These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,
These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,
And these are they which are unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the great lizard after its kind,
And these are unclean to you among things which go low down on the earth; the weasel and the mouse and the great lizard, and animals of that sort;
These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping animals that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise, after its kind,
"'These are they which are unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard,
And these are they which are unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the great lizard after its kind,
The weasel - חלד choled, from chalad, Syr., to creep in. Bochart conjectures, with great propriety, that the mole, not the weasel, is intended by the Hebrew word: its property of digging into the earth, and creeping or burrowing under the surface, is well known.
The mouse - עחבר achbar. Probably the large field rat, or what is called by the Germans the hamster, though every species of the mus genus may be here prohibited.
The tortoise - צב tsab. Most critics allow that the tortoise is not intended here, but rather the crocodile, the frog, or the toad. The frog is most probably the animal meant, and all other creatures of its kind.
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."