Then the lord rested, he gazed upon her body,
The flesh of the monster he divided; he formed a cunning plan.
He split her open like a flat fish into two halves;
One half of her he established and made a covering of the heavens.
He drew a bolt, he established a guard,
And not to let her waters come out, he commanded.
With the passages quoted above Psa. 74:13, 14 has also been compared:
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength:
Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces;
Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Verses 16, 17 of the same Psalm continue the theme with the words:
The day is thine, the night also is thine:
Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
Thou hast made summer and winter.
The theme is the same as that of the epic, viz.: the creation of the world. It would appear from v. 14 that as the Hebrews called Tiâmat Rahab, so they called Kingu leviathan. Those who so think find another reference to the Babylonian creation epic in Job 3:8:
Let them curse it that curse the day,
Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
Apparently there were magicians who professed to be able to arouse such a monster.
Other references to leviathan are thought to employ the same illustrative material. Thus in Isa. 27:1 we read:
In that day Jehovah with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will slay the monster that is in the sea.