Behemoth

The male counterpart to Leviathan, one of the FALLEN ANGELS and a DEMON of the deep. Like Leviathan, Behemoth is associated with Rahab and the sea, and is personified variously as a whale, crocodile, and hip- popotamus. He is also associated with the ANGEL OF DEATH . The book of ENOCH says that Behemoth and Leviathan were separated by God at the creation, with Leviathan being sent to the sea and Behemoth being sent to an immeasurable desert named Dendain. In the Bible, Job 40:15–24 describes Behemoth as a mighty beast, “the first of the works of God” (40:19). Rabbinic lore holds that on the Day of Judgment, he will slay and be slain by Leviathan. His fate is to fur- nish meat for the Messiah’s feast, and his flesh will be distributed to the faithful. Another rabbinic legend says that God destroyed Leviathan on the day he cre- ated both monsters, but placed Behemoth, in the form of a giant ox, on enchanted mountains to fatten him up. There he eats the grass of 1,000 mountains each day; the grass grows back each night. Behemoth is doomed to remain there alone until the end of time, because God realized that such a monster could not be loosed upon the world. In Christian lore, Behemoth is considered one of the prime representations of evil. The demonologist JOHANN WEYER , who catalogued the ranks of HELL , did not include Behemoth in his list, but he did include him in another work, Praestigiorum Daemonum, in which he said that Behemoth represents Satan himself. Other demonologists of medieval times did include Behemoth in their rankings. Behemoth is sometimes described as being over- weight and stupid; thus he encourages gluttony and the pleasures of the belly. His shape shifts to various animal forms, and often he is depicted as an elephant with a huge stomach.