Category:Leviathan

Le*vi"a*than, n. Etym: [Heb. livyathan.]

1. An aquatic animal, described in the book of Job, Job 41, and mentioned on other passages of Scripture.

Note: It is not certainly known what animal is intended, whether the crocodile, the whale, or some sort of serpent.

2. The whale, or a great whale. Milton.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Leviathan - A transliterated Hebrew word (livyathan), meaning "twisted," "coiled." In Job 3:8, Revised Version, and marg. of Authorized Version, it denotes the dragon which, according to Eastern tradition, is an enemy of light; in Job 41:1 the crocodile is meant; in Psalms 104:26 it "denotes any large animal that moves by writhing or wriggling the body, the whale, the monsters of the deep." This word is also used figuratively for a cruel enemy, as some think "the Egyptian host, crushed by the divine power, and cast on the shores of the Red Sea" (Psalms 74:14). As used in Isaiah 27:1, "leviathan the piercing [R.V. 'swift'] serpent, even leviathan that crooked [R.V. marg. 'winding'] serpent," the word may probably denote the two empires, the Assyrian and the Babylonian.