Etymologically
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בהמות

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Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: bəhēmôṯ[1]

Forms

בְּהֵמוֹת (bəhēmôṯ) noun, masculine[1][2]

Etymology

In form it is the plural of בְּהֵמָה (bəhēmâ, “beast”), used as a plural of extension for one huge animal: “the beast” par excellence.[3][4][2] It has also been explained as a reshaping of an Egyptian word meaning “ox of the water”, that is, the hippopotamus, ⟨p-ehe-mau⟩;[2][3][5] BDB and HALOT mention this, but the Egyptian word is not attested.[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word occurs once, in God's second speech in Job: hinnēh-nāʾ ḇəhēmôṯ ʾăšer-ʿāśîṯî ʿimmāḵ ḥāṣîr kabbāqār yōʾḵēl, “look at Behemoth, which I made as I made you; it eats grass like an ox” (Job 40:15).[3][1] The verbs and adjectives that describe it are singular.[5]

Semantic evolution

Since Bochart's Hierozoicon (1663) the beast of Job has usually been taken as the hippopotamus, which was present in Palestine in the Iron Age; others see the crocodile or simply any huge animal.[3][6] BDB and some commentators also read the word in Psalm 73:22 and in “the beasts of the Negev” of Isaiah 30:6, but most take these as the ordinary plural “beasts”.[2][6] The Septuagint translates it as the plural Ancient Greek θηρία (thēría, “beasts”), while the Peshitta keeps the name, Classical Syriac ܒܸܗܡܘܿܬ (behmōṯ).[3][7][5] Through Late Latin it passed into the European languages, and Klein gives “hippopotamus” as its Hebrew meaning.[4][5]

Timeline

  • Biblical poetry – the single occurrence, Job 40:15.[1][3]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as “beasts”, Ancient Greek θηρία (thēría).[8][1]
  • 1663 – Bochart identifies it as the hippopotamus.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Behemoth, a huge beast that God made, described in Job 40:15–24; usually taken as the hippopotamus.[3][2]

Descendants

  • Syriac ܒܸܗܡܘܿܬ (behmōṯ)[7]
  • Late Latin behemoth[5]
  • Modern Hebrew בהמות (behemót)[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
  2. ^ a b c d e f Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. בְּהֵמוֹת
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. בְּהֵמוֹת
  4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. בְּהֵמוֹת
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b Clines, David J. A., ed. (1993–2011), The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, 8 vols, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press / Sheffield Phoenix Press, p. 2:102
  7. ^ a b Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 122
  8. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93