Behemoth - Later Jewish Writings

Later Jewish Writings

In Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha such as the 2nd century BCE Book of Enoch, Behemoth is the primal unconquerable monster of the land, as Leviathan is the primal monster of the waters of the sea and Ziz the primordial monster of the sky. In the 2nd century BCE 1 Enoch Leviathan lives in "the Abyss", while Behemoth the land-monster lives in an invisible desert east of the Garden of Eden (1 Enoch 60:7-8). A Jewish rabbinic legend describes a great battle which will take place between them at the end of time: "...they will interlock with one another and engage in combat, with his horns the Behemoth will gore with strength, the fish will leap to meet him with his fins, with power. Their Creator will approach them with his mighty sword ." Then, "from the beautiful skin of the Leviathan, God will construct canopies to shelter the righteous, who will eat the meat of the Behemoth and the Leviathan amid great joy and merriment." (Artscroll siddur, p. 719).

Read more about this topic:  Behemoth

Famous quotes containing the words jewish and/or writings:

    Don: Why are they closed? They’re all closed, every one of them.
    Pawnbroker: Sure they are. It’s Yom Kippur.
    Don: It’s what?
    Pawnbroker: It’s Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday.
    Don: It is? So what about Kelly’s and Gallagher’s?
    Pawnbroker: They’re closed, too. We’ve got an agreement. They keep closed on Yom Kippur and we don’t open on St. Patrick’s.
    Billy Wilder (b. 1906)

    If someday I make a dictionary of definitions wanting single words to head them, a cherished entry will be “To abridge, expand, or otherwise alter or cause to be altered for the sake of belated improvement, one’s own writings in translation.”
    Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)