* Oa^. Eni;. Dirt, and Century Diet, sav behalf la used only with on or in, (orgettin); Dn ills AV ' a pfince/or his own b."
t Except where the meaning is * in the oame of,' when either form waa used.
30'), refers to the animal of Job, and that the south was Egypt. But negeb refers to Egypt only in one other context (Dn 11 often). Isaiah more probably refers to the southern portion of Judrea and the wilderness of et-Tih, and the fact that a partial catalogue of the beasts is given makes it improbable that one beast, and that not a savage or venomous creature, is intended.
There can be no reasonable doubt that the hippopotamus is the animal intended in Job. A» some have thought that some other extinct or living animal, or some animal type, as the pachy- dermatous, was intended, it will be well to examine, in the light of an accurate rendering, whether the description corresponds to that of the hippopotamus.
16 Behold behemoth, which I made with thee ; He eateth grass like an ox.
16 Behold, his strength ia in his loins,
And bis power in the muscles of his belly.
17 He lowers his tail like a cedar :
The sinews of his thigh are braided togetbtf. W His bones are tubes of copper,
Their bulk as a forcing of iron. 1* He ia the first of God's works :
He who made him gave him hia swoid. W For the hills bring him forth pasture ;
All the beasts of the field sport there. 31 Beneath the lotus tree he heth do\vn,
In the shadow of the reed and swamp. *2 The lotus trees overshadow him ;
The willows of the streams surround him. 23 Behold the river swells, and he doea not flee f
He ia contident though Jordan were poured into hia mooth. 2< Will one take him before his eyes ;
Or will one bore his nostrils with books (rings)?
Remembering that this is Oriental poetry, there is nothing in it which does not well apply to the hippopotamus: he is herbivorous (v."); he is remarkable for the stoutness of his body (v.") ; his taU is thick and rigid, and his legs sinewy (v.") ; his bones are solid (v.'*) ; he is the largest animal indigenous in Bible lands ; his teeth cut the herbage as with a sword (v.'*) ; he comes up out of the water to the plantations to feed ; the term hill is applicable to low elevations as well as to high, and in the language of poetry could be used of the knolls arising from the general level of the Nile basin (v.^) ; the lotus tree {Zizyphus Lotus, L.) is common, as also reeds and swamps, in the neigh- bourhoods where he dwells (v.'') ; so also the willows by the streams (v.'-) ; the allusion to the inundation of Egypt fits his case (v.^) ; liis strength is such tliat a direct attack is hazardous, and the poet challenges the reader to bore his nostrils, and lead him witli a hook or ring like an ox (v.").
The allusion to behemoth is the approach to the climax which is reached in leviathan, the crocodile. The poet began (ch. 38) with the foundation of the earth, advanced to the powers of inanimate nature, then through the lesser plienomena of animal life to the largest of the quadrupeds, to finish with the invulnerable, untamable ' king over all the children of pride ' (ch. 4P'').
LlTBRATUBB. — O:^. Heb. Lex. t.v. ; Dillmann and Davidaon on Job 4015"- ; Delitzsch on Is 30». G. E. PoST.
BEHOVE. — ' Behoof ' is profit, advantage ; it occurs only in Pref. to AV 1611 ' For the behoof and edifying of the unlearned.' ' Behove,' nov only in the impers. phrase 'it behoves,' signifies necessity arising from peculiar fitness. In AV only Lk 24« 'it b''' Christ to sull'er' (TR Ke., edd. and RV omit), and He 2" ' it b'"' him to be made like unto his brethren {SxpetXe). RV adds Lk 24=», Ac 17' (both (Set). J. HASTINGS.
BEKA (AV Bekah). — See Weights and Measures.
BEL ('?3), originally one of the Bab. triad, bnt synonym, in OT and Apocr. with Merodach, 'the younger Bel,' the tutelary god of Babylon (Jer 50'
BEL AND THE DRAGON
BEL AND THE DRAGON
267
61", Is 46', Bar 6"). See Baal, Babylonia, Bel AND THK Dragon. J. A. Selbik.
BEL AND THE DRAGON.— Two legends attached to the book of Dn in the Gr. and other VSS. As In the rest of Dn, the ordinary printed text is that of Theod. (6) ; but Swete has given the text of the unique LXX MS Chisianus, on the opposite page, throughout Dn. In B our stories follow Dn without a break ; in A Q, with the intervention of the heading Sp<i<nt i^'. In Vulg. they form ch. 14 of i)n. In LXX and Syr. -Hex. we have the heading, ' From the prophecy of Uabakkuk, son of Joshua, of the tribe of Levi.'
Bel. — The points of this story as to which 6 and LXX agree are briefly these : — In Babylon is an image of Bel which Daniel refuses to worship. The king expostulates, and shows how much food it daily devours. Daniel in reply arranges that the king shall see the lectistemia set, and the doors sealed ; but takes care, when the priests are