Leviathan- Hebrew/Jewish CreatureCreature · Monster"Beast of the Sea"

King over All the Sons of Pride

God describes Leviathan to Job as the culmination of a dare. After thirty-seven chapters of argument about suffering, God answers with spectacle, and Leviathan is the final exhibit. "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?" Can you put a rope in his nose? Will he beg for mercy, speak softly, make a covenant? Will you play with him as with a bird, or leash him for your daughters?

The creature God reveals is beyond human power. Rows of shields seal his back so tight no air passes between them. Fire comes from his mouth and smoke from his nostrils. Iron is to him as straw, bronze as rotten wood. He leaves a shining wake in the sea and makes the deep boil like a pot of ointment. "On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He is king over all the sons of pride."

The Heads of Leviathan

Psalm 74 remembers a primordial battle: "You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness." The plural "heads" evokes a multi-headed dragon. The Ugaritic texts of ancient Canaan describe a strikingly similar figure: Lotan, a seven-headed serpent slain by Baal.

Leviathan's death at creation was not his last appearance. Isaiah projects another killing into the future: "In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea."

Psalm 104 offers a different image entirely: "There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it." The sea dragon sporting in the ocean God made for him.

Separated at the Beginning

The Book of Enoch tells how the world's two great monsters were parted on the fifth day of creation. The earth could not hold them both, so God assigned Leviathan to the watery abyss and Behemoth to a vast desert east of Eden called Dundayin. 4 Ezra confirms the separation: "You preserved two living creatures; the name of one you called Behemoth and the name of the other Leviathan. And you separated one from the other, for the seventh part where the water had been gathered together could not hold them both."

The Talmud adds a detail. God originally created both a male and a female Leviathan. He foresaw that if they mated, their offspring would overwhelm creation. So God killed the female and preserved her flesh in salt for the righteous to eat at the end of days. The male swims alone in the abyss, the last of his kind.

In Rabbinic Imagination

The rabbis of the Talmud expanded Leviathan beyond all proportion. His scales gleam so brilliantly they obscure the sun. When he is hungry, his breath makes the waters of the deep boil. No creature dares approach him, and even the angels fear his strength.

God himself is Leviathan's only companion. The Talmud teaches that God spends the fourth quarter of every day playing with the sea dragon. Since the destruction of the Temple, when God's joy in human worship was diminished, playing with Leviathan has become his chief diversion. The greatest monster in creation consoles its Maker.

The Combat at the End

The liturgical poem Akdamut, recited on Shavuot, describes the final battle. At the end of days, Behemoth and Leviathan will turn on each other. Behemoth gores Leviathan with his horns; Leviathan strikes Behemoth with his fins. They wound each other mortally, and God descends with his great sword to finish what the monsters began.

The flesh of both becomes the centerpiece of the messianic banquet. Leviathan's skin is stretched into the sukkah that shelters the feast, glowing with a light visible from one end of the world to the other. The salted flesh of the female, preserved since the fifth day of creation, is served alongside the fresh kill. 2 Baruch confirms: at the coming of the Messiah, Behemoth and Leviathan will serve as food for all who survive.