Leviathan and Behemoth

LEVIATHAN AND BEHEMOTH are featured this week as God uses them to illustrate the difference between Him and Job. While these creatures are described as possessing almost unimaginable power, they are as pets to our Lord, who made them just as He made us.We discuss the nature of Leviathan and Behemoth (and no, we do not believe they were a whale, giant squid, hippo, elephant, crocodile, or dinosaurs) and their parallels in pagan religions such as Tiamat, the Canaanite sea-god Yam, the Sumerian Bull of Heaven, and the “calf of El.” We cite a couple of extrabiblical texts, specifically 1 Enoch 60:7-10, 24 and 2 Esdras 6:49-52, which describe the ultimate fate of Leviathan and Behemoth, which is to serve as food for the pious (compare to the feast after the war of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 39:17-20; also Revelation 19:17-18). These help to understand what Jewish religious scholars thought about Leviathan and Behemoth before the arrival of Jesus.Finally, we note that Job’s repentance at the end of the book is not the kind his friends encouraged; they wanted him to admit some unconfessed sin, whereas God accepted Job’s repentance for demanding an answer for his suffering.