BEHEADING (bt-hed'ing), to cause to drop, break down). See PrNISIIMENTS. BEHEMOTH (be-Wmoth), (Deb. mohth', Job xl:ts; in Coptic, according to Jablon ski, Pehemontl, is regarded as the plural of behe man, but commentators are by no means agreed as to its true meaning.
A number of learned men, with Bochart and Calmet at their head. understand the word in the singular number as a specific name, denoting the hippopotamus, seeking by somewhat forced interpretations of the beautiful poetical allusions in Job xl :is-24, to prove the exactness of the description when compared with the species. In some respects, however. it is more applicable to the elephant. while in others it is equally so to both animals. Hence the term behemoth, taken intensively ( for in some places it is admitted to designate cattle in general). may be assumed to be a poetical personification of the great Pachy dermata, or even Herhivora, wherein the idea of hippopotamus is predominant. This view ac counts for the ascription to it of characters not truly applicable to one species; for instance, the tail is likened to a cedar. which is only admissi ble in the case of the elephant ; again, 'the moun tains bring him forth food ;"he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan,' a river. which elephant: alone could reach; 'his nose piereeth through snares; certainly more indicative of that animal's proboscis with its extraordinary delicacy of scent and touch, ever cautiousl) applied, than of the obtuse perceptions of the river horse. Finally, the elephant is far more dangerous as an enemy than the hippopotamus, whieia numerous pic torial sculptures on the monuments of Egypt represent as fearlessly speared by a single hunter standing on his float of log and reeds. Yet al
though the elephant is scarcely less fond the description referring to manners. such as ly ing tinder the shade of willows, among reeds, in fens, etc., is inure directly characteristic of the hippopotamus. The book of Job appears, from many internal indications, to have been written in Asia, and is full of knowledge, although that knowledge is not expressed according to the pre cise technicalities of modern science ; it offers pictures in magnificent outline, witIn.ut comic scolding to minute and labored details. Con sidered in this light, the expression in Ps. I:1o, 'For every beast of the forest is and the cattle (behemoth) upon a thousand hills,' ac quires a grandeur and force far surpassing those furnished by the mere idea of cattle of various kinds. If, then, we take this plural noun in the sense here briefly indicated, we may, in like man ner, consider the leviathan, its counterpart, a similarly generalized term, with the idea of crocodile most prominent ; and as this name in dicates a twisting animal, and, as appears from various texts, evidently includes the great pythons, cetacea, and sharks of the surrounding seas and deserts, it conveys a more sublime con ception than if limited to the crocodile, an animal familiar to every Egyptian, and well known even in Palestine.