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LIZARD
(1) lìt â’âh, a generic name for ‘lizard.’
(2) tsâb (cf. Arab [Note: Arabic.] , dabb), tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘tortoise,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘great lizard.’
(3) ’ãn âqâh, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘ferret,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘gecko.’
(4) kôach, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘chameleon,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘land crocodile.’
(5) chômet, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘snail,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘sandlizard.’
(6) tinshemeth, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘mole,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘chameleon’ (wh. see).
All these names occur in Lev_11:29-30, as ‘unclean’ animals; most of them are very uncertain.
(7) sìm âmîth (Pro_30:28), tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘spider,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘lizard.’
Lizards are ubiquitous and exceedingly plentiful in Palestine: over 40 species have been identified. The most common is the green lizard (Lacerta viridis). The Palestinian gecko (Ptyodactylus Hasselquistii) is common in all native houses; it is able to walk up the walls and along the ceilings by means of the disc-like suckers at the ends of its toes. If sçmâmîth was, as many scholars claim, a lizard, then probably the gecko is the special species indicated. The dabb is a large lizard (Uromastix spinipes), with a long spiny tail. The sandlizards or skinks are common on soft, sandy soil; seven species are found in Palestine. The ‘land crocodile,’ known to the Arabs as the warrel, is a large lizard, sometimes five feet long; two species have been found in the Jordan valley—the Psammosaurus scineus and the Monitor niloticus. The chameleon is dealt with in a separate article.
E. W. G. Masterman.