Job 41 Footnotes

41:1 For the critical view that Leviathan is drawn from Canaanite mythology, see note on 3:8. References to Leviathan are found elsewhere in the Bible, characteristically as metaphors to depict the enemies of God and Israel (e.g., Ps 74:14; 104:26; Is 27:1). Although some suggest that Leviathan was a whale or a great shark, most hold that the reference was to a crocodile. Like the hippopotamus (see note on Jb 40:15-24), the crocodile was a hunted animal in Egypt. The appearance in successive chapters of Egypt’s two most hunted animals supports the prevailing view concerning Behemoth and Leviathan. As in ancient Egypt, where the crocodile could symbolize royal power, so Leviathan may stand for a hostile force that only God can subdue (41:33-34). Similarly, God is portrayed as slaying the great dragon, Satan, in the eschaton (Rv 20:7-10).