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Journey of a Passage

Job 40:15–24

Behold now Behemoth

Behemoth is a plural form for one great beast. Hebrew and English number it 40:15; the library's Greek and the Vulgate number it 40:10. The Greek calls it "the beast" (wild beasts); the Vulgate keeps "behemoth."

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original JobPoem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Job
Aramaic
    Greek and its daughters
    1. Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)Printed Septuagint; translated 1872Translated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen
    Latin
    1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 390s, from HebrewTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Poem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)

      Original Job

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. Small Hebrew fragments of Job are known from Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99–101).

    2. c. AD 390s, from Hebrew

      Jerome's Vulgate

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Ecce behemoth quem feci tecum, fœnum quasi bos comedet.

      Vulgate verse 40:10.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Job

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      הִנֵּה־נָ֣א בְ֭הֵמוֹת אֲשֶׁר־עָשִׂ֣יתִי עִמָּ֑ךְ חָ֝צִ֗יר כַּבָּקָ֥ר יֹאכֵֽל׃

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

    5. Printed Septuagint; translated 1872

      Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Mais vois auprès de toi la bête; elle se repaît comme les bœufs.

      Greek via Giguet's French (filled-out printed text); not checked against Ziegler's critical edition. Its verse 40:10.

    What changed, and why

    Most scholars see a hippopotamus with mythic overtones; some a mythic land-monster; some modern readers a dinosaur. See the investigation.

    What the evidence shows

    • Strongly supportedBehemoth is the hippopotamus. Majority view.
    • Independently documentedGreek and Latin number this verse 40:10.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Behold Now Behemoth →God asks if Job, who argued with the Almighty, will answer. Job says: "I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth." God speaks again: will Job annul God's judgment to justify himself? Has he an arm like God's? Let him humble the proud and tread down the wicked. Then: "Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox." Its strength is in its loins, its tail like a cedar, its bones like bronze; it lies under lotus plants and is not alarmed though the Jordan rushes into its mouth.
      • Investigation: Behemoth and Leviathan →God's second speech ends with two creatures. Behemoth eats grass, lies in the reeds and is unbothered by the Jordan in flood; most scholars identify it as the hippopotamus. Leviathan has impenetrable scales, terrible teeth, breathes fire and makes the deep boil; it has been read as the crocodile, the whale, or the mythic sea-serpent known from Ugarit (Lotan). Later Jewish tradition made them primeval monsters. Some modern readers propose dinosaurs. The evidence, read whole, supports real animals painted with mythic colour, and no single identification should be made dogma.