RAHAB* (Monster)

Mythological sea monster that poetically represented Egypt (Ps 87:4). “For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her ‘Rahab who sits still’ ” (Is 30:7, rsv). The biblical writers, with Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea and the Egyptian army’s subsequent drowning (cf. Is 51:10), portray God as waging war against this monster and cruelly defeating it (Job 26:12; Ps 89:10; Is 51:9).