What creature is described in Job 40:20, and does it exist today? I. Text Under Consideration “Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you; he eats grass like an ox… For the mountains yield food for him, where all the beasts of the field play.” (Job 40:15, 20) II. Hebrew Word Study • behemoth (בְּהֵמוֹת) is a plural of majesty or intensification for “beast,” denoting one unmatched in size or power. • The noun is masculine singular throughout the passage (vv. 15–24), confirming a single, unique creature. III. Immediate Literary Context Job 40:15–24 presents twenty-one distinct characteristics: 1. Created “along with” humanity (v 15). 2. Massive herbivore (v 15). 3. Strength in loins, power in stomach muscles (v 16). 4. “Tail sways like a cedar” (v 17). 5. Bones like bronze tubes; limbs like iron bars (v 18). 6. Foremost (“first”) of God’s works (v 19). 7. Only its Maker can approach with the sword (v 19). 8. Feeds among mountains; other animals play nearby, unthreatened (v 20). 9. Finds shade under lotus trees, willows, reeds (vv 21–22). 10. Unmoved when the Jordan surges against its mouth (v 23). 11. Human capture impossible with hooks, snares, rings (v 24). IV. Proposed Identifications 1. Hippopotamus • Pros: large herbivore, aquatic habits. • Cons: tail is a short appendage, not cedar-like; hippo bones are dense but hardly “iron bars”; hippos can be speared and trapped (ancient Egyptians hunted them). 2. Elephant • Pros: huge plant-eater, strength in loins. • Cons: tail thin and flexible; trunk—central feature—ignored in text; elephants routinely captured in antiquity. 3. Mythical Composite • Contradicted by God’s appeal to real, observable creatures (lions, hawks, goats) throughout chs 38–41. 4. Extinct Sauropod Dinosaur (e.g., Apatosaurus/Brachiosaurus) • Pros: tail comparable to a cedar; body length and mass fit “first of the works of God”; immense leg bones cylindrical like “tubes of bronze”; herbivorous; could wade deep rivers unperturbed. • Cons: Requires dinosaurs surviving the Flood and lingering into post-Babel human history—yet Scripture, petroglyphs, and some historical reports allow for this possibility. V. Corroborating Data • Ancient Artwork: engravings at Angkor Wat (Cambodia) and limestone petroglyphs in Havasupai Canyon, Arizona, depict long-necked, long-tailed creatures resembling sauropods. • Historical Testimonies: Greco-Roman writers (e.g., Pliny, Strabo) describe enormous land beasts unknown today. • Eyewitness Claims: 20th-century missionary accounts from the Likouala Swamp (Republic of Congo) of “Mokele-mbembe,” matching a small sauropod profile. VI. Chronological Considerations Job lived in the patriarchal era (post-Flood, pre-Mosaic), c. 2100–1900 BC. A remnant sauropod population fits within a young-earth timeline (~6,000 years), having survived aboard the Ark as juvenile representatives (Genesis 6–8) and dispersed afterward. VII. Theological Implications God uses Behemoth to underscore His unrivaled sovereignty, contrasting human frailty with divine creative power. The reality—not myth—of such a creature reinforces that Scripture describes verifiable events and beings (2 Peter 1:16). VIII. Does Behemoth Exist Today? • Mainstream biology lists sauropods as extinct. • Scripture records Behemoth as contemporary with Job. • Absence of modern, verifiable specimens suggests extinction or extreme rarity. • The possibility of small, isolated populations cannot be categorically dismissed but remains unconfirmed. IX. Conclusion The creature of Job 40:20 is Behemoth—a colossal, herbivorous land animal most consistently matched by a sauropod dinosaur that co-existed with humanity in the post-Flood world. On available evidence, it is either extinct or survives so sparsely that incontrovertible documentation has yet to surface. |
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