Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus is widely identified by modern scholars as the animal described under the name Behemoth in Job 40:15–24, where God challenges Job with a description of a magnificent creature: Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. The description of the creature's tail like a cedar, its strength in its belly muscles, its dwelling in reeds and swamps, its ability to drink up a river, and its imperviousness to hunters all match the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), which was common in the Nile and known throughout the ancient Near East.

Alternative identifications include the elephant (which better fits the cedar tail, though elephants eat branches not grass) and a mythological creature representing primordial chaos. Smith's commentary identifies Behemoth as a description of the actual hippopotamus, consistent with the parallel divine speech about Leviathan (Job 41), which most likely describes the Nile crocodile. Both creatures — Behemoth and Leviathan — are used to overwhelm Job with the scale of God's creative power and wisdom, pointing to the frailty of human understanding before the Creator.