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The Aramaic Targum of Psalm 104 incorporates Rabbinic tradition by describing the mythological Leviathan as created for the sport of the righteous at a future banquet, a theme also found in the Rabbinic text of Pesikta D'Rav Kahanna.
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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)
Pesikta D'Rav Kahanna Supp. 2:4
Midrash
Rabbinic
He maketh a path to shine after him; he thinks to grow hoary in the deep (Job 41:24). Because his dwelling in the sea is over the deep, he believes that there he will continue to live safely, as is said He thinks to grow hoary in the deep. What will the Holy One do about it? He will bring Behemoth to Leviathan, and they will engage in close combat with each other, as is said One is so close to the other, that no air (ruah) can come between them (Job 41:8). Read not ruah, “air,” but rewah, “space”: [there is no space between them]. Or, the words no air can come between them refer to the ministering angels who are called “airy winds,” as in the verse “Who makest winds Thine angels” (Ps. 104:4): [hence not even ethereal angels can come between them]. Behemoth and Leviathan will be joined to each other, as is said They are joined one to another (Job 41:9). And once joined they will not be sundered, as is said They stick together, that they cannot be sundered (ibid.). What will the Holy One then do? He will signal to Leviathan, who thereupon will strike Behemoth with his fins and thus slaughter him; at the same time He will signal to Behemoth who will strike Leviathan with his tail and slay him.
Date: 400–700 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. [...] Another important testimony to the tradition of the eschatological fight can be found in Pesikta de Rav Kahana (Sup. II.4) where it says God “will bring Behemoth to Leviathan, and they will engage in close combat with each other, [...] What will the Holy One then do? He will signal to Leviathan, who thereupon will strike Behemoth with his fins and thus slaughter him; at the same time He will signal to Behemoth who will strike Leviathan with his tail and slay him.” ...”
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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