Leviticus 11:30

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
the anakah, and the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink, and the tanshemet.

King James Version
And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.

Lexham English Bible
and the gecko and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand lizard and the chameleon.

New Century Version
geckos, crocodiles, lizards, sand reptiles, and chameleons.

New English Translation
the Mediterranean gecko, the spotted lizard, the wall gecko, the skink, and the chameleon.

Amplified Bible
the gecko, the crocodile, the lizard, the sand reptile, and the chameleon.

New American Standard Bible
the gecko, the crocodile, the lizard, the sand reptile, and the chameleon.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Also the rat, and the lizard, and the chameleon, and the stellio, and the molle.

Legacy Standard Bible
and the gecko and the crocodile and the lizard and the sand reptile and the chameleon.

Complete Jewish Bible
the gecko, the land crocodile, the skink, the sand-lizard and the chameleon.

Darby Translation
and the groaning lizard, and the great red lizard, and the climbing lizard, and the chomet, and the chameleon.

Easy-to-Read Version
geckos, crocodiles, lizards, sand reptiles, and chameleons.

English Standard Version
the gecko, the monitor lizard, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

George Lamsa Translation
And the ferret, and the mole, the yellow lizard, and the chameleon, and the snail.

Christian Standard Bible®
geckos, monitor lizards,

Literal Translation
and the gecko, and the monitor, and the lizard, and the sand lizard, and the barn owl.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
the Hedgehogge, the Stellio, the Lacerte, the Snale, and the Moule,

American Standard Version
and the gecko, and the land-crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand-lizard, and the chameleon.

Bible in Basic English
And the ferret and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand-lizard and the chameleon.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
The Hedhogge, the Stellio, the Lacert, the Snayle, and the Moole.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
and the gecko, and the land-crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand-lizard, and the chameleon.

King James Version (1611)
And the Ferret, and the Cameleon, and the Lyzard, and the Snaile, and the Molle.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
the ferret, and the chameleon, and the evet, and the newt, and the mole.

English Revised Version
and the gecko, and the land-crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand-lizard, and the chameleon.

Berean Standard Bible
the gecko, the monitor lizard, the common lizard, the skink, and the chameleon.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
mygal, camelion, and stellio, and lacerta, and a maldewerp.

Young's Literal Translation
and the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole;

Update Bible Version
and the gecko, and the land-crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand-lizard, and the chameleon.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the ferret and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.

World English Bible
the gecko, and the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink, and the chameleon.

New King James Version
the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

New Living Translation
the gecko, the monitor lizard, the common lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

New Life Bible
the gecko, the crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

New Revised Standard
the gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and the ferret and the chameleon and the wall-lizard, - and the winding lizard, and the mole.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The shrew, and the chameleon, and the stellio, and the lizard, and the mole.

Revised Standard Version
the gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
and the gecko, and the crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand reptile, and the chameleon.

Contextual Overview

²⁰"All flying insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you. But you can eat some of these, namely, those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground: all locusts, katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers. But all the other flying insects that have four legs you are to detest. ²⁴"You will make yourselves ritually unclean until evening if you touch their carcasses. If you pick up one of their carcasses you must wash your clothes and you'll be unclean until evening. ²⁶ "Every animal that has a split hoof that's not completely divided, or that doesn't chew the cud is unclean for you; if you touch the carcass of any of them you become unclean. ²⁷"Every four-footed animal that goes on its paws is unclean for you; if you touch its carcass you are unclean until evening. If you pick up its carcass you must wash your clothes and are unclean until evening. They are unclean for you. ²⁹"Among the creatures that crawl on the ground, the following are unclean for you: weasel, rat, all lizards, gecko, monitor lizard, wall lizard, skink, chameleon. Among the crawling creatures, these are unclean for you. If you touch them when they are dead, you are ritually unclean until evening. When one of them dies and falls on something, that becomes unclean no matter what it's used for, whether it's made of wood, cloth, hide, or sackcloth. Put it in the water—it's unclean until evening, and then it's clean. If one of these dead creatures falls into a clay pot, everything in the pot is unclean and you must break the pot. Any food that could be eaten but has water on it from such a pot is unclean, and any liquid that could be drunk from it is unclean. Anything that one of these carcasses falls on is unclean—an oven or cooking pot must be broken up; they're unclean and must be treated as unclean. A spring, though, or a cistern for collecting water remains clean, but if you touch one of these carcasses you're ritually unclean. If a carcass falls on any seeds that are to be planted, they remain clean. But if water has been put on the seed and a carcass falls on it, you must treat it as unclean. ³⁹"If an animal that you are permitted to eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass is ritually unclean until evening. If you eat some of the carcass you must wash your clothes and you are unclean until evening. If you pick up the carcass you must wash your clothes and are unclean until evening. ⁴¹"Creatures that crawl on the ground are detestable and not to be eaten. Don't eat creatures that crawl on the ground, whether on their belly or on all fours or on many feet—they are detestable. Don't make yourselves unclean or be defiled by them, because I am your God .

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Cross-References

Genesis 11:1
At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.

Genesis 11:3
They said to one another, "Come, let's make bricks and fire them well." They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.

Genesis 11:12
When Arphaxad was thirty-five years old, he had Shelah. After Arphaxad had Shelah, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 25:21
Isaac prayed hard to God for his wife because she was barren. God answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant. But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, "If this is the way it's going to be, why go on living?" She went to God to find out what was going on. God told her, Two nations are in your womb, two peoples butting heads while still in your body. One people will overpower the other, and the older will serve the younger.

Genesis 29:31
When God realized that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. Leah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Reuben (Look-It's-a-Boy!). "This is a sign," she said, "that God has seen my misery; and a sign that now my husband will love me."

Judges 13:2
At that time there was a man named Manoah from Zorah from the tribe of Dan. His wife was barren and childless. The angel of God appeared to her and told her, "I know that you are barren and childless, but you're going to become pregnant and bear a son. But take much care: Drink no wine or beer; eat nothing ritually unclean. You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God's Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression."

Luke 1:36
"And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God." And Mary said, Yes, I see it all now: I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say. Then the angel left her.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the ferret,.... Whatever creature is here meant, it has its name in Hebrew from the cry it makes; and so the ferret has but one note in its voice, which is a shrill, but small, whining cry: it is used to drive rabbits out of their holes: the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render the word by "mygale", the weasel mouse, or "mus areneus" of the Latins, the shrew or shrew mouse: it has something of the mouse and weasel, from whence it has its name in Greek, being of the size of the one, and the colour of the other: but Bochart b is of opinion, that a sort of lizard called "stellio", an evet or newt, is meant; one sort of which, according to Pliny c, makes a bitter noise and screaking:

and [the] chameleon; this is a little creature like a lizard, but with a larger and longer head; it has four feet, and on each foot three claws; its tail is long; with this, as well as with its feet, it fastens itself to the branches of trees; its tail is flat, its nose long, and made in an obtuse point; its back is sharp, its skin plaited and jagged like a saw, from the neck to the last joint of the tail, and upon its head it hath something like a comb; in other respects it is made like a fish; that is to say, it has no neck d; what is said of its living on air, and changing colour according to what it is applied, are now reckoned vulgar mistakes: but whatever creature is here meant, it seems to have its name in Hebrew from its strength, wherefore Bochart e takes the "guaril" or "alwarlo" of the Arabs to be meant; which is the stoutest and strongest sort of lizard, and is superior in strength to serpents, and the land tortoise, with which it often contends:

and the lizard; so Jarchi interprets the word by a "lizard"; it has a larger letter than usual in it, that this creature might be taken notice of, and guarded against as very pernicious, and yet with some people it is eaten: Calmet says f, there are several sorts of lizards, which are well known: there are some in Arabia of a cubit long, but in the Indies there are some, they say, of twenty four feet in length: in America, where they are very good, they eat them: one lizard is enough to satisfy four men: and so in the West Indies, says Sir Hans Sloane g, I was somewhat surprised to see serpents, rats, and lizards sold for food, and that to understanding people, and of a very good and nice palate; and elsewhere h, he says, all nations inhabiting these parts of the world (the West Indies) do the same: "Guanes" or "lizards" are very common in Jamaica, and eaten there, and were of great use when the English first took this island, being, as I was assured, says he, commonly sold by the first planters for half a crown apiece: Dr. Shaw i says, that he was informed that more than 40,000 persons in Cairo, and in the neighbourhood, live upon no other food than lizards and serpents, though he thinks k, because the chameleon is called by the Arabs "taitah", which differs little in name from לטאה, "letaah", here; that therefore that, which is indeed a species of the lizard, might, with more propriety, be substituted for it:

and the snail; so the word is rendered by Jarchi, on the place, and by Kimchi, and Philip Aquinas, and David de Pomis, in their lexicons; and these creatures, though forbid to the Jews, yet are not only used for medicine, but also for food by many: snails of several kinds, we are told, are eaten with much satisfaction in Italy and France: in Silesia they make places for the breeding of them at this day, where they are fed with turnip tops, c. and carefully preserved for the market and the Romans took care of them in the same manner l: Bochart m thinks a kind of lizard is meant, which lies in sand, called by the Arabs "chulaca", or "luchaca", because the word here used signifies, in the Talmudic n language, sandy ground:

and the mole; and so it is interpreted by Onkelos and Jarchi here, and by David de Pomis, and Philip Aquinas, in their lexicons: the same word is used for a certain sort of fowl, which we translate the "swan";

Leviticus 11:18 but here of a creeping thing: whatever is intended by it, it seems to have its name from its breath; either in a contrary signification, if understood of the mole, which either holds its breath, or breathes not while under ground; or from its breathing more freely, wherefore Bochart o takes it to be the "chameleon"; which, as Pliny p says, is always gaping with its mouth for air; and it has been a vulgar notion, though a wrong one, that it lives upon it: the Targum of Jonathan interprets it by the "salamander"; now whoever ate any of the above eight creeping things, according to the Jewish canons, was to be beaten q.

b Ut supra, (Hierozoic. par. 1.) l. 4. c. 2. c Nat. Hist. l. 29. c. 4. d Calmet, in the word "Chameleon". e Ut supra, (Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 4.) c. 3. f Dictionary, in the word "Lizard", Vid. Hieron. adv. Jovinian. l. 2. g Natural History of Jamaica, vol. 1. Introduct. p. 25. h Ibid. vol. 2. p. 333. i Travels, p. 412. k Ibid. p. 178. l Sir Hans Sloane's Nat. Hist. ib. p. 23, 24. m Ut supra, (e) c. 5. n T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 31. 1. Gloss. in fol. 54. 1. o Ut supra, (Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 4.) c. 6. p Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 33. q Maimon. Maacolot Asurot, c. 2. sect. 7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The identification of “the creeping things” here named is not always certain. They are most likely those which were occasionally eaten. For the “Tortoise” read “the great lizard,” for the “ferret” the “gecko” (one of the lizard tribe), for the “chameleon” read the “frog” or the Nile lizard: by the word rendered “snail” is probably meant another kind of lizard, and by the “mole” the “chameleon.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 30. The ferret — אנקה anakah, from אנק anak, to groan, to cry out: a species of lizard, which derives its name from its piercing, doleful cry. See Bochart, vol. ii., col. 1066.

The chameleon — כח coach. Bochart contends that this is the [Arabic] waril or guaril, another species of lizard, which derives its name from its remarkable strength and vigour in destroying serpents, the Hebrew כח cach signifying to be strong, firm, vigorous: it is probably the same with the mongoose, a creature still well known in India, where it is often domesticated in order to keep the houses free from snakes, rats, mice, &c.

The lizard — לטאה letaah. Bochart contends that this also is a species of lizard, called by the Arabs [Arabic] wahara, which creeps close to the ground, and is poisonous.

The snail — חמט chomet, another species of lizard, according to Bochart, called [Arabic] huluka by the Arabians, which lives chiefly in the sand. - Vol. ii., col. 1075.

The mole. — תנשמת tinshameth, from נשם nasham, to breathe. Bochart seems to have proved that this is the chameleon, which has its Hebrew name from its wide gaping mouth, very large lungs, and its deriving its nourishment from small animals which float in the air, so that it has been conjectured by some to feed on the air itself. - Vol. iii., col. 1073. A bird of the same name is mentioned Leviticus 11:13, which Bochart supposes to be the night-owl. - Vol. iii., col. 286.