the names of Leviathan and Behemoth. 265 



the Leviathan could not also be the Crocodile ; for both animals 

 are distinctly mentioned in the same portions of Scripture.'" 



Now, it can admit of no doubt that the name Than does 

 sometimes in Scripture mean the Crocodile of the Nile ; as in 

 Ezek. xxix. 3, quoted by Mr Thompson, * and in some other 

 passages. But we should take a very erroneous view of the use 

 of the term, if we supposed that the Hebrews applied it to that 

 reptile alone. We find it applied to poisonous serpents, as well 

 as to saurians or ophidians of regions so dry, that the Croco- 

 dile, from its habits, could not be an inhabitant of them. Of 

 this some instances shall be noticed. Deut. xxxii. 33, " Their 

 wine is the poison of Thaninim, and the cruel venom of Pe- 

 thanim? Mr Thompson has himself quoted one passage, from 

 which we gather, that some of the creatures named Thanim 

 were inhabitants of a dry country. It is, Jer. ix. 11, "I will 

 make Jerusalem a heap, a den of Thanim? A passage of like 

 effect is Jer. x. 22, " To make the cities of Judah desolate, 

 a den of Thanim? We find a well at Jerusalem, which has 

 got its name from Thanim — a circumstance which could not 

 have probably occurred, unless the creatures so named had fre- 

 quented the neighbourhood. Neh. ii. 13, " I went out by night 

 by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon-well (oin ha- 

 thanim), and viewed the walls of Jerusalem." And in Mai. i. 3, 

 we have the Than described as existing in one of the driest re- 

 gions of the earth, and the most destitute of rivers, but which 

 we know is infested with small lizard and serpent tribes ; " and 

 I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste, 

 for the Thanoth of the wilderness. 11 



It is apparent from these examples, that the term Than or 

 Thanin was used by the Hebrews as a sort of what we would 

 now call an ordinal or classical name, to designate both ophidian 

 and saurian tribes ; and thus although it was sometimes used to 

 designate the Crocodile of the Nile, among other species, it was 

 by no means applied to it exclusively. 



The only exception to this application of the term to the ophi- 

 dians or saurians, is that referred to in an editorial note, append- 

 ed to Mr Thompson's paper. It is in Lam. iv. 3, where the 



* Ezek. xxix. 3, " Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the 

 great dragon (hathanim hagadol) that lieth in the midst of his rivers," &c. 



