Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
The real purpose of leviathan is to be served up as a dainty to the
pious in the world to come. The female was put into brine as soon as
she was killed, to be preserved against the time when her flesh will be
needed.[126] The male is destined to offer a delectable sight to all
beholders before he is consumed. When his last hour arrives, God will
summon the angels to enter into combat with the monster. But no sooner
will leviathan cast his glance at them than they will flee in fear and
dismay from the field of battle. They will return to the charge with
swords, but in vain, for his scales can turn back steel like straw.
They will be equally unsuccessful when they attempt to kill him by
throwing darts and slinging stones; such missiles will rebound without
leaving the least impression on his body. Disheartened, the angels will
give up the combat, and God will command leviathan and behemot to enter
into a duel with each other. The issue will be that both will drop
dead, behemot slaughtered by a blow of leviathan's fins, and leviathan
killed by a lash of behemot's tail. From the skin of leviathan God will
construct tents to shelter companies of the pious while they enjoy the
dishes made of his flesh. The amount assigned to each of the pious will
be in proportion to his deserts, and none will envy or begrudge the
other his better share. What is left of leviathan's skin will be
stretched out over Jerusalem as a canopy, and the light streaming from
it will illumine the whole world, and what is left of his flesh after
the pious have appeased their appetite, will be distributed among the
rest of men, to carry on traffic therewith.[127]
On the same day with the fishes, the birds were created, for these two
kinds of animals are closely related to each other. Fish are fashioned
out of water, and birds out of marshy ground saturated with water.[128]
As leviathan is the king of fishes, so the ziz is appointed to rule
over the birds.[129] His name comes from the variety of tastes his
flesh has; it tastes like this, zeh, and like that, zeh.[130] The ziz
is as monstrous of size as leviathan himself. His ankles rest on the
earth, and his head reaches to the very sky.[121]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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