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If Behemoth causes interpretive problems, Leviathan is
worse. This animal appears to have armor for skin (41:13),
fearsome teeth (41:14), and shields on its back (41:15-17).
Exaggeration comes in with dragon-like references. “Smoke
pours from its nostrils as from a boiling 32pot over burning
reeds. Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its
mouth (41:19 -21). The description moves on to describe
chest and neck and the fear even mighty men have when
this animal arises (41:22-34).

Could all of this be God’s way of meeting a human on his Figure 23: Leviathan?
level? Many ancient cultures had stories about fire-
breathing dragons. They may very well have seen dinosaur bones and speculated about what such a
monster might look like and how it might move. The Lakota Sioux Indians saw dinosaur bones and
thought of them as “Unktehila.”

They ate each other and every other living thing, so the Thunder Beings [angels?] were
given a divine mission to kill the Unktehila. That's when the Thunder Beings came with
their thunder and lightning. They struck the water monsters with lightning bolts and
boiled their lakes and streams until they dried up. After that most of the Unktehila died
or were very diminished in size, so that all we have left today are some small snakes and
lizards. But we know the giant Unktehila lived because our people found their bones in
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the Badlands and along the Missouri River.

We moderns know, of course, that no such creatures
ever existed. Is the author of Job putting language in
God’s mouth to speak expressly to Job, his friends,
and the people to whom the author was writing?
Does God regularly do this with his revelation?
When the Apostle John wrote about visions given to
him by God, was he describing things from his time
or things future using words and concepts from his
time? Are the locusts, for example, in Revelation
9:1-6 really locusts or were locusts the closest things
in John’s experience to describe these terrible
creatures. He clearly uses descriptive language,
using the word “like” in 9:3. Figure 24: Ancient Egyptian Dragon

54 Virginia Morell, “Unktehila: Monsters in Native America,” National Geographic, 12/05.
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