Behemoth - what type of animal was it??

by Truthexplorer 15 Replies latest social relationships

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  Truthexplorer

  Hi all,

  I am fascinated by Job 40:15-24. Which one of the following pictures do you think best describes Behemoth?

  I have kindly cut and pasted the portion of scripture at the bottom and highlighted some of the outstanding identifying marks of the animal. I look forward to your views on this very intruiging portion of scripture!

  A.

  

  B.

  

  C.

  

  Job 40:15-24 (New International Version)

  15 "Look at the behemoth, [a]
  which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.

  16 What strength he has in his loins,
  what power in the muscles of his belly!

  17 His tail [b] sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit.

  18 His bones are tubes of bronze,
  his limbs like rods of iron.

  19 He ranks first among the works of God,
  yet his Maker can approach him with his sword.

  20 The hills bring him their produce,
  and all the wild animals play nearby.

  21 Under the lotus plants he lies,
  hidden among the reeds in the marsh.

  22 The lotuses conceal him in their shadow;
  the poplars by the stream surround him.

  23 When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth.

  24 Can anyone capture him by the eyes, [c]
  or trap him and pierce his nose?

  TE
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  White Dove

  I think it is a hippo. I get leviathan mixed up with this one.
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  tec

  Elephant, if tail can be replaced with trunk - which my bible says is a possibility. I think that means some manuscripts have trunk instead of tail in their translation.

  Tammy
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  serenitynow!

  If I remember correctly, the great Al Bundy said a Behemoth was an extremely large, unattractive woman!
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  tec

  Kay, now I'm going to read it as if it is an extremely large, unattractive woman. Or man. That might be more fun.

  Tammy
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  serenitynow!

  Tammy the OP did put this question under social- dating and relationships, so my mind was not thinking biblical. I have seen some male Behemoths, frightening!
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  Leolaia

  Considering that the leviathan was a mythological beast (= Lotan in Ugaritic myth and Ladon in Greek myth), the Behemoth was probably one as well. In Ugaritic texts, Lotan is mentioned alongside other beasts like Arsh and Atik, which were beloved of El, and which were bovine in character. Scholars such as John Day have suggested that one of these might have been parallel to the Hebrew Behemoth, although this is far from clear. Atik is comparable to the monstrous Bull of Heaven slain by Gilgamesh in the Gilgamesh Epic.
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  mkr32208

  So your saying it might have been babe the blue ox leolaia?
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  awildflower

  Just so you know, because I read the title to this thread yesterday, I actually had a dream last night about this creature! I was up on a boat mast (I think that's what it's called, the long pole thing the sales are on?) and it was trying to jump up and eat me! In my dream it was a cross between that creature in Clash of the Titans, it had that big mouth full of teeth, but it was more the size of the hippo and had the outside skin like a hippo or dinosaur. It was scary and it didn't get me, I woke up first!

  My dream has revealed the mystery of the Behemoth of the Bible, LOL
• 

  Truthexplorer

  Thanks for replies everyone.

  I am keeping an open mind on this one given the fact that there was evidence to suggest that dinosaurs of great size once roamed the earth. Even mammoths frozen in ice have been found in our time.

  I would like to think that the brontasurus was the animal that the bible writer was describing as it appears to talk about a very large powerful animal, particularly when it describes his tail swaying like a tree (cedar).

  Then again, it could simply be a hippo..who knows!!!!

  TE