Leviathan was something very horrific (Job 3:8). It seems to have been a water beast either in reality or in myth (Job 41). The psalmist used it figuratively to describe Egypt, a powerful and deadly enemy of Israel (Ps. 104:26). Thus Leviathan was a symbol of immense power ranged against the Lord's people.255Here Leviathan's descriptions suggest that this dragon-like creature glides swiftly (possibly through the air, as a spirit being), that it is a deadly foe (like a coiling serpent), and that it inhabits the sea (a place notoriously uncontrollable by humans). In short, it seems to stand for the strong spiritual enemies of God's people. Some interpreters believe Isaiah had in mind Satan himself (cf. 24:21) who occupies the air, the land, and the sea; he infests the whole creation. God will punish Satan and his host in the future (cf. 24:22-23).256Another view is that the swift serpent is an allusion to the fairly straight Tigris River, the coiling serpent to the more twisting Euphrates River, and the dragon by the sea to Egypt. Thus Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt are in view.257Still other interpreters favor taking the monsters and locations as representing all of Israel's human enemies.258I think the passage pictures God's punishment of Israel's enemies at the Second Coming.
