Lizards

The English word "lizard" translates about half a dozen Hebrew words, none of which can be identified with certainty. Tsab, from the root for "cover," seems to be the general term for lizards (Lev 11:29), presumably because they are covered with scales.

A lizard basking near the Temple Mount, Jerusalem.

The next verse seems to provide a more detailed list of these reptiles that were considered unclean, but the futility of identifying them more exactly is plainly evident by comparing the translation of the verse in the different English versions:

KJV, NASB - "And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole."

RSV, NRS - "the gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon."

NASB - "and the gecko, and the crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand reptile, and the chameleon."

NIV - "the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon."

NKJ - "the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon."

The New Jerusalem Bible simply gives up the attempt with "gecko, koah, letaah, chameleon and tinshamet."

The problem here has to do with the simple fact that the Hebrew words are 1) so rare and 2) are not so much "names" as they are "descriptions." 'anaqa is literally "the groaning one," which fits the gecko but less the ferret (KJV). Koach, from the root kch, is literally, "the powerful one," for which "crocodile" or "moniter lizard" works. The next two words translated "lizard," leta'a and "sand lizard/skink," chomet, do not appear anywhere else in the OT, and is a different word from the "lizard" of the previous verse. The last word translated "chameleon" in most modern versions is tinshament. NJB, as we saw above, refuses to translate it, while all other versions translate the same word as it appears (the only other occasions) in Lev 11:18 and Deut 14:16 "white owl" (NIV, NASB, NKJ) or "water hen" (RSV, NRSV). What is clear from all this is that, these different words were in fact lizards of one kind or another, the ancient Hebrews seemed to have a particular interest in lizards for it to have so many different words for these reptiles; unfortunately we cannot be certain.

The lizard appears one other time in the OT in Prov 30:28, as one of the four "small but extremely wise" things on earth, for "a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings' palaces." The word, semamit also is found here only.