Credit: אורן פלס
License: CC BY 2.5
Credit URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org...
Comments: A Snail in Tel-Aviv after the first rain of winter 2009
Credit: udi Steinwell via the PikiWiki - Israel free image collection project
License: CC BY 2.5
Credit URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org...
Comments: Wildlife and Plants of Israel
Snail should be read instead of wax in Psalm 58:8 (Vulgate: Psalm 57), to translate the Hebrew shábelûl - Strongs: H7642. Unlike the snails of northern climates which hibernate, those of Israel sleep in summer. The Psalmist alludes "to the fact that very commonly, when they have secured themselves in some chink of the rocks for their summer sleep, they are still exposed to the sun rays, which gradually evaporate and dry up the whole of the body, till the animal is shrivelled to a thread, and, as it were, melted away" (Tristram).
