Originally posted by Halitose
I think you'll find Leviathan in Job too.
Chapter 40 or 41, I can't remember and am to lazy to look it up.
The Hebrew word
livayatan appears in the following verses (searched according to NRSV):
Job 3:8, Job 41:1, Ps. 74:14, Ps. 104:26, Isa. 27:1.
The root is lamed-vav-hey (l-v-h), and it is related to the Hebrew word for wreath.
Isaiah describes leviathan as a serpent,
nachash:
Isaiah 27:1 On that day YHVH with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
This is the only passage in which “Leviathan” and “serpent” occurred within 5 verses of each other (I didn’t search broader than that). According to one commentary, in this passage, leviathan may be a symbol for Egypt—on the other hand, it could also symbolize evil in general, and the evil also represented by the serpent in the garden in particular. (It may have also been used, non-symbolically, to refer to a crocodile, as well as some large sea-creature.)
Nachash is the most common Hebrew word for serpent or snake, including the one that tempted Eve and the bronze serpent of Moses.
EDIT: One can certainly imagine, I think, a rabbi saying: "And why did Eve listen? This was no ordinary
nachash--this was the
nachash that is called in Isaiah
livayatan!"