BEHEMOTH
Religious Mythology
Hebrew, Christian and Muslim Faiths
Male version of the female LEVIATHAN
This is a monster in the religious traditions of the Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim faiths. BEHEMOTH is described in both the Hebraic books of Enoch (40:7-9) and Job (51:15-24) as the male counterpart of the LEVIATHAN. It is of enormous proportions, so vast that the desert of Dedain extends across it’s upper body; it’s bones are as of brass; it’s huge jaws consume thousands of acres of vegetation at one gulp and the river Jordan at one swallow.
It was prophesied in Jewish tradition that at the coming of the Day of Judgment and the messiah, the LEVIATHAN and BEHMOTH would be locked in combat to the death. The resulting bodies would be food for the “chosen”, who would have lived their lives in righteousness.
In European medieval Christian tradition, BEHEMOTH was regarded as a most powerful tempter that manifested itself in the shape of a groteque4 elephant. His domain is that of the “delights of the belly”, and he charged by the devil with tempting humans into the vice of overindulgence.
In the Muslim tradition, BEHEMOTH equates with the monstrous BAHAMUT, the vast monster that supports the earth in the cosmos.
Source: Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth