A small animal, which burrows obscurely in the ground, Isa 2:20. It is common is some parts of Palestine, and is mentioned as unclean in Le 11:30; or, according to Bochart, in Le 11:29, in the word translated "weasel."

Heb tinshameth (Le 11:30), probably signifies some species of lizard (rendered in R.V., "chameleon"). In Le 11:18; De 14:16, it is rendered, in Authorized Version, "swan" (R.V., "horned owl").

The Heb holed (Le 11:29), rendered "weasel," was probably the mole-rat. The true mole (Talpa Europoea) is not found in Palestine. The mole-rat (Spalax typhlus) "is twice the size of our mole, with no external eyes, and with only faint traces within of the rudimentary organ; no apparent ears, but, like the mole, with great internal organs of hearing; a strong, bare snout, and with large gnawing teeth; its colour a pale slate; its feet short, and provided with strong nails; its tail only rudimentary."

In Isa 2:20, this word is the rendering of two words haphar peroth, which are rendered by Gesenius "into the digging of rats", i.e., rats' holes. But these two Hebrew words ought probably to be combined into one (lahporperoth) and translated "to the moles", i.e., the rat-moles. This animal "lives in underground communities, making large subterranean chambers for its young and for storehouses, with many runs connected with them, and is decidedly partial to the loose debris among ruins and stone-heaps, where it can form its chambers with least trouble."

tinshemeth. Rather "chameleon", the inflating animal, as it inflates its body; from nasham "to breathe."(See CHAMELEON.) The lung when filled with air renders its body semi-transparent; from its power of abstinence it was fabled to live on air (Le 11:30). In Le 11:18 it is "the ibis," an unclean bird. Of the tree lizard, Dendrosaura, tribe. In Isa 2:20, chephor perot, "moles in KJV, literally, "continual diggers," mice or rats, which bore in deserted places. Mole rats in Syria and Mesopotamia frequent cultivated lands. The ruins of Babylon are perforated on all sides with holes, the abode of "doleful creatures."

1. tinshemeth, Le 11:30 (AV 'mole,' RV 'chameleon'; but same word is in Le 11:18 and De 14:18 tr AV 'swan,' RV 'horned owl'). See Chameleon.

2. chaph

1. tinshemeth. An animal classed among the unclean, but it is not known definitely what animal is meant by the Hebrew word. It is probably the chameleon, which is adopted in the R.V. It is placed with the lizard and the snail. Le 11:30. In two places the same word is translated 'swan.' Le 11:18; De 14:16.

2. chapharperah. This is by most identified with the mole-rat, the spalax typhlus. It is very like a mole: it burrows under the earth and turns up mounds, but it is of a different order from the true mole. These mole-rats have been found in Palestine; they inhabit ruins and stone-heaps, and come out in the night. They may be well classed with the bats to which the idols will be cast in a future day. Isa 2:20.

Mole.

1. Tinshemeth.

Le 11:30

It is probable that the animals mentioned with the tinshemeth in the above passage denote different kinds of lizards; perhaps, therefore, the chameleon is the animal intended.

2. Chephor peroth is rendered "moles" in

Isa 2:20

(The word means burrowers, hole-diggers, and may designate any of the small animals, as rats and weasels, which burrow among ruins. Many scholars, according to McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopedia," consider that the Greek aspalax is the animal intended by both the words translated mole. It is not the European mole, but is a kind of blind mole-rat, from 8 to 12 inches long, feeding on vegetables, and burrowing like a mole, but on a larger scale. It is very common in Russia, and Hasselquiest says it is abundant on the plains of Sharon in Palestine. --ED.)

MOLE. This word, in our version of Le 11:30, answers to the word ?????, which Bochart has shown to be the cameleon; but he conjectures, with great propriety, that ???, translated "weasel," in the preceding verse, is the true word for the mole. The present name for the mole in the east is khuld, which is undeniably the same word as the Hebrew choled. The import of the Hebrew word is, "to creep into," and the same Syriac word implies, "to creep underneath," to creep into by burrowing; which are well known characteristics of the mole.