Two mentions of leviathan remain to be noticed, as to both of whith there has been a general agree ment of commentators against the crocodile. In Ps. civ. the abode of leviathan secms to be the sea. ' The earth is full of thy riches. [So is] this sea, great and large on every side, wherein [are] things creeping innumerable, both small and great heasts. There go the ships : [there is] that leviathan [whom] thou hast created to take his pastime therein' (24, 25, 26). We have already shewn that the Nile is certainly once called the sea, and probably twice, in Scripture. The vastness of the river, with its a.bundant inhabitants, as in YEschylus,— in whichever of its two possible senses we take roXv0plizAcoo, as abounding in monsters, compar ing the still more pointedly-appropriate troXuxhrea /ciao:, of Theocritus (xvii. 98), or much-nourish ing—and the many vessels which anciently voyaged on its surface, accord with this description, and neither ships nor whales would be as accustomed sights from the shore of Palestine, or the coasts of Arabia, as boats and crocodiles in the Nile, the Canal of the Red Sea, and perhaps one or more lakes connected with that canal. The idea of pastime may seem to suit the whale rather than the crocodile, but the notion implied seems to be space enough for the free movements of so great an animal, and if so, the Nile would be preferable to the sea.
In Is. xxvii. t, leviathan is used as a symbol of an enemy, or the enemies of God's people : In that day the LORD with his hard, and great, and strong sword, shall punish [or fall uponl leviathan the fleeing [?] serpent, even leviathan the tortuous serpent ; and slay the dragon that [is] in the sea.' Here Gesenius supposes a great serpent to be meant, and the kingdom of Babylon to be sym bolized by it, But it is evident that the prophecy, if it have a primary reference to the return from the captivity at Babylon, has a wider import, and there is at least as much reason to think that the reference is to Egypt, a future exodus from which is foretold, as well as a like deliverance from Assyria (12, 13). How then are we to account for the parallel use of leviathan and serpent ? In a passage where symbols are accumulated, probably to designate a distant object or objects, there seems no need to suppose that all must be of the same signification. Dragon indeed includes leviathan, but it seems, certainly, to have a more general sense. We therefore do not see that in this case it is necessary to suppose that leviathan is used in any sense but that of crocodile, as the symbol of Pharaoh, and so of any enemy of the true Israel.— R. S. P.