The Bible has enriched the English language in many ways. One example is the addition to the language of two words that denote large beasts: behemoth and leviathan. Both words also have developed extended meanings.
Behemoth
The source of behemoth is Job 40:15-24: “Behold now Behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.”
The word behemoth entered the English language with the first published English translation of the Bible, by John Wycliffe in 1382. The spelling was predictably erratic for some time, but eventually it settled into the modern behemoth, solidified by its use in the King James version of the Bible (1611).
The English word is adopted from the transliterated Hebrew behemoth (“great animal”), an intensive plural of behemah (“animal, beast”). It was common in Hebrew to express greatness by pluralizing a noun; therefore, the plural here would denote the largest and most powerful animal.
The identity of the animal referred to in the biblical account has been much debated. Because nearby passages in Job discuss ordinary real-life creatures, such as the horse and the eagle, Behemoth, too, may have been a real animal, the most likely being a hippopotamus. However, as “the chief of the ways of God” (Job 40:19), Behemoth may have been not a mere animal but a mythical creature symbolizing the power of God. Elsewhere in Jewish religious literature, Behemoth is the primal monster of the land, as Leviathan is of the sea.
Today anything of enormous size or power can metaphorically be called a behemoth.
Leviathan
The source of leviathan is the Old Testament, where the beast is referred to several times. In Job 41, it is described as a powerful fire-breathing sea creature. Elsewhere: “Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness” (Psalms 74:14); “There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein” (Psalms 104:26). And: “In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea (Isaiah 27:1).
The word leviathan entered the English language with the first published English translation of the Bible, by John Wycliffe in 1382. The spelling was predictably erratic for some time, but eventually it settled into the modern leviathan, solidified by its use in the King James version of the Bible (1611).
The English word is adopted from Late Latin leviathan, which comes from the transliterated Hebrew liwyathan. The ultimate source may be a Hebrew root meaning “twisted, coiled.”
As with Behemoth, the identity of Leviathan is debated. Leviathan may have been a real animal, widely believed to be a crocodile. Like the crocodile, Leviathan dwelt in water, was covered with shieldlike scaly skin, and had fierce teeth (Job 41). Job 41:18 says that Leviathan’s “eyes are like the eyelids of the morning,” possibly a description of a crocodile’s eyes emerging from water before the rest of its head. However, Leviathan is also described as breathing fire like a dragon (Job 41:21) and having multiple heads (Psalms 74:14), neither attribute, of course, shared by the crocodile. Elsewhere in Jewish religious literature, Leviathan is the primal monster of the sea, as Behemoth is of the land.
Today Any large animal (especially a sea creature) can metaphorically be called a leviathan. The word has further extended, so that anything unusually large or formidable for its kind is a leviathan. Because of the book Leviathan (1651) by Thomas Hobbes, a political state, especially a totalitarian one, is called a Leviathan or a Leviathan State.
