Gabriel tries to haul him out of the Deep to which he has returned, Leviathan will swallow hook, line and fisherman. Then God in person must net and slaughter him. 58
(
k
) God will not only prepare a magnificent banquet from Leviathan’s flesh, distributing for sale in the streets of Jerusalem what the righteous cannot eat, but make them tents from his hide, and adorn the city walls with what is left—until they shine to the ends of the world. 59
(
l
) Others predict a duel between Leviathan and Behemoth. After an earth-shaking struggle on the sea-shore, Behemoth’s curved horns will rip Leviathan open, while Leviathan’s sharp fins mortally stab Behemoth. 60
(
m
) Yet others hold that Leviathan was to have been Behemoth’s mate; but that God parted them, keeping Behemoth on dry land and sending Leviathan into the sea, lest their combined weight might crack Earth’s arches. 61
(
n
) Behemoth, the first land-beast created, resembles a prodigious hippopotamus: with a tail bigger than the trunk of a cedar, and bones like pipes of brass. He rules the land-creatures, as Leviathan those of the sea. They gambol around him, where he takes his ease among lotus, reed, fern and willows, or grazes on the Thousand Mountains. It is disputed whether Behemoth was fashioned from water, dust and light, or simply told to arise from Earth; also, whether he was born solitary, or once had a mate, as have all living creatures. 62 Some say that if Behemoth did possess a mate, he cannot have coupled with her: since their offspring would surely have overwhelmed the world. Others, that God prudently gelded the male and cooled the female’s ardour; but spared her until the Last Days, when her flesh will delight the righteous. 63
(
o
) God lets Behemoth graze on the Thousand Mountains, and though he crops these bare in a single day, yet each night the grassgrows again and, by morning, stands as high and rank as before. Behemoth is said to be a flesh-eater also: the Thousand Mountains supporting with their pasture many beasts that serve as his food. Summer heat makes him so thirsty that all the waters flowing down Jordan in six months, or even a year, barely suffice for a single gulp. He therefore drinks at a huge river issuing from Eden, Jubal by name. 64
(
p
) Behemoth is called ‘the Ox of the Pit.’ Every year, at the summer solstice, he rises on his hind legs, as God has taught him, and lets out a fearful echoing roar that restrains all wild beasts from preying on man’s flocks and herds for the next twelve months. He will often raise his great bushy tail and let the birds of the air take shelter there; then lower it gently and let the beasts of the field do likewise. Behemoth, despite his enormous strength, is as merciful as a good king should be: solicitous that none of the birds shall be harmed by their fellow-subjects, the beasts. 65
(
q
) Although some believe that Leviathan and Behemoth will murder each other, it is predicted by others that God will send Michael and Gabriel against both creatures and that, when they fail to despatch either, He will shoulder the task Himself. 66
***
1.
God’s watch over the Great Dragon even after its death, and His restraint of Tehom by use of a magical sherd (see 4.
k
), recall the
Enuma Elish
, where Marduk sets watchers over Tiamat’s carcase to prevent an escape of water.
2
. Leviathan, in some aspects, resembles a whale; in others, a crocodile. Why he is called ‘the Celestial Spirit of Egypt’, and why Ezekiel (XXIX. 3) calls Pharaoh ‘the great dragon that lies among his rivers’, can be seen from a victory song in honour of Thotmes III: ‘I let [the vanquished peoples] behold your Majesty in the likeness of a crocodile feared in the waters, which no man dares approach.’
3.
Crocodiles were worshipped at Crocodilopolis, Ombos, Coptos, Athribis and Thebes. Their mummies have been found in several Egyptian cemeteries. According to Plutarch, crocodiles were believed to lay their
(
k
) God will not only prepare a magnificent banquet from Leviathan’s flesh, distributing for sale in the streets of Jerusalem what the righteous cannot eat, but make them tents from his hide, and adorn the city walls with what is left—until they shine to the ends of the world. 59
(
l
) Others predict a duel between Leviathan and Behemoth. After an earth-shaking struggle on the sea-shore, Behemoth’s curved horns will rip Leviathan open, while Leviathan’s sharp fins mortally stab Behemoth. 60
(
m
) Yet others hold that Leviathan was to have been Behemoth’s mate; but that God parted them, keeping Behemoth on dry land and sending Leviathan into the sea, lest their combined weight might crack Earth’s arches. 61
(
n
) Behemoth, the first land-beast created, resembles a prodigious hippopotamus: with a tail bigger than the trunk of a cedar, and bones like pipes of brass. He rules the land-creatures, as Leviathan those of the sea. They gambol around him, where he takes his ease among lotus, reed, fern and willows, or grazes on the Thousand Mountains. It is disputed whether Behemoth was fashioned from water, dust and light, or simply told to arise from Earth; also, whether he was born solitary, or once had a mate, as have all living creatures. 62 Some say that if Behemoth did possess a mate, he cannot have coupled with her: since their offspring would surely have overwhelmed the world. Others, that God prudently gelded the male and cooled the female’s ardour; but spared her until the Last Days, when her flesh will delight the righteous. 63
(
o
) God lets Behemoth graze on the Thousand Mountains, and though he crops these bare in a single day, yet each night the grassgrows again and, by morning, stands as high and rank as before. Behemoth is said to be a flesh-eater also: the Thousand Mountains supporting with their pasture many beasts that serve as his food. Summer heat makes him so thirsty that all the waters flowing down Jordan in six months, or even a year, barely suffice for a single gulp. He therefore drinks at a huge river issuing from Eden, Jubal by name. 64
(
p
) Behemoth is called ‘the Ox of the Pit.’ Every year, at the summer solstice, he rises on his hind legs, as God has taught him, and lets out a fearful echoing roar that restrains all wild beasts from preying on man’s flocks and herds for the next twelve months. He will often raise his great bushy tail and let the birds of the air take shelter there; then lower it gently and let the beasts of the field do likewise. Behemoth, despite his enormous strength, is as merciful as a good king should be: solicitous that none of the birds shall be harmed by their fellow-subjects, the beasts. 65
(
q
) Although some believe that Leviathan and Behemoth will murder each other, it is predicted by others that God will send Michael and Gabriel against both creatures and that, when they fail to despatch either, He will shoulder the task Himself. 66
***
1.
God’s watch over the Great Dragon even after its death, and His restraint of Tehom by use of a magical sherd (see 4.
k
), recall the
Enuma Elish
, where Marduk sets watchers over Tiamat’s carcase to prevent an escape of water.
2
. Leviathan, in some aspects, resembles a whale; in others, a crocodile. Why he is called ‘the Celestial Spirit of Egypt’, and why Ezekiel (XXIX. 3) calls Pharaoh ‘the great dragon that lies among his rivers’, can be seen from a victory song in honour of Thotmes III: ‘I let [the vanquished peoples] behold your Majesty in the likeness of a crocodile feared in the waters, which no man dares approach.’
3.
Crocodiles were worshipped at Crocodilopolis, Ombos, Coptos, Athribis and Thebes. Their mummies have been found in several Egyptian cemeteries. According to Plutarch, crocodiles were believed to lay their
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