Behemoth

The word for hippopotamus in Russian remains derivative of behemoth (бегемот), a meaning that entered the language in the mid-18th century.

[4][5] The Hebrew word behemoth is mentioned only once in Biblical text, in a speech from the mouth of God in the Book of Job.

The passage later pairs Behemoth with the sea-monster Leviathan, both composite mythical creatures with enormous strength that humans could not hope to control, yet both are reduced to the status of divine pets.

[1] In Jewish apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, such as the 2nd century BC Book of Enoch (60:7–10), Behemoth is the unconquerable male land-monster, living in an invisible desert (Duidain) east of the Garden of Eden, as Leviathan is the primeval female sea-monster, dwelling in "the Abyss", and Ziz the primordial sky-monster.

[8] A Jewish rabbinic legend describes a great battle that will take place between them at the end of time: "they will interlock with one another and engage in combat, with his horns the Behemoth will gore with strength, the fish [Leviathan] will leap to meet him with his fins, with power.

It accompanies his book of political theory that draws on the lessons of English Civil War, the rather more famous Leviathan.

At the beginning of the first act, the chorus sings "The people are the heroes now, Behemoth pulls the peasants' plow" several times.

The webnovel Worm features the Endbringers, a trio of city-destroying monsters named Behemoth, Leviathan, and the Simurgh.