the leviathan is a mythical sea creature or monster, referred to in several passages in the Old Testament of the holy bible [phrase]:

1. Isaiah 27:1: "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."
2. Psalms 74:14: "Thou didst crush the heads of the Leviathan, thou didst give him for food to the desert people."
3. Psalms 104:26: "O Lord, how manifold thy works, in wisdom you have created them all. So is this great and wide sea... there go the ships and the Leviathan which you have created to play with";
4. Book of Job 3:8 "Lo let the night be solitary, let no joyful cry be heard in it. Let them curse it who curse the day who are ready to awake the Leviathan";
5. Book of Job 41:1-34: "Can you draw out a Leviathan with a hook or press down its tongue with a cord? Canst thou put a hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a bridal ring? (...)"

in the jewish talmud, the leviathan is described as a large, monstrous fish created on the fifth day of creation. after armageddon (the end of the world) the leviathan will be served at a banquet for all the righteous, along with other creatures from biblical mythology, like the behemoth and the ziz. the leviathan may also be interpreted as a personification of the sea itself, with the behemoth being the land and the ziz the air.the most common christian (see jesus christ) interpretation of the leviathan is as a demon, associated with satan (see 666); in the middle ages, leviathan was seen as the grand admiral of hell's maritime legions. more symbolically, some scholars consider it to be a representation of the forces of chaos which existed before the creation of the world. it may even be a symbol for mankind in opposition to god, chaos versus order - this is also one of the meanings msp ironically point to in the song leviathan.leviathan was also the title of a work by philosopher thomas hobbes (1588-1679) on the social contract and the ideal state. see brutal, nasty, this life is short for information about hobbes' 'leviathan' and an interpretation of msp's song 'leviathan'.