Bes: The Abrahamic Inversion

author: High Priest Zevios Metathronos
co-author: Novice Priest Karnonnos

This page reads Behemoth, the land beast of Job, as Bes inverted. Such names were made to slander the Original Gods, and they are never to be invoked; call on Bes by His own name.

The Land Creature, Behemoth

Behemoth is a monster that controls the lands, opposed to Leviathan in the seas and in extra-Biblical literature, Ziz in the skies. The name Behemoth means בְ֭הֵמוֹת great beast; the form of the word is augmentative in form and designed to grammatically emphasize size.^{1, 2, 3}

It is mentioned only once in the Bible, in the Book of Job, where the deity of the Hebrews of the Bible gives a graphic description of it and the sea-beast Leviathan to long-suffering Job who is in despair and doubting due to personal catastrophe. First the deity speaks of his thunderous voice. Behemoth is so colossal in scope that it can drink the river Jordan⁴:

Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.
Book of Job 40:15–24

The beast's power is beyond dispute. The similarities to the Bes' material are obvious. The strength of ___ is echoed in the description.

However, what is also revealing about the exposition is the reply of Job to his deity which frames both the Behemoth and Leviathan as an extension of the latter's powers that none can escape⁴:

Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?
therefore have I uttered that I understood not;
things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Book of Job 42:1–4

The subliminal idea behind the passage is the method of finding sacred joy after adversity and loss. Job understands divine providence more, as Maimonides explains.^{5, 6} Fixation on the great monster itself misses the mark. That is a direct link to Bes.

The Jewish Encyclopedia states plainly that Leviathan is treated as a great evil belonging to Lilith and Samael. Behemoth does not share this status.^{1, 7}

Behemoth as a Demon

In the early Christian materials, the image of Behemoth becomes blurred. Origen first reports an Ophite and Gnostic diagram in which a being named Behemoth is placed below the lowest circle. Possibly these beliefs found their way into Christianity.^{1, 8}

In an allegorical reading of the prodigal son, Jerome says the sinner joined himself to “the prince of this world,” explicitly the devil, and then lists scriptural names for that figure: dragon, Satan, Belial, roaring lion, Leviathan, Thaninim, Behemoth, and others. This is a particularly strange deviation from the Bible which describes the Leviathan as prideful but under the control of God.⁹

The saint Gregory asks who is meant “under the name Behemoth” except the ancient enemy, establishing a tie of Satan to the word.¹⁰

Around this time, Behemoth appeared as a possessor in the case of the Ursuline nuns of Loudun, perhaps made famous by the film The Devils (1973). Behemoth was claimed by the exorcists to be one of the seven demons possessing Jeanne des Anges based on an occult transcript. Urbain Grandier, a Catholic priest, was convicted of casting spells on the nuns as a sorcerer and executed in 1634 by the Inquisition.^{11, 12, 13}

Etiam et Behemoth et Leviathan beluas et daemones significant. His itaque exemplis cum bonorum tum malorum daemonum nomina curiosus inquisitor facile [inveniet].
Also Behemoth, and the Leviathan signifie beasts, and divels. By these examples he that is inquisitive shall finde out the names of good, as well as of evil spirits
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, De occulta philosophia¹⁴

Behemoth enters the demonological literature in Cornelius Agrippa's De occulta philosophia a century earlier in 1531 where both he and Leviathan represent beasts and devils. He is not present in the Goetia where Johann Weyer calls him a name of Satan, but later shows up in the 1818 Dictionnaire Infernal by Collin de Plancy.^{14, 15, 16}

Béhémoth, démon lourd et stupide, malgré ses dignités. Sa force est dans ses reins ; ses domaines sont la gourmandise et les plaisirs du ventre. Quelques démonomanes disent qu’il est aux enfers sommelier et grand échanson. Bodin croit que Béhémoth n’est autre chose que le Pharaon d’Egypte qui persécuta les Hébreux. Il est parlé de Béhémoth dans Job comme d’une créature monstrueuse. Des commentateurs prétendent que c’est la baleine, et d’autres que c’est l’éléphant ; mais il y eut d’autres monstres dont les races ont disparu. On voit dans le procès d’Urbain Grandier que Béhémoth est bien un démon.
Delancre dit qu’on l’a pris pour un animal monstrueux, parce qu’il se donne la forme de toutes les grosses bêtes. Il ajoute que Béhémoth se déguise aussi avec perfection en chien, en éléphant, en renard et en loup.
Si Wierus, notre oracle en ce qui concerne les démons, n’admet pas Béhémoth dans son inventaire de la monarchie infernale, il dit, livre Ier, des Prestiges des démons, chapitre xxi, que Béhémoth ou l’éléphant pourrait bien être Satan lui-même, dont on désigne ainsi la vaste puissance.
Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal

De Plancy describes Behemoth as a demon who is "heavy and stupid", and the Grandier case is referenced. It is said that his pleasures are in gluttony, his loins his strength, paralleling the feasts and dances of Bes and the vocabulary of the Book of Job. It is said some believe that the Pharaoh of Exodus is Behemoth. He takes the form of "un animal monstreux" like a dog, an elephant, a fox or a wolf.