Job 3:8 provides a provocative clue for Leviathan that matches another important element of the Lilith legend, namely that she is a danger to women and their children during birth.\u00a0 Job implies Leviathan was uniquely suited for instigating the abortion of fetuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In chapter 3 Job laments that he was ever born.\u00a0 He cries out that the day of his birth should have never happened.\u00a0 In the middle of Job\u2019s lament in verse 8, the name Leviathan appears in a very peculiar usage.\u00a0 The use of Leviathan is so odd, the KJV does not even translate the word as the proper name Leviathan.\u00a0 Instead, it inexplicably renders Leviathan as \u201ctheir mourning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nJob 3:8 – 11 (KJV)<\/strong><\/div>\n8 \u00a0Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.<\/div>\n9 \u00a0Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have<\/em> none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:<\/div>\n10 \u00a0Because it shut not up the doors of my mother\u2019s<\/em> womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.<\/div>\n11 Why died I not from the womb? why<\/em> did I not<\/em> give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
My literal translation of verse 8 is given below.\u00a0 The word-by-word breakdown is given in Table 3\u201116.\u00a0 I correctly render Ntywl<\/span> as the proper name Leviathan.\u00a0 The YLT (Young\u2019s Literal Translation), ASV (American Standard Version), ILB (Inter Linear Bible), and other translations make the same correction.\u00a0 Another correction I make is not to follow the KJV and translate rre<\/span> as an unusual variant of uwr<\/em> (rwe<\/span> – Strongs 05782), which means \u201cto rouse oneself\u201d or \u201cawake.\u201d\u00a0 Rather, I take the straightforward translation of rre<\/span> as arar<\/em> (rre<\/span> – Strongs 6209), which means \u201cto make bare\u201d, especially as in to level a construction.\u00a0 Thus, the last half of the verse says, \u201cLet Leviathan make bear the preparations.\u201d\u00a0 By this Job is imploring that Leviathan should make bear or break the preparations of his birth.\u00a0 This means that Job is calling for Leviathan to kill his fetus.\u00a0 Rashi agrees with this interpretation.\u00a0 He explains that rde<\/span> in the passage means to be childless.\u00a0 In which case the passage could be said to say, \u201cLet Leviathan make childless the preparations.\u201d\u00a0 Either way, it is implied here that Leviathan is well suited as an instigator of abortions.\u00a0 This matches an important feature of Lilith\u2019s legend, namely that she is a danger to unborn children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nJob 3:8 (My Literal)<\/strong><\/div>\nLet cursers of day curse it.\u00a0 Let Leviathan make naked the preparations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n