the names of Leviathan and Behemoth. 269 



capturing or destroying him ; while we gather from Ezekiel, that 

 the Thanin might be caught with a hook, and learn from He- 

 rodotus and Pliny, that the Crocodile of the Nile was in fact so 

 caught, and by other means, by the Egyptians of their time ; 

 and while we know also, that at the present day it is speared 

 and slain by the natives of the countries it inhabits. But the 

 objection loses all force when we reflect, that the book of Job 

 was written many ages before the time of Ezekiel and Herodo- 

 tus. He must have been a fearless champion who first adven- 

 tured to assail or capture one of the most formidable of animals, 

 and the best protected, that we know, against piercing or cut- 

 ting weapons ; and the arts of subduing that animal, after- 

 wards known, may not have been known in the time of Job. Mr 

 Thompson reasons, that the impracticability of capturing the 

 Leviathan by a hook, or securing it by a bridle, declared in 

 Job, refers to the means described by Herodotus and Pliny of 

 capturing 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 as the Megalo- 

 saurus. But we are not entitled to adopt this reasoning; for the 

 mentioning of the hook in Job obviously refers to the peaceful 

 and little hazardous arts of the fisherman, fish-spears being ex- 

 pressly mentioned in Job, chap. xli. 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 to war, 

 was well known to the author, chap, xxxix. 19-25 ; and the 

 bridle itself is mentioned chap. xxx. 2. 



As to the time when the book of Job was written, a point 

 now of great importance in our inquiry, there is no external his- 

 torical evidence which enables us to fix it with certainty. There 

 is, however, even a less suspicious form of evidence, that which 

 is internal of the book itself, and of the other Hebrew books 

 which have been transmitted to us along with it, which will 

 enable us to determine the time within certain limits. That it 

 was written posterior to the flood of Noah is evidenced by the 

 clear reference to that sudden and unexpected catastrophe, and 

 to the impiety of the antediluvians, in chap. xxii. 15, et seq. 



VOL. XIX. NO. XXXVIII. OCTOBER 1835. T 



