the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Bible Dictionaries
Tortoise
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or tsab . From tsaabab "to move slowly" (Leviticus 11:29); rather "the great lizard." Septuagint translated "the land crocodile": mentioned by Herodotus iv. 192; the varan , of the desert; it subsists on beetles, etc.; of a dusky yellow color, with dark green spots and yellow claws; the waran el hard , the Ρsammosaurus scincus or Μonitor terrestris of Cuvier. Arabic dhab , a lizard often two feet long, abounding in Egypt and Syria. Tristram makes it the Uromastix spinipes (Nat. Hist., 255). Its flesh dried was used as a charm or medicine; the Arabs made broth of its flesh (Hasselquist, 220); the Syrians ate its flesh (Jerome adv. Jovin. ii. 7, 334). Several kinds of tortoise (marsh tortoises, etc.) abound in Palestine. Some have even conjectured that "the tortoise" is meant by the word translated "bittern" in the prophecies of Isaiah and Zephaniah. (See BITTERN.)
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Tortoise'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/t/tortoise.html. 1949.
