{"id":88379,"date":"2021-02-06T08:11:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T06:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=88379"},"modified":"2021-02-06T08:11:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T06:11:38","slug":"mysterious-leviathan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/mysterious-leviathan\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Leviathan\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"88379","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":78133,"related_cahpter":"671","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Sea serpent? Dragon? Whale? Maybe something else entirely\u2026\r\n\r\n","content":"

Psalm 104 is another song that focuses on God’s creation of the world. In verse 26, the psalmist references the Leviathan. While we have seen reference to the great creatures of the deep, the Leviathan is only mentioned by name in a few places in Tanach. We had a passing reference to the Leviathan in Psalms chapter 74:3 “it was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan, who left him as food for the denizens of the desert.” There is an extensive description of the Leviathan in Job chapter 40-41, which we will learn in a few months. Isaiah also references the Leviathan in chapter 27:1 “In that day the LORD will punish, With His great, cruel, mighty sword Leviathan the Elusive Serpent\u2014 Leviathan the Twisting Serpent; He will slay the Dragon of the sea.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many biblical commentators believe the Leviathan is actually a metaphor for something else. Rashi on Isaiah 27 comments that it refers to great nations that were on the coast such as Egypt and Assyria. Metzudot David says it references the descendants of Ishmael who are spread out along the Middle East from the Mediterranean to the Persian sea. Radak says the reference is to the generic powerful non-Jewish kings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It would seem odd, however, for the psalmist to suddenly refer to other nations. This whole chapter is about the creation of the world. The Malbim on Isaiah explains that the Leviathan is a sea serpent or water snake, possibly a large eel-like creature. He also brings in other opinions that it’s a large whale or crocodile. It is telling that he ends his commentary as follows: “The allusion is the same according to all opinions and there is no need to elaborate on this.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The exact meaning of the Leviathan is hotly debated. Is it a sea serpent? Is it a dragon? Is it a whale? Is it a Dinosaur? Is it an allusion? Maybe we should learn from the Malbim and conclude that trying to figure out the exact genus of the Leviathan is futile; better to focus on the message instead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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