BEHĒMŌTH. — Plural of bêhēmāh, a Hebrew word of generic meaning (= “beast”). Among the ancient translators, some simply transcribed the Hebrew term (Peshitta and Vulgate), others rendered it as “animals” (Septuagint, Onqelos) or with an equivalent term (Targum), due to the difficulty of determining its precise meaning. Job 40:10–19 (Hebrew vv. 15–24) contains a detailed description of b. Some Fathers (St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Gregory: PL 22, 401; 34, 439; and 41, 330; 71, 1055) saw in this name the personification of Satan. Others, such as St. Thomas (Expositio in Job, 40, 15), and a rabbinic tradition attested by Ibn Ezra and followed by some 17th-century commentators, understood it as the elephant.
Today, however, the most common interpretation identifies b. as the hippopotamus, designated by an intensive plural; G. Ricciotti opines that the plural is the Hebrew adaptation of a foreign derivation (Il libro di Giobbe, Turin 1924, p. 243). In reality, the traits of the biblical description, despite its poetic imagery, correspond entirely to those of the hippopotamus.
This massive mammal, which in full maturity can reach a length of three to four meters