From this short, but emphatical clause, we may certainly infer, that behemoth is one of the most powerful animals on the face of our globe. Such undoubtedly is the hippopotamus, if we may believe the accounts of Dampier, who declares he has known him set one tooth in the gunnel of a boat, and another at the distance of more than four feet, and there bite a hole through the plank, and sink the boat; and when he had done, he went away shaking his ears. On another occasion he saw him in the wash of the shore, when the sea tossed in a boat, with fourteen hogsheads of water in her, and left it dry upon his back; and another surge caine and fetched the boat off, without the beast receiving any perceptible injury. Dampier and his crew made several shots at him, but to no purpose, for the bullets glanced from his sides as from a wall of adamant.PAXTON.

thinks he has lost a sufficient quantity, he closes the wound by rolling himself in the mud. Hence, Pliny calls him the discoverer of the art of blood-letting; and the master of the healing art: and Ammianus, the most sagacious of all animals destitute of reason.

"He that made him can make his sword approach untc him" or, as the words may be rendered, He who made him, has applied to him his sharp, crooked sword; of which the meaning seems to be, He has furnished his mouth with long teeth, somewhat bent, sharp, and protruded, with which, as with a crooked sword or sickle, he reaps and masticates the grass and corn on which he feeds. But if behemoth be understood of the elephant, how can it be said with any correctness, that he is provided with a crooked sword for reaping his food. The shortness of his neck prevents him from reaching the ground with his mouth, and using his teeth for collecting herbage. This operation is performed

Ver. 18. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; by his trunk, which receives the food, and conveys it into his bones are like bars of iron.

The idea of his prodigious strength is increased by the account given of his bones, which are compared to strong pieces of brass, and bars of iron. Such figures are commonly employed by the sacred writers, to express great hardness and strength, of which a striking example occurs in the prophecies of Micah: " Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people." So hard and strong are the bones of the hippopotamus. The cutting, and particularly the canine teeth of the lower jaw, says Buffon, are very long, and so hard and strong, that they strike fire with steel; a circumstance which probably gave rise to the fable of the ancients, that the hippopotamus vomited fire. The substance of the canine teeth is so white, so fine, and so hard, that it is preferable to ivory for making artificial teeth. "His bones are like bars of iron;" and such, in the description of Buffon, are the bones of this animal. The cutting teeth, says that celebrated naturalist, especially those of the under jaw, are very long, cylindrical, and chamfered. The canine teeth are also long, crooked, prismatic, and sharp like the tusks of the wild boar. The largest of the cutting and canine teeth are twelve, and sometimes sixteen inches long, and each of them weighs from twelve to thirteen pounds.-PAXTON. Ver. 19. He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

It is added, "he is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him." The phrase in the first clause, is evidently hyperbolical, and signifies merely, that he is one of the noblest animals which the almighty Creator produced. In size, the hippopotamus is inferior only to the elephant. The male, which Zeringhi brought from the Nile to Italy, was sixteen feet nine inches long, from the extremity of the muzzle to the origin of the tail; fifteen feet in circumference, and six feet and a half high; and the legs were about two feet ten inches long. The head was three feet and a half in length, and eight feet and a half in circumference. The opening of the mouth was two feet four inches, and the largest teeth were more than a foot long. Thus his prodigious strength; his impenetrable skin; the vast opening of his mouth, and his portentous voracity; the whiteness and hardness of his teeth; his manner of life, spent with equal ease in the sea, on the land, or at the bottom of the Nile,-equally claim our admiration, and entitle him to be considered as the chief of the ways of God. Nor is he less remarkable for his sagacity; of which two instances are recorded by Pliny. After he has gorged himself with corn, and begins to return with a distended belly to the deep, with averted steps he traces a great many paths, lest his pursuers, following the lines of one plain track, should overtake and destroy him while he is unable to resist. The second instance is not less remarkable: When he has become fat with too much Indulgence, he reduces his obesity by copious bleedings. For this purpose, he searches for newly cut reeds, or sharp pointed rocks, and rubs himself against them, till he make a sufficient aperture for the blood to flow. To promote the discharge, it is said, he agitates his body; and when he

his mouth. His teeth are perfectly inefficient, except for mastication; and as for his trunk, it has no resemblance to any sharp instrument; on this account the ancients never gave it the name of a sword or sickle, but called it a hand; a name which it may receive with great propriety. A very learned interpreter, perceiving the inconvenience of this exposition, if behemoth mean the elephant, prefers our translation: "He that made him can make his sword approach unto him:" that is, He alone that made him can take away his life. But whether we apply the words to the elephant, or the hippopotamus, the sense is equally inadmissible, for both these animals are frequently destroyed without the immediate interference of God. Besides, to apply the sword to any one, and to take away his life with it, are not exactly the same; nor does this view agree with the whole series of the context, while the interpretation given by Bochart perfectly accords with it, and connects the verse with the rest of the narrative: He who made him, has furnished him with a sickle, or crooked sword, to reap and collect his food.-PAXTÓN.

Ver. 20. Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.

This is considered as a very strong argument in favour of the elephant, an animal which, it is well known, browses upon the mountains; while, fully assured of his mild and forbearing temper, all the beasts of the field sport around him in peace and security. But the text applies with equal, and even with more propriety, to the hippopotamus; for it seems to indicate something remarkable in the circumstance, that such an animal should seek his food in peace, on the hills and mountains which skirt his habitation. But surely it is not strange, that the elephant, a creature which always lives on the land, and whose disposition leads him to eat grass like an ox, should be found on such a pasture. The hippopotamus, on the contrary, lives for the most part in the water, and walks on the bottom, as in the open air; yet he seeks his food more frequently on the land, where he devours sugarcanes, rushes, millet, rice, roots, and vegetables of every kind, in immense quantities, and ravages, far and wide, the cultivated fields. Not content with laying waste the plains, he proceeds in the night to the hills and mountains, and renews his depredations. Tatius asserts that he is the most voracious of all animals, so that he devours the standing corn of whole field for nourishment. Natural historians give the same account of the morse, an animal which in many respects resembles the hippopotamus, and inhabits the large rivers of Russia, which roll their waters into the Frozen Ocean. He is about the size of an ox, with very short legs; his breast is higher and broader than the other parts of the body; he has two large and long tusks, resembling ivory in whiteness, and of equal value. When he is inclined to sleep, he forsakes the ean, and, in companies, retires to the mountains. Around the hippopotamus, the beasts of the field may sport in safety; for although he feeds on fishes, crocodiles, and even cadaverous flesh, be is not known to prey on other animals. It is not even difficult to drive him away from the cultivated fields, for he is more timid on land than in the water. His only resource in danger, is to plunge into the deep, and travel undet it a great way, before he ventures again to appear. The Indians, according to Dampier, are accustomed to throw him a part of their fish when he comes near their canoes, an.'

Egyptians, that their enemies, for fear of him, durst not cross the river to attack them.-PAXTON.

Ver. 11. Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. 12. I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. 13. Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle? These clauses, although teeming with important instruction, and, considering the authority with which they are clothed, entitled to deep attention, contribute nothing to the object of this review; we therefore proceed to the twelfth verse. "I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion." These are admirably displayed in the following particulars: "Who can discover the face of his garment, or come to him with a double bridle?" The crocodile never casts his skin, like the greater part of serpents, which he so nearly resembles, but retains it to the end of his life. The horse is a most powerful and spirited animal, yet he suffers a bit to be put into his mouth, and submits to the control of man; but the crocodile spurns his dominion, and parts with his freedom only with his life. Some interpreters propose a different version, which is equally characteristic of that animal: "Who shall venture within the reach of his jaws, which, when extended, have the appearance of a double bridle ?"-PAXTON.

est scales. But this mode of interpretation cannot be too severely reprobated; because it makes the sacred text say any thing which may suit the taste or the purpose of a writer. The words of Jehovah are expres, the back of leviathan is covered with numerous, strong, and closely connected scales, under the protection of which, he fears no assailant, he shrinks from no danger. Nor is it consistent with truth, that a whale, which has no scales, is as strongly defended against the point of a spear, as if he were covered with this natural shield; for if his prodigious frame were defended by the broadest, the strongest, and the closest scales, the capture, if at all practicable, would be as arduous and difficult, as it is now easy. Abandoning this feeble and inadmissible argument, Caryl and others contend, that some cetaceous fishes are covered with scales, quoting in support of their assertion, a passage from Arrian, that be had heard Nearchus say, that the latter had heard certain mariners say, that they had seen cast upon the seashore, a monstrous fish, of fifty cubits long, which had scales all over, of a cubit thick. On this ridiculous story, it is needless to make any remark; to state is to refute it: or, if refutation be deemed necessary, it is sufficient to say, that although hundreds of cetaceous fishes are caught every year, both in the North and in the South Sea, not so much as one has been found sheathed in scales, since the days of Nearchus.-PAXTON.

"The back of the crocodile," says Thevenot, "is covered with scales, resembling a door studded with large nails, and so hard that it cannot be pierced with a halberd." Bertram says, that the whole back of the crocodile is covered with

Ver. 14. Who can open the doors of his face? horny flakes, or scales, which no musket-ball can pierce.his teeth are terrible round about.

The doors of his face are his immense jaws, which he opens with a great and horrible hiatus. This feature of the crocodile has been mentioned by all naturalists. On the land his motions are slow, but in the river he springs cagerly on his prey, and either knocks it down with his tail, or opens a wide mouth for its destruction, armed with numerous sharp teeth of various lengths, with which, like the shark, he sometimes severs the human body at a single bite. Peter Martyr saw one, whose mouth was seven feet in width. Tatius affirms, that in seizing the prey, he becomes all mouth: and Albert, that the opening of his mouth extends as far back as his ears. Leo Africanus and Scaliger affirm, that he can receive within his mouth a young heifer. The vast capacity of his jaws is attested also by Martial, in the following lines:

"Cum comparata rictibus tuis ora

Nileacus habeas crocodilus angusta." "His teeth are terrible round about:" or, in every respect, calculated to inspire the beholder with terror. They are sixty in number, and larger than the proportion of his body seems to require. Some of them project from his mouth like the tusks of a boar; others are serrated and connected like the teeth of a comb; hence, the bite is very retentive, and not less difficult to cure than the wound inflicted by the teeth of a mad dog. All the ancients agree, that his bite is most tenacious and horrible.-PAXTON.

Ver. 15. His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. 16. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. 17. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

In these remarkable words is described the closeness of his scales, which, cohering to one another like the plates of a shield, cover his whole back. Those writers who make leviathan signify the whale, find themselves involved by this part of the description in an inextricable difficulty, for the whale has not a scale upon its body. This single circumstance, indeed, ought to determine the question: the whale it cannot be, for that immense animal has a smooth skin; and the history of nature furnishes no other to which the description of Jehovah will apply, but the crocodile, whose back is covered with impenetrable scales. writer endeavour to get quit of the difficulty, by supposing that the text includes a comparison, and paraphrases it in this manner: leviathan is as safe from the assault of man, as if his body were defended with the strongest and broad

One

BURDER.

Ver. 18. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

It seems to be generally admitted, that the crocodile turns his face to the sun when he goes to sleep on the banks of the river; and in this position becomes so heated, that the breath, driven forcibly through his nostrils, issues with so much impetuosity, that it resembles a stream of light. A similar expression is used concerning the war-horse, in the thirty-ninth chapter, which may give us a clearer idea of the brightness which issues from the nostrils of this animal: "The glory of his nostrils is terrible." Provoked by the sound of the trumpet, and the sight of armed men, a white fume streams from his expanded nostrils; which the Spirit of inspiration calls his glory, and common authors compare to fire. Thus, Silius Italicus, Frenoque teneri impatiens crebras expirat naribus ignes; and Claudian, Ignescunt patula nares. In the same manner are we to understand the words of Jehovah concerning the crocodile. The heat of that scaly monster, basking in the scorching beams of a vertical sun, together with the force with which the breath is emitted from the nostrils, produces the same luminous high-mettled charger on the day of battle. The next clause appearance round his nose, as plays around that of the possesses very great poetical beauty: "His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning :" like the brightening dawn of day. The learned Bochart mentions a curious coincidence between this striking figure, and the sentiments of the Egyptians. Among that people, the eyes of the crocodile is the hieroglyphic for the dawn; because they first arrest the attention, as the terrible animal approaches the surface of the deep; or because they are dim, and command a very limited field of vision under the water, but recover their brilliancy and acuteness as soon as he returns to the open air. Such is the appearance of the solar orb at his rising; he seems to emerge from the waves of the sea with a dim and faded lustre, but which increases every moment as he advances towards the meridian. But how it can be asserted of the whale, that his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning, it is not easy to conjecture. His eyes, which are not much larger than those of an :x, are buried beneath a ponderous eyelid, and imbedded fat. Hence, blinder than a mole, he wanders almost at random in the mighty waters, equally unable to avoid being left by the retreating surge upon the strand, or dashed against the pointed rocks. -PAXTON,

Ver. 19. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. 20. Out of his

nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething-pot or caldron. 21. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

Tatius gives a similar account of the hippopotamus: His nostrils are very broad, and emit an ignited smoke, as from a furnace of fire. The very same remark is made by Eustathius: He has a broad nose, expiring an ignited smoke as out of a furnace. These two animals live in the same element, and have the same mode of respiration. The longer they continue under water without breathing, they respire the more quickly when they begin to emerge. As the torrent rushes along with greater impetuosity, when the obstacle which opposed its progress is removed; so their breath, long repressed, effervesces and breaks out with so much violence, that they seem to vomit flame from their "mouth and nostrils. The whale, it must be admitted, being of much larger size than the crocodile, breathes with a proportionate vehemence; it does not, however, vomit fire, but spouts water to an immense height in the air. The language of the inspired writer is highly figurative and hyperbolical, painting, in the most vivid colours, the heat and force with which the breath of the crocodile rushes from his expanded nostrils.-PAXTON.

They feel a secret horror shoot through the whole soul; they become as it were incapable of reflection, and know not whither to turn, when they see the monster emerging from the deep, thirsting for blood, and displaying the terrors of his opening jaws. The stoutest heart is humbled, and, like the mariners in the ship with Jonah, when they despaired of life, they cry every one to his God, and promise to break off their sins by righteousness.-PAXTON.

geon.

Ver. 26. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold; the spear, the dart, nor the haber27. He esteemeth iron as a straw, and brass as rotten wood. 28. The arrow cannot make him flee: sling-stones are turned with him into stubble. 29. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

In this glowing description, it is plainly the design of the Almighty to show, that the skin of the crocodile is impenetrable to these offensive weapons; or else, that regardless of danger, he scorns the wounds they inflict, and with fearless impetuosity seizes on his prey. This entirely accords with the accounts which natural historians give of that ani

Ver. 22. In his neck remaineth strength, and sor- mal. Peter Martyr asserts that his skin is so hard it canrow is turned into joy before him.

The whale has no neck, and by consequence cannot be the leviathan: like other fishes, his head is joined to his shoulders; while the crocodile is formed like a serpent, with a neck and shoulders, which enable him to move, to raise, or turn back his head, when he seizes his prey. "Sorrow is turned into joy before him;" what afflicts, alarms, or depresses other animals, animates his courage and activity. Or the words may be rendered, Sorrow dances before him; which may denote, that he spreads terror and destruction wherever he comes; for he immediately rushes upon those that happen to meet his eye, and although they may be so fortunate as to escape, still they reckon it an ill omen to have fallen in the way of that fierce and savage destroyer. Thus terror marches before him, as a herald before his sovereign, to proclaim his approach, and prepare his way.-PAXTON.

Ver. 23. The flakes of his flesh are joined together they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. 24. His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

As the scales of leviathan present a coat of mail nearly impenetrable to the attacks of his enemies; so his flesh, or, as it is rendered by some, the prominent parts of his body, are like molten brass, the particles of which adhere so closely, that they cannot be separated. The very reverse of what Job affirmed of himself, may be asserted of the crocodile ; his strength is the strength of stones, and his flesh is formed of brass; the very refuse, the vilest parts of his flesh, (for so the word signifies,) are firm, and strong, and joined; or, as the Septuagint translates it, glued together, that they cannot be moved. But if the refuse of his flesh be so firm and hard, how great must be the strength which belongs to the nobler parts of his frame? This question is answered in the next verse: "His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone." In all creatures, the heart is extremely firm and compact; in the leviathan it is firm as a stone; and to give us the highest idea of its hardness, Jehovah compares it to the nether millstone, which, having the principal part of the work to perform, is required to be peculiarly hard and solid. Some writers imagine, that the Almighty refers, not so much to the natural hardness of the heart, as to the cruel temper of the animal, or to his fearless intrepidity; he feels no pity, he fears no danger, he is insensible to external impressions as the hardest stone.-PAXTON.

V r. 25. When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid by reason of breakings they purify

themselves.

not be pierced with arrows; and according to other writers, he can be wounded only in the belly. But it is well known, that the whale is vulnerable in every part, and is commonly struck with the harpoon on the back, where the crocodile is defended by an impenetrable buckler of large, extremely hard, and closely compacted scales. On this ar mour of proof, the edge of the sword is blunted, and its point is broken; the spear falls harmless to the ground, and the dart rebounds from his impenetrable covering. But the habergeon, the coat of mail which the combatant puts on for his own defence, shall not save him from the devouring jaws of the monster; for he esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood, which yield to the slightest touch, and crumble into dust before the smallest force. A shower of arrows makes no impression upon him; and the blow of a stone, slung by the most powerful hand, is no more to him than the stroke of a feather, or bit of stubble. Nor do the more dangerous weapons which the warrior hurls from his military engines, depress his courage, or interrupt his assault; for he laughs at the shaking of a spear, he regards it not, when, in token of defiance it is brandished before him.-PAXTON.

Ver. 30. Sharp stones are under him he spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mire.

What is extremely incommodious, or even painful to other creatures, occasions no uneasiness to him. Criminals were punished among the ancients, by being compelled to lie on sharp stones; but so insensible is he to pain, that he can stretch his enormous bulk upon them without inconvenience: " Sharp stones are under him; he spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mire." Such a place of repose is his choice, not his punishment. Or the words sharp as a potsherd; and to his skin, which resembles a may refer to the scales of leviathan, which are hard and board set with sharp stones, or iron spikes. So rough is the skin of the crocodile, so hard are his scales, and so high and pointed the protuberances which rise on his back, that a more apt similitude could not be chosen than the tribula, or sharp thrashing instrument with iron teeth, to represent in the liveliest manner, the appearance of this terrible ani mal, as he lies reposing in the mud of the Nile.-PAXTON Ver. 31. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

Having described his general appearance, in which we have discovered almost every circumstance fitted to strike the mind with terror, and the impression which his emerging from the deep, and approaching the land, produce in the mind of a beholder, the inspired writer goes on to state makes the deep to boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a the astonishing effects of his return to the water: "He pot of ointment." The first clause exhibits the natural effect of a large body plunging suddenly into deep water; the