BEHEMOTH, from the Hebrew בהמה, behem, and בהמה, behemah (bestia, pecus, jumentum), the plural of which, בהמות, behemoth, is used with a singular effect, says Buxtorf, to signify the elephant, on account of its great size, quod instar plurium est. Bochart, followed by Scheuchzer, Shaw, and others, contends that the "behemoth" of Scripture is the hippopotamus or river-horse; but this notion could scarcely have been entertained if due attention had been paid to the words of Job, xl. 15, "Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox;" a description that can scarcely apply to river-horses, which are not understood to be graminivorous. Hence Schultens, Buxtorf, and all the more recent lexicographers and commentators, render "behemoth" elephant. The term "mammoth," which has been applied indiscriminately to all the largest species of fossil animals, appears also to be a corruption of the Hebrew word "behemoth." Professor Buckland, it is true, states that mammoth is a word of Tartar origin, meaning simply "animal of the earth." But we very much doubt the correctness of this etymology, and are somewhat confirmed in this suspicion by a collocation which occurs in Isaiah, xviii. 6, where we meet with the very words, בהמה וארץ, bestia terra, "animal of the earth," applied to the "behemoth," by which the learned professor explains the supposed Tartar term "mammoth."