# Behemoth
**Behemoth** (בְּהֵמוֹת, *bĕhēmôt*) is a gigantic land monster described in the second divine speech of the biblical [Book of Job](https://www.edgepedia.org/book-of-job), Job 40:15–24, where God presents the creature to Job as a being beyond human control[1](https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid%3A7e3b4291-0e09-4eea-9165-eae9deedd6d7/files/s08612p357). Job 40:15 contains the only explicit reference to Behemoth in the [Hebrew Bible](https://www.edgepedia.org/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 creature[1](https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid%3A7e3b4291-0e09-4eea-9165-eae9deedd6d7/files/s08612p357). Together with the sea monster [Leviathan](https://www.edgepedia.org/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 culture[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176).
| 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 Bible[1](https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid%3A7e3b4291-0e09-4eea-9165-eae9deedd6d7/files/s08612p357) |
| 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](https://strongerbible.com/lemma/H0930/behemot) |
| Description | A gigantic bovine monster that eats grass like an ox, lies among the reeds and marsh, and does not fear the flooding Jordan[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176) |
| Traditional identification | Hippopotamus, a consensus traced to a 17th-century Huguenot antiquarian and to publications from 1663 onward[4](https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd%3A176346401?jrnl=09544194) |
| 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 days[5](https://hmane.harvard.edu/publications/two-strange-beasts-leviathan-and-behemoth-second-temple-and-early-rabbinic) |
| 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 scrutiny[4](https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd%3A176346401?jrnl=09544194) |
| Modern language | The transliterated Hebrew name now serves in English as a descriptor for anything hugely enormous[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176) |
## 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 mouth[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176). Verse 19 calls it "the first of the works of God," and says that only its Maker can approach it with a sword[6](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841-leviathan-and-behemoth).
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 herd[3](https://strongerbible.com/lemma/H0930/behemot). Some scholars have instead derived the word from an assumed Egyptian *p-ehemau*, "ox of the water," a proposal associated with the hippopotamus identification[7](https://biblehub.com/bdb/930.htm).
## 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 Job[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176). Comparative scholarship has nonetheless found parallels for a monstrous bovine in the wider ancient [Near East](https://www.edgepedia.org/near-east), and some scholars see Behemoth as a mythological beast comparable to the Bull of Heaven in the [Gilgamesh](https://www.edgepedia.org/gilgamesh) cycle[8](https://codexarchive.app/topic/behemoth). Others have connected the pair to the Babylonian primeval monsters Tiamat and Kingu[6](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841-leviathan-and-behemoth).
## 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 Leviathan[9](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781317044260_A26657325/preview-9781317044260_A26657325.pdf).
**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 match[6](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841-leviathan-and-behemoth). A number of [Bible translations](https://www.edgepedia.org/bible-translations) use the word "hippopotamus" in the main text or footnotes at Job 40:15[10](https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200010618?p=par&q=%28Job+40-42%29). 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 Enlightenment[11](https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd%3A173587136?crl=c&id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A173587136&jrnl=2329440X&sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Acrawler-gcd).
**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 tail[4](https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd%3A176346401?jrnl=09544194). 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 monster[4](https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd%3A176346401?jrnl=09544194).
**The mythological reading.** Ancient Jewish literature itself treats Behemoth as a supernatural monster[4](https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd%3A176346401?jrnl=09544194). 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 portrait[6](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841-leviathan-and-behemoth).
## 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 injustice[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176). As monsters, the beasts are suited to this role because of their character as liminal beings that can bridge the gap between God and Job[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176). 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 audience[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176).
## Later Jewish and Christian reception
[Second Temple](https://www.edgepedia.org/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](https://www.edgepedia.org/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 judgment[6](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841-leviathan-and-behemoth). 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 banquet[5](https://hmane.harvard.edu/publications/two-strange-beasts-leviathan-and-behemoth-second-temple-and-early-rabbinic). 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 righteous[6](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841-leviathan-and-behemoth); in one variant tradition Leviathan battles Behemoth in a fight to the death before the banquet[5](https://hmane.harvard.edu/publications/two-strange-beasts-leviathan-and-behemoth-second-temple-and-early-rabbinic).
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 centuries[12](https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/items/fb51f34b-38bb-489f-8230-7f8e9208db6d/full). [William Blake](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-blake)'s illustrations to the Book of Job are a prominent artistic treatment[13](https://rodbenson.com/2024/07/08/taming-the-beast/).
## 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 resonances[2](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176).
## References
1. [Behemoth in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford Research Archive essay on Job 40:15)](https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid%3A7e3b4291-0e09-4eea-9165-eae9deedd6d7/files/s08612p357)
2. [Mark Sneed, "Behemoth," in The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters (Oxford University Press, 2025)](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/60552/chapter-abstract/523948176)
3. [Behemot (בְּהֵמוֹת, H0930), StrongerBible lexicon entry](https://strongerbible.com/lemma/H0930/behemot)
4. [Philip J. Senter, "Zoology and Job 40: Review and critique of the arguments for Behemoth as a dinosaur," Science & Christian Belief 36:1 (2024), p. 31](https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd%3A176346401?jrnl=09544194)
5. [Whitney K., Two Strange Beasts: Leviathan and Behemoth in Second Temple and Early Rabbinic Judaism (Harvard Semitic Monographs 63, 2006)](https://hmane.harvard.edu/publications/two-strange-beasts-leviathan-and-behemoth-second-temple-and-early-rabbinic)
6. ["Leviathan and Behemoth," JewishEncyclopedia.com](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841-leviathan-and-behemoth)
7. [Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon, Strong's Hebrew 930](https://biblehub.com/bdb/930.htm)
8. [Behemoth, CODEX archive topic page](https://codexarchive.app/topic/behemoth)
9. ["Bible, Monsters in the," in encyclopedia preview (Routledge)](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781317044260_A26657325/preview-9781317044260_A26657325.pdf)
10. ["Behemoth," Watchtower Online Library](https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200010618?p=par&q=%28Job+40-42%29)
11. [Mark Sneed, "Is Biblical Studies Stuck in Antiquarianism? The Case of Behemoth and Leviathan," Journal of the Bible and its Reception 10:2 (2023), pp. 221 ff.](https://openurl.ebsco.com/contentitem/gcd%3A173587136?crl=c&id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A173587136&jrnl=2329440X&sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Acrawler-gcd)
12. ["Monster Paradox: A Wirkungsgeschichte of Behemoth and Leviathan in light of Monster Theory," Vanderbilt University dissertation](https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/items/fb51f34b-38bb-489f-8230-7f8e9208db6d/full)
13. [Rod Benson, review of Mark Sneed, Taming the Beast: A Reception History of Behemoth and Leviathan (De Gruyter, 2022)](https://rodbenson.com/2024/07/08/taming-the-beast/)
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*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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