Signification of the word Semamith—Various interpretations of a Scriptura, passage—Talmudical opinions respecting the creature—The Akkabish and its web—Spiders of Palestine.
ALTHOUGH the word "spider" is mentioned three times in the Authorized Version of the Bible, one of them must be excluded, namely Prov. 30:2828The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. (Proverbs 30:28): "The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." There is much doubt whether the word semamith, which is here translated a “spider," does not rather allude to the Gecko, a lizard which has already been described. Moreover, the passage is rendered very differently in the Jewish Bible:" A spider thou mayest catch with the hands, and is in kings' palaces.”
Buxtorf mentions some curious Talmudical opinions regarding the Semam. For example, there is a kind of proverb" Dreaded as a Semam by a scorpion,"founded on the belief that the Semam, whatever it might be, crept into the ears of the scorpion. Another proverb is, “A Semam against a scorpion," the idea being that if a Semam was crushed on the wound made by a scorpion, it would destroy the effect of the poison.
He further mentions that the word has been translated as araneus or aranea, i. e. Spider, as simia, i. e. an ape, as cala-motes, which signifies a kind of fish, or as kalabotes and askala-botes, which is a kind of lizard. The Septuagint employs this rendering, to which Buxtorf himself leans.
The same word 'akkabish’ occurs twice, and certainly does signify some kind of Spider. The Prophet Isaiah writes of the wicked that they “weave the spider's web " (59:5), and there is a similar image in Job 8:1414Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. (Job 8:14): “So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish. Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose hope shall be a spider's web “(or house). In both instances reference is made to the fragility of the Spider's web as a metaphor to express the futility of evil devices.
The reader will see that in neither of these passages is there anything that indicates the species of Spider. There are very many species of Spider in Palestine; some which spin webs, like the common Garden Spider, some which dig subterranean cells and make doors in them, like the well-known Trap-door Spider of Southern Europe, and some which have no webs, but chase their prey upon the ground, like the Wolf and Hunting Spiders. Notice is, however, only taken of those which spin webs.