the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Leviathan
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or Leviathan. (jointed monster). Leviathan occurs five times in the text of the Authorized Version, and once in the margin of Job 3:8 where the text has "mourning." In the Hebrew Bible, the word livyathan, which is, with the foregoing exception, always left untranslated in the Authorized Version, is found only in the following passages: Job 3:8; Job 41:1; Psalms 74:14; Psalms 104:26; Isaiah 27:1.
In the margin of Job 3:8 and text of Job 41:1, the crocodile is most clearly the animal denoted by the Hebrew word. Psalms 74:14 also clearly points to this same saurian. The context of Psalms 104:26 seems to show that, in this passage, the name represents some animal of the whale tribe, which is common in the Mediterranean; but it is somewhat uncertain what animal is denoted in Isaiah 27:1.
As the term leviathan is evidently used in no limited sense, it is not improbable that the "leviathan the piercing serpent," or "leviathan the crooked serpent," may denote some species of the great rock-snakes which are common in south and west Africa.
These files are public domain.
Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Leviathan'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/l/leviathan.html. 1901.
