Meet Mighty Behemoth
“BEHEMOTH” is the designation applied to an animal in a record that has been preserved for some 3,500 years through repeated copying and recopying. The term probably means “huge beast.” What creature is of such tremendous size as to merit the ancient designation “Behemoth”? It is a thick-skinned, nearly hairless mammal called the hippopotamus. That “Behemoth” is the hippopotamus agrees with the description of this creature found in the Bible book of Job.
In part, that ancient description reads: “Green grass it eats just as a bull does. Its bones are tubes of copper; its strong bones are like wrought-iron rods. Under the thorny lotus trees it lies down, in the concealed place of reeds and the swampy place. The thorny lotus trees keep it blocked off with their shadow; the poplars of the torrent valley surround it. If the river acts violently, it does not run in panic. It is confident, although the Jordan should burst forth against its mouth.”—Job 40:15, 18, 21-23.
The hippopotamus does indeed eat vegetation ‘as does a bull.’ More than 200 pounds of soft water plants, grass, reeds and other greenery enter its stomach every day. Having a capacity of forty or fifty gallons, the stomach of the hippopotamus is fully capable of handling all this food.
Full-grown, this animal may be twelve to fourteen feet long. One male hippopotamus kept in captivity attained a weight of 8,960 pounds. It seems hardly possible that this animal’s short legs could support all that weight. The bones of the legs, however, are strong like “tubes of copper.” Despite its ungainly, blimplike appearance, the hippopotamus is not just a mass of fat. To the contrary, much of its weight consists of muscle. By no means is the animal so weighed down as to impair movement. It can run faster than a man.
The head of the hippopotamus is definitely the outstanding feature. In the case of a full-grown animal, the head may weigh as much as a ton. Looking into the mouth, which may spread open three or four feet, is much like peering into a pink cavern. Especially prominent are the tusks, the lower canines. These are about two feet long and may weigh about six and a half pounds each. One bite of the powerful jaws is enough to pierce the tough armor of a crocodile.
The hippopotamus is well suited for its life in water and on land. The skin, particularly that of the belly, is very tough. So the animal has no trouble in coping with bumps and scrapes as its low body passes over large stones in riverbeds. Special pores in the skin secrete a thick oily substance that takes on a pink color in sunlight. This substance keeps the skin moist and pliable when exposed to the air for extended periods. While the animal is under water, the same secretion may serve as a protective veneer. The eyes of the hippopotamus are situated high up on the front of the head, and the nostrils are located at the tip of its snout. This arrangement enables the creature to see and to breathe while it is almost completely submerged. When the hippopotamus dives, its ears and slitlike nostrils close.
Often hippopotamuses are seen in the “concealed place of reeds,” spending much of the day in water. A herd of twenty or thirty of these gigantic creatures may be spotted at one time. Being such huge animals, they do not panic in the face of a flood, even as the Bible says. With part of the head above water, they can swim against the deluge. Why, they can even run under the water. The work The Animal Kingdom notes that the hippopotamus can “run along the bottom of a lake at eight miles an hour.”
Mighty Behemoth is certainly an impressive creature. In its own way, Behemoth adds silent testimony to the existence of an all-powerful Maker. It was this Creator, Jehovah God, who said to his servant Job: “Here, now, is Behemoth that I have made as well as you.”—Job 40:15.