Job 40:15

BEHOLD NOW; BEHEMOTH!

"Behold now, behemoth, which I made as well as thee;

He eateth grass as an ox.

Lo now, his strength is in his loins,

And his force is in the muscles of his belly.

He moveth his tail like a cedar:

The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

His bones are as tubes of brass;

His limbs are like bars of iron.

He is the chief of the ways of God:

He only that made him giveth him his sword.

Surely the mountains bring him forth food,

Where all the beasts of the field do play.

He lieth under the lotus-trees,

In the covert of the reed, and the fen.

The lotus-trees cover him with their shade;

The willows of the brook compass him about.

Behold, if a river overflow, he trembleth not;

He is confident, though a Jordan swell even unto his mouth.

Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with a snare?"

"Behold now, behemoth, which I made as well as thee" (Job 40:15). Both "behemoth" in this passage and "leviathan" in Job 41 are creatures which God has made; and therefore they may not be identified as mythological creatures. We confess that it is difficult to understand just what God intended by this extensive presentation of these two strange animals. All kinds of explanations have been attempted, identifying behemoth as a mythological creature, a prehistoric beast now extinct, an elephant, a rhinoceros, or a hippopotamus. The general consensus is that the hippopotamus is the animal spoken of. Still, there are things mentioned here that do not fit that animal at all, for example, the statement that, "He moves his tail like a cedar" (Job 40:17), the tail of a hippopotamus being, in fact, a somewhat insignificant and minor member of his body.

There are many strange and inexplicable things about any of God's creatures, just as there are of the huge beast mentioned here. That his great strength should come from eating grass appears early in the description, reminding us of the childhood mystery of how a red horse, a yellow cow, a black sheep, and a white goose could all be feeding on a field of green grass, and making diverse colored coverings for themselves out of the same diet, and how the cow produced milk, the sheep wool, and the goose feathers!

"He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together" (Job 40:17 in KJV). We have selected the King James rendition here, because it supports a radical interpretation of this passage by Van Selms:

"The hippopotamus is a creature of mine, just like you, but really not made for your sake! It is only an animal that feeds on grass; but, unlike cattle, it will never be tamed by you. Its being of no benefit to you does not mean that it has no value for me. Just look at it, and marvel! Just notice, for example, (and this is the part that interests you human beings the most), how the hippo contrives to raise that extraordinary weight of his when the male is about to impregnate the female. What concentrated power there is in his underbelly ... and that sexual organ itself, thick and hard like a cedar-tree! No human being could ever construct anything like that. It is my masterpiece. And just look at those enormous teeth, like swords"![20]

We have included this interpretation because it is supported by two things: (1) It is supported by the KJV rendition of the word `stones' (Job 40:17), which is translated "testicles" in the Douay Version of the Bible and (2) the fact the comparison to a cedar-tree does not fit a hippopotamus' tail at all.

"For he is the chief of the ways of God" (Job 40:19). "This suggests that God's masterpiece was the hippopotamus. However, the passage bears the translation that, `He is the beginning of the ways of God,' indicating that, as a grass-eater, the behemoth belonged to the creative category of cattle, which were mentioned ahead of the beasts in Genesis 1:24."[21] Andersen also agreed with this[22]

"Shall any take him when he is on the watch" (Job 40:24)?

This is perhaps the key as to why God gave this description of behemoth. If Job, like all other humans, cannot either tame or contend against one of his fellow-creatures, how could he possibly presume to pass judgment upon the justice of the Eternal? Whatever God's purpose might have been in these accounts of behemoth and leviathan (Job 41). they had the desired effect upon Job.