A transliterated Hebrew word (livyathan), meaning "twisted," "coiled." In Job 3:8 , Revised Version, and marg. of Authorized Version, it denotes the dragon which, according to Eastern tradition, is an enemy of light; in 41:1 the crocodile is meant; in Psalm 104:26 it "denotes any large animal that moves by writhing or wriggling the body, the whale, the monsters of the deep." This word is also used figuratively for a cruel enemy, as some think "the Egyptian host, crushed by the divine power, and cast on the shores of the Red Sea" ( Psalm 74:14 ). As used in Isaiah 27:1 , "leviathan the piercing [RSV 'swift'] serpent, even leviathan that crooked [RSV marg. 'winding'] serpent," the word may probably denote the two empires, the Assyrian and the Babylonian.
Source
- part_of
source-manifest/easton— Easton's Bible Dictionary (PD)