I've been reading the PhD thesis of Mary K. Wakeman,
God's Battle with the Monster (1969), and couldn't help but dovetail a few things she covers in that book with the title of this thread.
Wakeman treats at length the various Hebrew "monsters." More well known amongst these are the
dragons: Rahab ("Tyrant"; see Isa. 30:7; 51:9-10; Pss. 87:4; 89:10-11; Job 9:13; 26:12-13;), Leviathan ("Coiler"; see Isa. 27:1; Pss. 74:12-17; 104:25-26; Job 3:8-9; 41) and the more generic
tanniyn ("monster/dragon"; see Job 7:12; Ezek. 29:3-6; 32:2-8; Jer. 51:34; Ex. 7:12; Gen. 1:21; Pss. 91:33; 148:7; Deut. 32:33).
Nahash ("serpent"; see Gen. 3; Deut. 32:33; Ps. 91:13) gets a mention because of its poetic parallelism with Rahab, Leviathan and tanniyn in various places (e.g. Isa. 27:1), as does
peten ("viper").
Added to these is the personification of the
sea as a monster. It has two forms: Yam ("sea", cf. Ugaritic god Yamm. See Hab. 3:8; Mic. 7:12; Pss. 66:6; 72:8; 80:12; 89:26; 93:3-4; Zech. 9:10) and Tehom ("deep", cf. Babylonian Ti'amat. See esp. Gen. 49:25; Deut. 33:13; Ezek. 29:3, 19b; 31:15). God does 'battle' with both throughout the texts of both Old Testament and New, demonstrating mastery over them by treading upon their backs in victory (Job 9:8; Hab. 3:15; cf. Matt. 14:25-26!!). Really it is a non-contest. There is no comparison to the power of YHWH to command the sea at will, and it obeys him (Pss. 89:9; 107:28-30 cf. Mark 4:39-41!!). Yam is frequently found parallel to the dragon monster (Rahab - Job 26:12; Ps. 89:10; Isa. 51:9; Leviathan - Job 3:8; Ps. 74:13;
Tanniyn - Job 7:12).
Less well known are the
earth monsters. The Hebrew
erets ("Earth/Land" - Ex. 15:12; Ecc. 3:21; Isa. 14:12; 29:4; 44:23; Ezek. 26:20; Ps. 63:10; 139:15) is again used in curious poetic parallelism as a monster to be subdued (Ps. 114:7; Mic. 1:3-4; Amos 9:5-6), melted (Ps. 46:7; Nah. 1:5) and split open (Isa. 24:18f.; Hab. 3:9; cf. Judg. 15:19; Ps. 78:15; Isa. 48:21; Zech. 14:4-8). Mot ("Death"; Heb.
maveth or synonym
sheol. See Hab. 2:5; Isa. 5:14; 25:8; 28:18; Ps. 21:10b; Pr. 1:12; 27:20; Deut. 32:22), likewise, has a gaping maw ever ready to swallow up all who plunge down into its endless chasm (e.g. Num. 16:31-34), a maw shut by YHWH (Num. 16:33; Isa. 28:18; Hos. 13:14). Behemoth also features as
the beast (the literal translation of Heb.
behemoth) of the land (Job. 40:15-25; Hab. 2:17 where
behemoth is parallel to
erets and Lebanon), a feature which recurrs frequently in later Jewish traditions (e.g. 4 Ezra 6:49-52, 2 Apoc. Bar. 29:4, and 1 Enoch 60:7-10, 24;
b. B. Bat. 74b-75a). Of interesting note is that, like the earth, the sea too is split open by God (Ex. 14:16, 21; Neh. 9:11; Isa. 35:6; 63:12b; Psa. 74:15; 78:13 - except Ps. 74:15, all are references to the Exodus event).
What I found interesting and relevant to this topic was Wakeman's distinction between monsters of the "wet" and monsters of the "dry." It was her suggestion that this was an early dichotomy in Israelite (and Ugaritic/Mesopotamian) thought. Dragons can occupy either terrain, mostly as monsters of the wet/sea (Rahab - Job 26:13; Leviathan - Isa. 27:1;
tanniyn), but also monsters of the dry/land (
tanniyn, Nahash - Isa. 14:29 cf. Num. 21:6; Isa. 65:25 cf. Gen. 3:14; Deut. 8:15; Mic. 7:17). YHWH himself is thought of in wet-dry terms:
Mary K. Wakeman, pp.222-223 wrote:He is “the fountain of living waters,” [Jer. 2:13; 7:13] the life-giving force rather than the destructive floods, and “the rock of our salvation,” [Dt. 32:15; Ps. 89:27] the security of solid ground rather than its rigid, unyielding closedness.
When we consider Andy Hall's electric earth/sea hypothesis, suddenly the nature of the monsters in the earth and sea spring to life before our eyes. Did the ancient Hebrews witness seething electrical "dragons", causing devastating irruption of the sea over the land just as much as they cleaved asunder ancient hills and mountains, effortlessly carving valleys, rivers and wadis? Did Rahab really tower over the departing slaves as they crossed the dry land (Ex. 15:8-12), only to fall back to where it was before, the tyrant tyrannised by powers greater than itself?
Could it be that the ancient Hebrews, like a myriad of other ancient peoples, regarded earth and sea as hostile and unpredictable foes, precisely because they had the tendency to be just that? And that there the dragons of earth and sea still sleep, waiting for the next time they will awaken for an unprepared world?