than of the next chapter, saw nothing but mystical rep- resentations of the de^^l : others, again, have here pic- tiu-ed to themselves some hieroglyphic monster that has no real existence ; but these wild imaginations are sur- passed by that of Bolducius, who in the behemoth actu- ally beholds Christ !"
The following reasons seem clearlj^ to identify it with the hippopotamus. 1. The meaninfj of the oriyinalword itself. Gesenius {Thesaurus, p. 183), with whom also Fiirst agrees {Heb. Lex. s. v.), holds it not to be a Heb. plur., but the Coptic be-hemont, " the water-ox" (see Ja- blonsky, Opitsc. i, 52), equivalent to the 'iwizoq 6 voraiJiOQ or river-horse of the ancients (Herod, ii, 71 ; Aristot. A nim. it, 12 [4]; Diod.Sic.i,35; Pliny, viii, 39; Ammian. Marcell. xxii, 15 ; AbdoUatif, Denlcer. p. 146 sq. ; Prosper Alpinus, Res JKg. iv, 12 ; Ludolph, Hist. JEth. i, 11, and Comment. \\.\'oh sq.; Hasselquist, 7'rflr. p. 280 sq.; Sparr- mann, Reise druch siidl. Africa, p. 562 sq. ; Riippell, A rab. Petr. p. 55 sq. ; comp. Schneider, Hist, hippop. vett. crit. in his edit, of Artedi Synon.pisc. p. 247 sq., 316 sq. ; Bochart, Hieroz. iii, 705 sq.; Oken, Zool. ii, 718 sq.). Kosenmiil- ler's objection to the Coptic origin of the word is worthy of observation — that, if this were the case, the Sept, in- terpreters would not have given 6i)pia as its represen- tative. Michaelis translates rmlna by jianenta, and thinks the name of the elephant has dropped out ("Mihi videtur nomen elephantis forte P'^S excidisse"). Many critics, Eosenmilller amongst tlie nimiber, believe the word is the plural majestatis of (T2il3. But in that case it woiUd hardly be employed with a verb or adj. in the sinrjular, and that masc, as it is.
2. A careful examination of the text shows that all the details descriptive of the behemoth accord entirely with the ascertained habits of that animal. Gesenius and Kosenmiiller have remarked that, since in the first part of Jehovah's discourse (Job xxxviii, xxxix) land animals and birds are mentioned, it suits tlie general purpose of that discourse better to suppose that aquatic or amphibious creatiu-es are spoken of in the last half of it ; and tliat since the leviathan, by almost universal consent, denotes the crocodile, the behemoth seems clearly to point to the hippopotamus, his associate in the Nile. Harmer {Obsey-vations, ii, 319) says, "There is a great deal of beauty in arranging the descrip- tions of the behemoth and the leviathan, for in the ^Mosaic pavement the people of an Egyptian bark are represented as darting spears or some such weapons at one of the river-horses, as another of them is pictured
with two sticking near his shoulders It was then
a customary thing with the old Egyptians thus to at- tack these animals (see also Wilkinson, A nc. Efiypt. iii, 71) ; if so, how beautiful is the arrangement: there is a
most happy gradation; after a grand but just repre- sentation of the terribleness of the river-horse, the Al-
HIPPOPOTAMUS
271
HIPPOPOTAMUS
inif;1ity is represented as going on with his expostula- tions something after this manner : ' Hut dreadful as this animal is, barbed irons and spears have sometimes prevailed against him ; but what wilt thou do with the crocodile? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons V " etc. In the Lithostrotum Pramestiimm, to which Mr. Harmer refers, there are two crocodiles, associates of three river-horses, wliich are represented without spears sticking in them, though they seem to be within shot. Behemoth "eateth grass as an ox" (Job xl, 15) — a cir- cumstance which is noticed as peculiar in an animal of aquatic habits; this is strictly true of the hippopota- mus, which leaves the water by night, and feeds on veg- etables and green crops. Its strength is enormous, ver. 16, 18, and the notice of the power of the muscles of the belly, " his force is in the navel of his belly," appears to be strictly correct. The tail, however, is short, and it must be conceded that the first part of verse 17, "he moveth his tail like a cedar," seems not altogether ap- plicable. His mode of attack is with his mouth, which is armed with a formidable array of teeth, projecting in- cisors, and enormous curved canines; thus "his Creator offer? him a sword," for so the words in ver. 19 may be rendered. But the use of his sword is mainly for pacific puqioses, " the beasts of the field playing" about him as he feeds; the hippopotamus being a remarkably inof- fensive animal. " With these apjiarently combined teeth the hippopotamus can cut the grass as neatly as if it were mown with the scythe, and is able to sever, as if with shears, a tolerably thick and stout stem" (Wood's Nat. Hist, i, 762). 3^tl is perhaps the Greek ujottj;. See Bochart (iii, 722), who cites Nicander (Theriac. 566) as comparing the tooth of this animal to a scythe. The next verse explains the purpose and use of the "scythe" with which God has provided his creature, viz., in or- der that he may eat the grass of the hills. His retreat is among the lotuses (tzelim; A. V. "shady trees"), which abounded about the Nile, and amid the reeds of the liver. Thoroughly at home in the water, " if the river riseth, he doth not take to flight ; and he cares not if a Jordan (here an appellative for a 'stream') press on his mouth." Ordinary means of capture were ineffectual against the great strength of this animal. " Will any take him before his eyes?" (i. e. openly, and without cun- ning) ; " will any bore his nose with a gin?" as was usual ,uth large animals. Though now no longer found in the lower Nile, it was formerly common there (Wilkin- son, i, 230). The method of killing it in Egypt was with a spear, the animal being in the first instance secured by a lasso, and repeatedly struck until it became exhausted (AVilkinson, i, 240) ; the very same method is pursued by the natives of South Africa at the jiresent day (Liv- ingstone, p. 73 ; instances of its great strength are no- ticed by the same writer, p. 231, 232, 497). The skin of the hippopotamus is cut into whips by the Dutch colo- nists of South Africa, and the monuments of Egypt tes- tify that a similar use was made of the skin by the an- cient Egj'ptians {Anc. Efiypt.in,!^). The inhabitants of Soutii Africa hold the flesh of the hippopotamus in high esteem ; it is said to be not unlike pork.