Credit: Tim Brookes
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Badgers
Ever seen a badger this close?
Badger Tahashim — No mention of the badger (meles taxus) is found in the D.V., whereas the A.V. regularly gives it as the English equivalent for táhásh (תַּחַשׁ). Skins of táháshim are repeatedly spoken of as used for the outer coverings of the tabernacle and of the several pieces of its furniture and utensils and tools. The old translations, and the D.V. after them, understood the word táhásh to mean a color (violet; Exodus 25:5; 26:14; 35:7, 23; 36:19; 39:34; Numbers 4:6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 25; Ezekiel 16:10); but this is a "misrepresentation" according to Talmudic writers;[ISBE: Badger] so also is the rendering of the A.V.; for though the badger is common in Israel, yet the Hebrew name "most probably" (according to 19th and early 20th century scholars) indicates the dugong (designated halicore hemprichii 1832, and halicore tabernaculi 1843), a sirenian living in the Red Sea, the skin of which is used to the present day by Bedouin Arabs for such purposes as those alluded to in the Bible.[ISBE: Badger] Nevertheless, this is in contradiction to Leviticus 11:10[2] (KJV) "And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you." And Leviticus 11:27 says clearly (including the badger), "And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all four, those are unclean unto you: whoso toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the even." Leviticus explicitly commands the Jews, "Ye shall not make yourselves abominable..." (11:41–47). Strong's Concordance BADGERS' number - Strongs: H8476 תחש tachash says the word is probably of foreign derivation; a (clean) animal with fur, probably a species of antelope—badger. The opinion that tahash denotes the dugong is declining in recent decades in favor of "blue-processed skins" (Navigating the Bible II) and "(blue-)beaded skins" (Anchor Bible.)