14G KEMAIIKS ON THE LEVIATHAN AND BEHEMOTH. 



his great power and ferocity; whereas reference is made in the book of 

 Ezekiel to a mode of taking the crocodile practised in ancient times, 

 as in chap. 28, ver. 4 — " I will put a hook in thy jaws," &c. ; 

 Herodotus also, and Pliny directly allude to a mode of catching the 

 crocodile by a hook in the jaws and dragging him forth from the 

 river; and we know that at the present day, it is spearcd and slain 

 by the natives of the countries it inhabits. 



This objection, however, loses its force when we consider that the 

 book of Job was written at least nearly a thousand years before the 

 time of Ezekiel, and twelve hundred before that of Herodotus ; the 

 art of subduing or capturing one of the most formidable animals 

 with which we are acquainted, and the best protected against piercing 

 or cutting weapons, was probably not known in the time of Job. 

 The argument adopted is, that the impracticability of capturing the 

 leviathan by a hook, or securing it by a bridle declared in Job, refers 

 precisely to the means described by Herodotus and Pliny, of cap- 

 turing the crocodile by a hook or a stick thrust crosswise into its mouth, 

 like the bit of a bridle; and that, therefore, as Job was aware of 

 these means, and asserts the leviathan could not be captured by them, 

 the leviathan must have been some more formidable animal than the 

 crocodile — such, for instance, as the megalosaurus is supposed to have 

 been. But we are not entitled to adopt this reasoning; for the men- 

 tioning of the hook in Job obviously refers to the peaceful and little 

 hazardous arts of the fisherman, fish spears being especially mentioned 

 in Job, chap. 41, ver. 7, along with the hook. The reference to the 

 bridle is no doubt to the implement which secures the horse, an 

 animal, the training of which, even for war, was well known to the 

 author, chap. 39, ver. 19 to 25 ; and the bridle itself is mentioned 

 chap. 30, ver. 2. Besides, the evident antithetical construction of 

 the passage can leave no doubt that the implements referred to had no 

 possible relation to the capture of such an animal as the crocodile. 

 The voluntary explanation that Job " without expressly mentioning 

 the than or crocodile, relied on the familiarity of his hearers with the 

 known practices and arts used in their capture," cannot but appear 

 inconclusive and unsatisfactory. 



The qualities which distinguish the leviathan as described in the 

 book of Job, and those by which the crocodile of the Nile may be 

 recognised, are staled in the original article now noticed to be similar. 



