JOB 40
BEHEMOTH
His strength is in his loins,
and his power in the muscles of his belly.
He makes his tail stiff like a cedar,
the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
—Job 40:16-17
“Then the Lord answered Job again from whirlwind,” said the man, looking down to read:
Brace yourself like a man.
I will question you,
and you shall answer Me.508
Would you really challenge My justice?
Would you declare Me guilty to justify yourself?509
Are you as strong as God?
Can you thunder with a voice like His?510
Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
Unleash the fury of your wrath,
look at all who are proud and bring them low.511
Look at everyone who is arrogant and humble him,
and trample down the wicked where they stand.512
Bury them in the dust.
Imprison them in the world of the dead.
Then even I would praise you,
for your own strength would save you.513
Behold, Behemoth,
which I made as I made you.
He eats grass like an ox.
His strength is in his loins,
and his power in the muscles of his belly.
He makes his tail stiff like a cedar,
the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are tubes of bronze,
his limbs like bars of iron.514
He is the foremost of God’s works.
Only his Maker can draw the sword against him.515
Indeed the mountains bring him food,
and all the animals of the field play there.516
Under the lotus plants he lies,
in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.517
The lotus plants cover him with shade.
The willows of the brook surround him.
If a river rages, he is not alarmed.
He is confident, though the Jordan rushes to his mouth.518
The man looked up and said, “Then the last line asks if anyone can catch him off guard and pierce his nose with a snare, perhaps to lead him away or take him captive. But I wanted to mention something about the line right before that because the verbiage is slightly different in some older translations I found.519 Rather than confidence in the face of a raging river rushing to its mouth, these older translations say he will ‘drinketh up a river, and hasteth not,’ and that he ‘trusteth he can draw up the Jordan into his mouth.’
“Now, many advocate for this creature here to be a hippopotamus, which, admittedly, I was in the camp of once before. But there were a few lines in this description that never sat right with me.
“First was the line about mountains because obviously there aren’t many hippopotami running around the mountains. I tried to force some kind of explanation, like the streams of mountains all flowing down into the river where the hippopotamus lives, therefore ‘feeding’ it, in a sense, with any kind of vegetation that falls into the streams and gets carried down to the beast. But that idea was my own creation, and I always thought it was a stretch.
“Next was the line about the tail. Which, if you look at the hippopotamus, its tail is not very impressive at all. But neither is the tail of the elephant, which is the other creature that receives much attention for this description. But do you recall the euphemism I described in Genesis when Abraham’s servant put his hand under his, you know, thigh?”
“You mean his balls,” said the boy.
The man squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “His future seed was how I put it, I believe,” said the man, “but yes. Anyway, this image of a cedar tree to describe the ‘tail’ of either animal doesn’t quite fit the description.”
“A brontosaurus!” said the boy, excitement lighting up his eyes.
“No,” said the man. “No dinosaurs.”
The light from the boy’s eyes faded again.
“You’re missing the point about the euphemism,” said the man.
The boy scrunched his face in a fruitless effort. “I got nothing.”
“It refers to the, well, male apparatus, if you will.”
“Apparatus?” said the boy. “Speak English, man.”
“How do I put this?” said the man, scratching his temple. “Well, other translations say things like its ‘tail’ hangs like a cedar, or sways like a cedar. Now, what might hang or sway and get stiff that could be mentioned after the loins and before the sinews of Behemoth’s thigh?”
The boy’s eyes lit up again. “You mean Behemoth had a giant co—”
“Cedar!” said the man, thrusting his hand in the air to stop him. “Yes. Behemoth, or the elephant rather, has an enormous cedar. The cedar of the hippopotamus is rather unimpressive, to say the least. In fact, most of the time, it’s tucked up inside the beast and not doing much swaying or hanging at all. But the elephant, well, one might think it’s a second trunk.”
“Really?” said the boy.
“Really,” said the man. “And not to get sidetracked by elephant education here, but it’s even prehensile, meaning it can be limber and used like a fly swatter, in addition to being stiffened like a fifth leg to lean on.”
“What the heck!” said the boy.
“Yes, well, when you’re the largest land animal on the planet, mounting a mate can get a bit, shall we say, clumsy at times. Better for maneuvering into procreation position,” said the man, slightly blushing. “Anyway, enough about cedars. But they do bring me to my next point, which is what better representation of the word ‘behemoth,’ meaning a huge or monstrous creature, than the largest land animal on God’s green Earth? At least it was in Job’s day. Not dinosaurs, which weren’t discovered until much later.”
The boy slumped a little further in his seat with a pouty face.
“The name Behemoth stands for sheer size alone,” said the man. “If you saw an elephant standing next to a hippopotamus and someone told you to label one Behemoth, the choice would be obvious. Why, when the elephant’s cedar hangs to the ground, it stands taller than the entire hippopotamus itself. If that’s not the marker of a true Behemoth, then I don’t know what it is.”
The boy’s eyes widened with surprise.
“Exactly,” said the man. “Anyway, this brings me to what I said a moment ago about drinking up a river. Elephants are known for drinking huge amounts of water. And the reason he can take his time to drink so much without haste is that he has no natural predators. The lion or the crocodile lingering around the watering holes looking for a meal are no threat to this behemoth. And even if we were to run with the translation about the raging river, it still suits the elephant, who would have no trouble holding its place with all his weight. Even if the waters were to rise above its mouth, they’re fine swimmers.”
“Alright,” said the boy. “I’m convinced.”
“Thank you,” said the man. “But the line that really pushed me into the elephant camp was the one about God bringing near His sword. Now, initially I thought this was a description of how this creature is so mighty that only God could defeat him. Which is still mostly true, as the men of Job’s time would have had serious trouble taking down an elephant with their more primitive weaponry. But when I looked into some of those older translations, I found a few editions520 that described giving Behemoth a sword. And I thought, what better way to describe an elephant’s tusks? One of these versions521 even described Behemoth as the chief of all creation. What better way to describe the largest land animal on Earth, who has no natural predators because it’s equipped with such mighty size and weaponry, and no natural prey because it eats grass, so all the animals around it can play?”
“Alright, you win,” said the boy. “I concede the dinosaur theory.” Then he whispered, “Unless it’s a triceratops.”
“Plus, elephants can live in the mountains,” said the man, “so that solves that little ordeal. And even if you considered the hippo’s elongated face to be part of its nose, which is really just two small nostrils, the elephant’s ‘nose’ is far more impressive and worthy of mention when it comes to piercing it with a snare.”
“Agreed,” said the boy. “Now enough of the eleph—”
“Now, the hippo camp will try to discount all of this because of the one line regarding the strength in the loins and the power in the muscles of the belly. They claim that because the underbelly of an elephant can be pierced by a rhinoceros horn during a full charge that somehow that discounts strength and power. Tell me, do you hear anything about the hardness or thickness of skin like a shield in that description?”
“No,” said the boy, “I don—”
“Of course you don’t,” said the man, “because it isn’t there. The gorilla is strong and powerful as it swings from tree to tree. The anaconda is strong and powerful as it wraps around its prey. The crocodile is strong and powerful as it clamps down on a meal. But all of their skins and scales are punctured by the teeth of the jaguar. Does that mean these other creatures aren’t strong or powerful?”
“No, I guess no—”
“The idea is preposterous,” said the man. “I challenge anyone who doubts the muscles of the elephant’s underbelly to pierce it with a spear and see what happens. The durability of skin has nothing to do with strength and power, my boy. The argument to discount the elephant here is weak at best.”
“Alright, alright. I’m on your side,” said the boy. “Let’s get on with it then.”
“Thank you,” said the man. “It took a fair bit of reading to put that all together. But this concludes our tour of the universe, tracing the world back through the creation of land and sea, highlighting the foremost of God’s creations. But before we move on, I wanted to mention one last thing about Behemoth.”
The boy let out a sigh. “Alright.”
“There is a camp that believes Behemoth is not a natural animal at all, but rather some divine beast like the Leviathan we’re about to unravel. But in my opinion, there are a few things that discount that theory.
“First is how Behemoth is introduced, with the word ‘behold,’ as if he was a physical creature Job could see for himself. To me, this is evidence of a purely naturalistic being. Another is that thirty-four lines are given to Leviathan, the mysterious supernatural being that requires far more description and insight, while a mere nine lines are devoted to Behemoth. While nine is more than given to any other creature in God’s animal kingdom in the Bible, the emphasis is made to describe how God rules over every creature on Earth, where even the chief of His creation is at the mercy of His sword. And lastly, perhaps most the obvious thing,” said the man, “why would a divine creature need to eat grass?”
“Plus it’s pretty ironic that God’s favorite creature was an elephant, and now His latest work was giving Job elephantitis,” said the boy.
The man slapped his hand against his forehead. “Brilliant! I wonder if anyone’s ever made that connection before. Or if there’s any connection with Job being God’s foremost servant at the time.”
“Bingo,” said the boy, snapping his fingers into a gun. “Read that line introducing Behemoth again.”
The man looked confused, but he looked down at the pages. “It says, ‘Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you.’”
“Exactly,” said the boy. “That’s it.”
“That’s what?”
“He made Job just like he made Behemoth.”
“Yes,” said the man, confused. “We know that.”
“No,” said the boy, “you’re not hearing me right. Job is just like Behemoth. Or rather, he should be. Or he’s capable of being.”
“He’s capable of eating grass?”
“No,” said the boy. “Not that. I mean, metaphorically. Behemoth is God’s foremost creation, like Job is God’s foremost servant. He made Behemoth strong just like he made Job strong. But when the going gets tough, Behemoth stands up to the river raging in his face. But when the going got tough for Job, he just plopped down in a heap of ashes and started playing with pottery. God is telling Job that he made him like Behemoth, capable of standing up to the raging river of life.”
The light bulb clicked on for the man. “My boy, that’s genius!”
“I know,” said the boy, brushing off his shoulder with a smile. “And listen to the other similarities. The land provides food for Behemoth, just like it did for Job. Behemoth is comfortably sheltered, just like Job was. Behemoth isn’t alarmed because he trusts he can drink up a river. But I think God is telling Job that he shouldn’t be alarmed because if he trusts in God, he can endure this river of life flowing at him. And maybe that God has already equipped Job with the ‘sword’ he needs to fight this battle.”
A huge grin grew across the man’s face as he looked skyward. Then he looked down at the boy again and said, “Kid, I could kiss you right now. And let me just add that the word for ‘nose’ in Hebrew can also mean ‘anger,’ meaning Job’s resilience shouldn’t be pierced by snares that could make him angry. He should be more like Behemoth, in the metaphorical sense, invulnerable to the kinds of snares Satan laid out for him. God tells Job to behold a natural example of His creation who stands up to the forces working behind the scenes. Then God goes on to explain the force that’s causing the raging river in Job’s life using supernatural terms.”
“So the next part actually helps Job understand why he’s being treated this way?”
“We’ll get there shortly,” said the man. “But you’re right that up until now, all we have seen is a demonstration of God’s divine wisdom and power, which hasn’t answered Job’s question about God’s divine justice. Here, though, God seems to remind Job that He’s already equipped him with what he needs to stand up to these forces.”
“Or maybe,” said the boy, “a reminder that only God can draw the sword against us, not Satan, in the sense that God has power over Satan.”
“Very good,” said the man with a laugh. “I’m impressed. Now, onto the unseen force at work of which Job never knew, the cosmic force God deals with in order to bring order throughout the chaos of creation.”
“I sure hope we get some answers,” said the boy, “because at this point Job’s poor kids are watching from the afterlife, and all their father has to say is, ‘Why did you take my money away?’ and all God has to say is, ‘Have you seen My elephant trunk?’”