(n.) An animal, probably the hippopotamus, described in Job xl. 15-24.

(Job 40:15-24 ). Some have supposed this to be an Egyptian word meaning a "water-ox." The Revised Version has here in the margin "hippopotamus," which is probably the correct rendering of the word. The word occurs frequently in Scripture, but, except here, always as a common name, and translated "beast" or "cattle."

(Job 40:15-24.) The Egyptian, Coptic, pehemout , "the water ox," Hebraized; our "river horse", hippopotamus. "Behold I made him with thee." Yet how great the difference! "He eateth grass as an ox;" a marvel in an animal so much in the water, and that such a monster is not carnivorous. "His force is in the navel (rather muscles) of his belly"; the elephant's skin there is thin, but the hippopotamus' skin thick. "He moveth his tail like a cedar," short indeed, but straight and rigid as the cedar. "The sinews of his thighs are twisted together," like a thick rope. "His bones are as strong tubes of copper .... his spine like bars of iron." He that made him hath furnished him with his sword" (his sickle-like teeth). Though so armed, he lets "all the beasts of the field play" near him, for he is herbivorous. "He lieth under the lotus bushes," in the covert of the reed and fens (being amphibious). "The lotus bushes cover him with their shadow." "Behold (though) a river be overwhelming, he is not in hasty panic (for he can live in water as well as land); he is secure, though a Jordan swell up to his mouth." Job cannot have been a Hebrew, or he would not adduce Jordan, where there were no river horses. He alludes to it as a name known only by hearsay, and representing any river. "Before his eyes (i.e. openly) will any take him, or pierce his nose with cords?" Nay, he can only be taken by guile. Jehovah's first discourse (Job 38-39) was limited to land animals and birds; this second discourse requires therefore the animal classed with the crocodile to be amphibious, as the river horse.

(bee' hih mahth) Animal God created known for enormous strength and toughness. The behemoth is apparently an animal that lives near water (Job 40:15-22 ). This animal demonstrates the power, knowledge, and majesty of God, qualities Job did not have. Bible students identify this animal as hippopotamus or crocodile. See Animals ; Leviathan .

Beasts

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 ^[1] an immeasurable desert named Dendain’ (En 60:7, 8; cf. 2Es 6:49-51 , Apoc. 161848579021 Bar 29:4, Baba bathra 74 b ). Behemoth is rendered by ‘beasts’ in Isaiah 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’ ( Psalms 73:22 ). The LXX ^[3] understood this to be an abstract noun, ‘Beast-like was I with thee’; others substitute the sing., and render ‘a beast,’ etc. J. Taylor.

Hebrew word for beasts, left untranslated in Job 40, where it indicates a particular animal, probably mythical, in description similar to the hippopotamus and corresponding to the mythical Egyptian water-ox, p-ehe-mu, probably adapted into Hebrew as behemah, plural behemothj hence, monstrous beast.

This is a Hebrew word and is now very generally believed to refer to the Hippopotamus. Job 40:15 . Jehovah calls the attention of Job to this wonderful animal that he might see the wisdom and power of its Creator.

BE'HEMOTH, n.Heb. a beast or brute from an Arabic vert, which signifies, to shut, to lie hid, to be dumb. In Eth.dumb. Authors are divided in opinion as to the animal intended in scripture by this anme some supposing it to be an ox, others, an elephant and Bochart labors to prove it the hippopotamus, or river horse. The latter opinion is most probably. See Hippopotamus. The original word in Arabic signifies a brute of beast in general, especially a quadruped.

בהמות . This term has greatly tried the ingenuity of the critics. By some, among whom are Bythner and Reiske, it is regarded in Job 40:16 , as a plural noun for beasts in general: the peculiar name of the animal immediately described not being mentioned, as unnecessary, on account of the description itself being so easily applied at the time. In this sense it is translated in various passages in the Psalms. Thus, Psalms 50:10 , in which it is usually rendered cattle, as the plural of בהמת it means unquestionably a beast or brute, in the general signification of these words: "For every beast of the field is mine, and the cattle," behemoth, "upon a thousand hills." So again, Psalms 73:22 : "So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast," behemoth, "before thee." It is also used in the same sense in Job 35:11 , of the book of Job: "Who teacheth us more than the beasts," behemoth, "of the earth." The greater number of critics, however, have understood the word behemoth, in the singular number, as the peculiar name of the quadruped described, Job 40, of whatever kind or nature it may be; although they have materially differed upon this last point, some regarding it as the hippopotamus, or river horse, and others as the elephant. The evidence in favour of the hippopotamus appears, however, to predominate. The hippopotamus is nearly as large as the rhinoceros. The male has been found seventeen feet in length, fifteen in circumference, and seven in height. The head is enormously large, and the jaws extend upwards two feet, and are armed with four cutting teeth, each of which is twelve inches in length. The body is of a lightish colour, thinly covered with hair. The legs are three feet long. Though amphibious, the hoofs, which are quadrifid, are not connected by membranes. The hide is so thick and tough as to resist the edge of a sword or sabre. Although an inhabitant of the waters, the hippopotamus, is well known to breathe air like land animals. On land, indeed, he finds the chief part of his food. It has been pretended that he devours vast quantities of fish: but it appears with the fullest evidence, both from the relations of many travellers, and from the structure of the stomach, in specimens that have been dissected, that he is nourished solely, or almost solely, on vegetable food. Though he feeds upon aquatic plants, yet he very often leaves the waters, and commits wide devastations through all the cultivated fields adjacent to the river. Unless when accidentally provoked, or wounded, he is never offensive; but when he is assaulted or hurt, his fury against the assailants is terrible. He will attack a boat, break it in pieces with his teeth; or, where the river is not too deep, he will raise it on his back and overset it. If he be irritated when on shore, he will immediately betake himself to the water; and there, in his native element, shows all his strength and resolution.

Behemoth (bç'he-mŏth, or be-hç'moth), the great beast; or, if it be supposed an Egyptian word, it may mean the water-ox. A mammoth animal, described in Job 40:15-24, where the explanation is added in the margin of the R. V., "that is, the hippopotamus." The identification of behemoth has puzzled critics, and the strangest conjectures have been propounded. The mammoth, or other extinct quadruped, has been thought behemoth by some; while others maintain it is the elephant; and some would take the word as having a symbolical meaning. The weight of evidence is in favor of the hippopotamus. As leviathan is most likely the crocodile, it is not unreasonable to suppose that behemoth is, like the crocodile, an inhabitant of the Nile; and that, as leviathan is amphibious, behemoth must be amphibious too, and hence the hippopotamus, a conclusion which is strengthened by the comparison of verses 15, 21, 22 with 24.

A huge amphibious animal, described in Job 40:15-24 . Commentators are now generally agreed that it is the hippopotamus, or river horse, which is found only in the Nile and other great rivers of Africa. This is a very large, powerful, and unwieldy animal, which lives in the water, but comes out upon the banks to feed on grass, grain, green herbs, and branches of trees. The appearance of the hippopotamus when on land is altogether uncouth, the body being extremely large, flat, and round, the head enormously large in proportion, and the legs as disproportionately short. Then length of a male has been known to be seventeen feet, the height seven feet, and the circumference fifteen; the head three feet; the mouth in width about two feet. The general color of the animal is brownish; the ears small and pointed; the eyes small and black; the lips very thick and broad; the nostrils small. The armament of teeth is its mouth is truly formidable; more particularly the tusks of the lower jaw, which are of a curved form, somewhat cylindrical; these are so strong and hard that they will strike fire with steel, are sometimes more that two feet in length, and weigh upwards of six pounds each. The other teeth are much smaller. The tail is short and thick; and the whole body is protected by a thick and tough hide, which swords and arrows cannot penetrate, thickly covered with short hair. Mr. Ruppell gives the following graphical account of a combat on the upper Nile. "One of the hippopotami which we killed was a very old male, and seemed to have reached his utmost growth. He measured, from the snout to the end of the tail, about fifteen feet; and his tusks, from the root to the point, along the external curve, twenty-eight inches. We had a battle with him four hours long, and that too in the night. Indeed, he came very near destroying our large bark; and with it, perhaps, all our lives. The moment he saw the hunters in the small canoe, as they were about to fasten the long rope to the buoy in order to draw him in, he threw himself with on rush upon it, dragged it with him under water, and shattered it to pieces. Out of twenty- five musket ball, which were fired into the monster's head at the distance of five feet, only on penetrated the hind and the bones near the nose; so that, every time he breathed, he snorted a stream of blood upon the bark. All the other balls remained sticking in the thickness of the hide. We had at last to employ a small cannon; but it was only after five of its balls, fired at the distance of a few feet, had mangled most shockingly the head and body of the monster, that he died. This gigantic hippopotamus dragged our large bark at his will in every direction of the stream."