11 GOD’S ANSWER AND JOB’S RESPONSE they are nevertheless no more disruptive to an orderly worldview than Deutero-Isaiah’s insistence that God creates light and darkness, well- being and evil (Isa 45,7). Lest you think it might be, Deutero-Isaiah soon insists that God did not create the world as chaos (45,18). Leviathan is not said to do anything destructive or even hostile. Behemoth was created like Job (40,15) 36, implying affinity not en- mity. These beasts were presumably created before humans (thus in Gen 1,21, and perhaps implied in Job 40,19a), but their precedence in creation does not show the world to be chaotic and disorderly. Sea serpents come before humans in Genesis 1, but that account is unquestionably describing a realm of order and goodness. The same is true of Ben Sira’s description of the frightful powers in creation (including sea monsters), which culminates in a call to praise God in awe and wonder (Sir 43,28-33). Behemoth is based on the hippopotamus 37. The only inaccuracies are the huge size of his tail (40,17) 38, and the notions that the produce of the mountains comes to it 39. These inaccuracies may have come from a traveler, who would, after all, not get too close to the strange beast. For the Egyptians, the hippopotamus was the embodiment of Seth, who represented chaos, and he was annually defeated by Pharaoh, the Living Horus. There is no evidence that this myth was known in Israel, but perhaps it too was brought by a traveler 40. This mythic back- ground would explain Behemoth’s pairing with Leviathan. In any case, what is significant is not Behemoth’s mythic origins but the fact that he too has been naturalized and tamed, so much so that all he does is stand in the river and graze imperturbably. He is explicitly a herbivore (40,15b). The beast portrayed in Job does not fight. We learn that “his maker” — alone — can “bring his sword near” (40,19b) 41. It is unclear HALOT 839.2.2b. 36 This is the consensus; see the survey and discussion in CLINES, Job 38- 37 42, 148-157. Herodotus (History, 2.71) and Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca historica, 38 VIII 95) made the same error, though both had visited Egypt. Unless we emend ~yrh to ~yrhn. See CLINES, Job 38-42, 117. 39 Behemoth is identified as Seth by E. RUPRECHT, “Das Nilpferd im Hiob- 40 buch”, VT 21 (1971) 209-231, and O. KEEL, Jahwes Entgegnung an Ijob. Eine Deutung von Ijob 38-41 vor dem Hintergrund der zeitgenössischen Bild- kunst (Göttingen 1978) 127-141. The emphasis on “his maker” is supported by the frontal positioning of 41 the subject. We should emend wf[h la to wf[ `hla to eliminate the un- grammatical article of wf[h. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati