (lit. “river horse”); rather, it belongs to its own family in the animal kingdom. It is a mammal native to Africa, and in the era of the poet would still have been found in the Nile, where it constituted a considerable danger to crops along the river (Herrmann 1992:263-264). The poet had no doubt seen them there, but betrays his Palestinian homeland when he makes reference to the Jordan River, not the Nile (40:23). The hippopotamus is a bulky creature that will grow as large as 9,000 pounds and about 12 feet in length. It is “nude” in that it has no hair covering; instead, a thick layer of fat protects its body from loss of fluids. It has a larger mouth than any animal except the whale. It has huge, sickle-like teeth used for cutting reeds, tall grasses, and various aquatic plants. The largest teeth may weigh up to seven pounds, serving as protection against crocodiles. Its bulging eyes are high on its head and its nostrils on top of its nose so that it can see and breathe with very little of its face exposed above the water. The air escaping from its lungs makes a metallic sound. It can walk on the bottom of rivers and lakes and can remain completely submerged for up to thirty minutes. It is a fast swimmer, though it can also float like a log. It spends most of the day sleeping in the shade in dense thickets of reeds. It is basically an aquatic creature and rarely strays more than a mile from its sleeping quarters.

Both the vagueness of the identification and the grandeur of the portrayal indicate that the poet had moved from the descriptive to the hyperbolic, from the concrete to surreal imagery. The hippopotamus is on the border between the natural and the supernatural. It has been suggested that the poet is describing an animal larger than life, like Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe, in American folklore. It is true there was no shortage of mythical imagery available to the poet and his audience. Ugaritic texts make reference to a great bovine creature killed by the war goddess Anat, which may be the great bull of El, the chief Canaanite god. The monstrous bullock of the Ugaritic myths may be connected with the Sumero-Akkadian “bull of heaven” (Pope 1965:269-270) slain by Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Gilgamesh epic. The later mythical allusions of 1 Enoch 60:7-9, as well as 4 Ezra 6:49-52 and the Apocalypse of Baruch 29:4, where the two beasts of Job are said to be created as food in the messianic age, are later developments from Job. It is most unlikely that the poet intended any identification at all with these mythic creatures. The Behemoth is not described as bovine but rather as aquatic and herbivorous.

In spite of the poet’s hyperbole, however, Behemoth should be read as a reference to a real-world animal because it better fits the point of the speech. It would destroy the point of the poet to move from the world of the Creator to the mythic world, for the message from God was directed to the world in which Job lived. The speeches of God are a hymn of joy to creation, an invitation for Job to revel in the delights of his world. The speech appeals to both understanding and emotion, so that Job may live wisely in a world that is a miracle as well as a mystery (Gordis 1978:560). The hyperbolic intensity heightens the emotional impact. It is true that the hippopotamus was hunted successfully with spears and hooks, but that does not take away from the description of the giant beast as unassailable, except by God, as it lies peacefully and undisturbed, draining the waters of the river in its giant mouth. Poetic license always allows exaggeration for effect.

In the hippopotamus is found a paradoxical union of peace and power. He is an herbivore peacefully resting in the shade of the lotuses on the riverbank, but he is unassailable because of his terrific power. His bones are like tubes of bronze and bars of steel. The incredible power of his muscles and his sexual potency make him a marvel. He is a complete contrast to the next creature (ch 41), which is a violent carnivore. He can live peacefully in the same waters because of his great strength and mastery over his own domain.