Job 40:15.
beasts. Job mentions it, referring with the term to the ® hippopotamus, whose enormous strength cannot dominate man but God, Jb 40, 14-24.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
to see animals
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
(Beasts). Animal described in Job 40:15-24. Immediately afterwards, the †¢leviathan is also spoken of, which is why in Jewish traditions they are almost always mentioned together. What is said about b. suggests that it is a reference to the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), a huge pachyderm that weighs up to three tons. For a time the expression †even if a whole Jordan crashes into its mouth† was thought to be poetic license, but hippopotamus skeletons have recently been discovered attesting to their existence in Israel in ancient times. Jewish literature, however, has always given it the treatment of a mythological animal, perhaps because it was thought that it did not exist in the Holy Land. The apocryphal 1 Enoch 60:7-10 speaks of B. as feminine and Leviathan as masculine. †¢Bible animals.
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
tip, QUAD REPT FAUN
vet, This is a large animal, described in Jb. 40:15-24. A fairly general opinion is that it is the hippopotamus. However, a rigorous examination of the text does not support this idea. If the contemporaneity of the dinosaurs with man is recognized, ruling out the hypothesis of a long transformational development of life on earth, the description agrees admirably with that of a brontosaurus, a large vegetarian reptile. cop. especially the description of its tail (Jb. 40:17). Bibliography: Morris, HM, and John C. Whitcomb: “The Genesis Flood” (Clie, Terrassa, 1981); Bible Science Newsletter, supplement March 1973, vol. 3, no. 2, “Job and Science” (Minneapolis, Minn.).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
(-> Leviathan). Symbolic figure of a monstrous character, which can be taken as a type of hippopotamus or huge beast, which men cannot tame. It only appears in the Bible once, in the narrative of Job 40:15-24, when God answers the questions of the suffering man by presenting him with the two symbolic animals, numinous and ambiguous in character, that man cannot dominate. One is Leviathan, the other is ours: “Look at Behemoth, whom I made like you. He eats grass like an ox. Look: his strength is in his loins, and his vigor is in the muscles of his belly. He wags his tail like a cedar… his bones are strong as brass, and his limbs like bars of iron” (Job 40,1518). Following the example of Job 40-41, parabiblical literature has linked the figures of Leviathan* (female monster of the waters) and Behemoth, whom it has taken as a monster of the desert, interpreting them as a sign of numinous, uncontrollable powers (cf. 1 Hen 60,79; cf. 4 Esd 6,49-52; 2 Bar 29,4). On the other hand, the same Hobbes, who had linked Leviathan with political power, has interpreted the pre-capitalist economic system with the sign of Behemoth, who devours all the grass in the field and does not let the other animals eat.
PIKAZA, Javier, Dictionary of the Bible. History and Word, Divine Word, Navarra 2007
Source: Dictionary of Bible History and Word
The term “Behemoth”, which appears in Job 40:15, has been considered: 1) a derivative of an Egyptian word whose literal meaning is “water ox”, 2) a word possibly of Assyrian origin meaning “monster”, and 3 ) an intensified plural of the Hebrew behe·mah (beast; domestic animal) believed to mean “large beast” or “giant beast.” In the Greek Septuagint the word the·riʹa (beasts) translates the Hebrew word behe·mohth. However, it is evident that Behemoth refers to a single animal, since the description given of it is not in the plural, but in the singular; This animal is generally considered to be the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). In fact, most Bible translations (EMN, LT, NBE, NM, RH, BJ, and others) use the word “hippopotamus” in the main text or footnotes to identify this creature. of which God speaks.
The hippopotamus is a large pachyderm mammal that lives in rivers, lakes and swamps. Its short legs, huge jaws and large head, which can weigh a ton, are characteristic. So great is the strength of its jaw and teeth that it is capable of piercing the armored skin of a crocodile in one bite. An adult specimen can reach 4 or 5 m. in length and weigh up to 3,600 Kg. The hippopotamus is an amphibious creature that, despite its enormous size, can move relatively quickly both in and out of the water. It feeds on freshwater plants, grass, reeds and bushes, ingesting more than 90 kg of vegetation every day in its stomach, whose capacity ranges between 150 and 190 l.
Its skin, especially that of the belly, is very hard and resistant to bumps and scratches to which it is subjected when the animal drags its body over the reeds and stones of the riverbeds. The hippopotamus has its nose strategically placed at the tip of its snout, and its eyes high on its head, so it can breathe and see while almost completely submerged. The ears and the valve-like nose close when submerged. When the carbon dioxide in the blood reaches a certain level, the animal automatically emerges to breathe fresh air and submerges again, and this happens even while sleeping.
Hippopotamuses were once found in most of the great lakes and rivers of Africa, but due to hunting by man they have disappeared from many regions and it is believed that there are no more individuals left N. the Khartoum waterfall in the Sudan. It may even have frequented the Jordan in ancient times. In fact, the tusks and bones of hippopotamuses have been found in various parts of Palestine.
Chapter 40 of the book of Job offers a graphic description of this enormous mammal. It is said to be herbivorous (vs. 15). His tremendous power and energy are then indicated to reside in his “hips” and in “the muscular cords of his belly,” that is, in the muscles of his back and abdomen (vs. 16). The Behemoth’s tail resembles a cedar tree. Since it is quite short—only 18 to 20 inches (46 to 51 cm) long—this expression probably means that the animal can lift its thick tail and hold it rigid, tree-like, or swing it. “The sinews of his thighs are woven together,” that is, the fiber and sinews of his thigh muscles are intertwined like strong cables (vs. 17). The bones of its legs are as strong as “copper tubes”, thus being able to support the enormous weight of the body. The bones and ribs are like “rods of wrought iron” (vs. 18). Behemoth’s immense consumption of food is also alluded to (vs. 20), and mention is made of how he lies down under thorny lotus trees or hides in a marshy place under the shade of poplars (vss. 21, 22). ). This creature is not frightened even when a river overflows its banks, for it can still keep its head above the water level and swim against the force of the flood (vs. 23). Jehovah asked Job: † ˜In view of the power of the Behemoth and his impressive mouth, would anyone dare to meet such a monster face to face and try to pierce his nose with a hook?† ™ (vs. 24) .
Source: Dictionary of the Bible
Morphologically it is the plural Heb. of behēmâ, which appears nine times in the OT (Dt. 32.24; Job 12.7; 40.15; Sal. 49.12, 20; 50.10; 73.22; Jer. 12.4; Hab. 2.17), and in all these cases, except one, apparently the meaning that assigned is “beasts,” “wild beasts,” “animals,” or “cattle.” In Job 40:15, however, the reference is so limited in the following verses that some specific animal seems to be suggested, and the plural here is generally taken to have an intensifying sense, “great beast,” and to refer to the hippopotamus. (So °vm mg), which is the animal that responds best to the description. A derivation based on a hypothetical egp term has been suggested. p˒.iḥ.mw, ‘the water ox’, but the fact that Egyptian has other words for hippopotamus makes this unlikely. Although other theories have been proposed, the comparison with the hippopotamus can be tentatively accepted given the current state of knowledge. The LXX use the word here ktēnos. (* Beast )
Bibliography. °DTAT, t
SR Driver and GB Gray, The Book of Job, ICC, 1921, 1, pp. 351–358; KB, p. III; for another theory, see GR Driver in ZV Togan (eds.), Proceedings of the Tweny-Second Congress of Orientalists…Istanbul…1951, 2, 1957, pp. 113; GS Cansdale, Animals of Bible Lands, 1970, pp. 100; JV Kinnier Wilson, VT 25, 1975, p. 1–14.
TCM
Douglas, J. (2000). New Biblical Dictionary: First Edition. Miami: United Bible Societies.
Source: New Bible Dictionary