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The Aramaic Targum of Psalm 104 incorporates Rabbinic tradition by portraying the mythological Leviathan as created for the sport of the righteous at a future banquet, a theme also found in the midrash of Leviticus Rabbah.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Targum Psalm 104:26
Targum
24 How many are your works, O Lord! You have made all of them in wisdom; the earth is full of your possessions. 25 This sea is great and broad in extent; creeping things are there without number, both tiny creatures and large. 26 There the ships go about, [and] this Leviathan you created for the sport of the righteous at the supper of his dwelling place. 27 All of them rely on you to give their food in its time. 28 You will give it to them, and they gather it; you will open your hand, and they are satisfied with goodness.
Date: 200–600 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Leviticus Rabbah 13:3
Aggadah
Rabbinic
Another matter, “this is the animal” – that is what is written: “Every saying of God is refined” (Proverbs 30:5). Rav said: The mitzvot were given to Israel only to refine mankind with them. Why to that extent? “He is a shield for all who rely on Him (Proverbs 30:5). Rabbi Yudan ben Rabbi Shimon said: The Behemoth and the Leviathan will engage in an animal fight before the righteous in the future. Anyone who was not a spectator at the animal fights of the nations of the world in this world, will merit to see it in the World to Come. How will they be slaughtered? The Behemoth will stab the Leviathan with its horns and tear it open, and the Leviathan will smash the Behemoth with its fins and stab it to death. The Sages say: Is this a valid ritual slaughter? But did we not learn: Everyone slaughters, and one may always slaughter, and one may slaughter with any item, except for the serrated side of the harvest sickle, a saw, the teeth of an animal, and a fingernail, because they strangle?
Date: 500 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... The traces of this motif can be found in various rabbinic corpora, including targumim, midrashim, and piyyutim. Thus, Targum on Psalms 104:25-26 states that God created Leviathan in order to sport at the banquet of the righteous. It is possible that here the tradition about God’s “sporting” with Leviathan is interpreted through the spectacles of the monsters’ eschatological fight. [...] Lev. Rab. 13:3 also portrays the righteous as spectators of “a wild-beast contest”: R. Judan b. R. Simeon said: Behemoth and Leviathan are to engage in a wild-beast contest before the righteous in the Time to Come, and whoever has not been a spectator at the wild-beast contests of the heathen nations in this world will be accorded the boon of seeing one in the World to Come. How will they be slaughtered? Behemoth will, with its horns, pull Leviathan down and rend it, and Leviathan will, with its fins, pull Behemoth down and pierce it through. ...”
Andrei A. Orlov, “Eschatological Consumption of Leviathan and Behemoth as Revelation of the Messianic Torah,” in Watering the Garden: Studies in Honor of Deirdre Dempsey, ed. Andrei A. Orlov, Biblical Intersections 19 (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2022), 262–263.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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