General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20266 min read

Behemoth

Behemoth (בְּהֵמוֹת, bĕhēmôt) is a gigantic land monster described in the second divine speech of the biblical Book of Job, Job 40:15–24, where God presents the creature to Job as a being beyond human control¹. Job 40:15 contains the only explicit reference to Behemoth in the Hebrew Bible, although other possible references include Deuteronomy 32:34, Isaiah 30:6, Job 12:7, and Psalm 73:22, where bĕhēmôt may refer either to the plural of bĕhēmâ ("beasts" or "livestock") or to the Joban creature¹. Together with the sea monster Leviathan, described immediately afterward in Job 41, Behemoth has become one of the best-known monsters of the Hebrew Bible and a lasting figure in later Jewish, Christian, and popular culture².

Key fact	Detail
Biblical location	Job 40:15–24, in God's second speech from the whirlwind; the only explicit reference to Behemoth in the Hebrew Bible¹
Name	In form the plural of bĕhēmâ ("beast"), treated by standard lexica as an intensive or magnifying plural naming one supreme creature; some derive it from an Egyptian phrase for "water ox"³
Description	A gigantic bovine monster that eats grass like an ox, lies among the reeds and marsh, and does not fear the flooding Jordan²
Traditional identification	Hippopotamus, a consensus traced to a 17th-century Huguenot antiquarian and to publications from 1663 onward⁴
Ancient reception	Second Temple and rabbinic literature treats Behemoth as a supernatural monster, paired with Leviathan as food for the righteous at the end of days⁵
Modern debate	Since 1974 some interpreters have identified Behemoth as a dinosaur, usually a sauropod; a 2024 review concludes that no argument for this reading survives scrutiny⁴
Modern language	The transliterated Hebrew name now serves in English as a descriptor for anything hugely enormous²

The biblical passage

Job 40:15–24 sits within the second divine speech, the climax of the Book of Job in which God answers Job's accusations from the whirlwind. The passage describes a creature God made "as I made you," that eats grass like an ox, whose bones are like bars of iron, that lies under the reeds and lotus in the marsh, and that is unafraid when the Jordan surges to its mouth². Verse 19 calls it "the first of the works of God," and says that only its Maker can approach it with a sword⁶.

The name itself is grammatically striking. Bĕhēmôt is the plural form of the ordinary Hebrew word for beast or cattle, but the verbs and pronouns of Job 40:15 are singular, confirming a single referent; standard lexica treat the form as an intensive or magnifying plural naming one supreme creature rather than a herd³. Some scholars have instead derived the word from an assumed Egyptian p-ehemau, "ox of the water," a proposal associated with the hippopotamus identification⁷.

Ancient Near Eastern background

Unlike Leviathan, which has a clear prehistory traceable to the third millennium BCE, Behemoth appears to have been created as a sidekick to Leviathan within the second divine speech of Job². Comparative scholarship has nonetheless found parallels for a monstrous bovine in the wider ancient Near East, and some scholars see Behemoth as a mythological beast comparable to the Bull of Heaven in the Gilgamesh cycle⁸. Others have connected the pair to the Babylonian primeval monsters Tiamat and Kingu⁶.

Interpretations: hippopotamus, myth, or dinosaur

Three broad interpretations of Behemoth exist: identification with a natural animal such as the elephant or hippopotamus, treatment as a fabricated symbol of chaotic forces, and classification as a mythic figure in the same vein as Leviathan⁹.

The hippopotamus consensus. Since Bochart's Hierozoicon (1663), "behemoth" has commonly been taken to denote the hippopotamus, with Jablonski supplying the Egyptian "water-ox" etymology to match⁶. A number of Bible translations use the word "hippopotamus" in the main text or footnotes at Job 40:15¹⁰. Mark Sneed, Professor of Bible at Lubbock Christian University, argues that this soft consensus is part of a larger process by which originally monstrous beasts were domesticated and demythologized, a process already faintly visible in the Hebrew Bible itself but reaching its zenith during the Enlightenment¹¹.

The dinosaur reading. Since 1974, numerous advocates of the zoological approach, largely among young-earth creationists, have reinterpreted Behemoth as a dinosaur, usually a sauropod, citing the animal's herbivory, aquatic habits, strength, and cedar-like tail⁴. Philip J. Senter, a zoologist at Fayetteville State University, reviewed these arguments in Science & Christian Belief (2024) and concluded that no argument for Behemoth as a dinosaur survives scrutiny; several, notably the cedar-like tail, rest on misinterpretations of the Hebrew text, while all parts of the text are consistent with Behemoth as a primordial, supernatural monster⁴.

The mythological reading. Ancient Jewish literature itself treats Behemoth as a supernatural monster⁴. On this view the description's mythical elements outweigh the zoological ones, and the hippopotamus may at most have furnished part of the raw material for the portrait⁶.

Function in the Book of Job

Sneed argues that Behemoth and Leviathan together represent a genuine clash with Job's accusations against YHWH. They answer him rationally, as with typical theodicies, but also experientially, through the sublime; the two facets work together to move Job, and the reader, to change his mind about God's seeming injustice². As monsters, the beasts are suited to this role because of their character as liminal beings that can bridge the gap between God and Job². In Sneed's sociological reading, the creatures also serve as a disguised sociodicy, legitimating the contemporary Persian, elite, Jewish milieu of the book's original audience².

Later Jewish and Christian reception

Second Temple and rabbinic literature developed the pair considerably. In 1 Enoch 60:7–9, Behemoth is a male monster occupying a wilderness east of the Garden of Eden, paired with Leviathan, a female monster dwelling in the depths of the primeval ocean; both were produced on the day of judgment's eve and are reserved for the day of judgment⁶. In 4 Ezra 6:47–52 and 2 Baruch 29:4, the two monsters, created on the fifth day, will serve as food for the righteous at the eschatological banquet⁵. Rabbinic tradition completes a trio with the gigantic bird Ziz, the monster ox Behemoth, and the fish Leviathan, all prepared for the great banquet of the righteous⁶; in one variant tradition Leviathan battles Behemoth in a fight to the death before the banquet⁵.

Christian reception diverged. While Jewish tradition by and large received the beasts positively, as food preserved for the righteous in the life to come, Christianity has mostly taken them as negative symbols of the Devil and the epitome of evil since the early centuries¹². William Blake's illustrations to the Book of Job are a prominent artistic treatment¹³.

Modern usage

Both transliterated Hebrew terms have survived into popular culture, especially in the West, where "behemoth" has come to serve as a descriptor for the hugely enormous while, ironically, retaining its original monstrous resonances².

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Mythology and folklore › Legendary creatures and beings › Hybrid beasts and monsters

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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