Mole

From: Concise Bible Dictionary: M By: George A. Morrish

• 1 min. read • grade level: 6

1. tinshemeth. An animal classed among the unclean, but it is not known definitely what animal is meant by the Hebrew word. It is probably the chameleon, which is adopted in the RV. It is placed with the lizard and the snail (Lev. 11:30³⁰And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole. (Leviticus 11:30)). In two places the same word is translated “swan” (Lev. 11:18¹⁸And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, (Leviticus 11:18); Deut. 14:16¹⁶The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, (Deuteronomy 14:16)).

Chameleon

2. chapharperah. This is by most identified with the mole-rat, the spalax typhlus. It is very like a mole: it burrows under the earth and turns up mounds, but it is of a different order from the true mole. These mole-rats have been found in Palestine; they inhabit ruins and stone-heaps, and come out in the night. They may be well classed with the bats to which the idols will be cast in a future day (Isa. 2:20²⁰In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; (Isaiah 2:20)).

Spalax microphthalmus1

1. Spalax microphthalmus attribution: Vivan755, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons