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In Jewish folklore, Rahab is the name of a sea-demon, a dragon of the waters, the "ruler of the sea". Rahab is responsible for shaking the waters and producing big waves; he is also responsible for the roaring of the sea.
This name originally designated the primordial abyss, the water-dragon of darkness and chaos, and so comparable to Tiamat. Rahab later became a particular demon, inhabitant of the sea, especially associated with the Red Sea, in this case sometimes associated with Leviathan.
It is unclear the difference between Rahab and Tannin in Jewish literature.
This name was also applied to Egypt, and the destruction of the Pharaoh after the exodus of the Israelites from that country, was compared with the slain of Rahab, perhaps a late corruption of Rahab slaying the Pharaoh (the Red Sea drowning his troops).
Rahab is mentioned in the Talmud and the Old Testament, and its etymology is given as "noise", "tumult" and "arrogance".
Another myth surrounds Rahab, known as The Violent Angel in Judaism. During Creation, God was separating the waters of the cosmos to make a dry spot for the earth to be placed in; as such, God ordered the angel Rahab, as Prince of the Sea, to swallow all of the world's water. Rahab unwisely told God to leave him alone thus God, enraged by this display of defiance, kicked him to death. Rahab's corpse stank so horribly that nothing within Heaven could stand the stench, so God submerged the body below the ocean. (Ancient Jews thought that the sky was a solid dome, and the nighttime stars were like little peepholes into the bright heaven behind the dark dome. Above the dome was water, and sometimes, the angels allowed these upper waters to sprinkle down through the peepholes to earth as rain; under the flat earth were the lower waters.) Desite his horrible death, Rahab returns in a later legend involving he attempting to stop Moses and his Hebrew brethren from escaping Pharaoh by moving across the Red Sea. For this second act of insolence, Rahab was once again destroyed by God.
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