Weasel
WEASEL
One of the unclean animals, Lev 11:29 . Several varieties of weasels are found in and around Palestine; but in the verse above probably the common mole is intended.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Weasel
Weasel. These animals live in almost every country, including Palestine. They are small and furry, with thin, long bodies and short legs. Weasels eat small animals and have a reputation for stealing eggs. The Bible mentions them only in (Lev 11:29), in the list of unclean animals. Some modern sources believe the mole (NASB) or mole-rat (NEB) was meant in this verse.
Fuente: Plants Animals Of Bible
Weasel
(, choled, so called from its gliding [Gesen.] or burrowing [Frst]) occurs only in Lev 11:29, in the list of un-clean animals. According to the old versions and the Talmud, the Heb. choled denotes a weasel (see Lewysohn, Zool. des Talm. p. 91, and Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. et Talm. p. 756); but if the word is identical with the Arabic chuld and the Syriac chuldo, as Bochart (Hieroz. 2, 435) and others have endeavored to show, there is no doubt that a mole is the animal indicated. Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 474), however, has the following very true observation: Satis constat animalium nomina persaepe in hac lingua hoc, in alia cognata aliud, id vero simile, animal significare. He prefers to render the term by weasel, as in the Sept. (), Vulg. (mustela), and the English version. SEE MOLE.
Moles are common enough in Palestine. Hasselquist (Travels, p. 120), speaking of the country between Jaffai and Ramah, says he had never seen in any place the ground so cast up by moles as in these plains. There was scarcely a yard’s length between the mole-hills. It is not improbable that both the Talpa Europaea and the T. caeca, the blind mole of which Aristotle speaks (Hist. Anim. 1, 8, 3), occur in Palestine, though we have no definite information on this point. The ancients represented the mole as having no eyes, which assertion later scientific writers believed they had disproved by showing our species to be possessed of these organs, though exceedingly small. Nevertheless, recent observations have proved that a species, in other respects scarcely, if at all, to be distinguished from the common, is totally destitute of eyes, and consequently has received the name of Talpa caeca. It is to be found in Italy, and probably extends to the East, instead of the European. Moles must not, however, be considered as forming a part of the rodent order, whereof all the families and genera are provided with strong incisor teeth, like rats and squirrels, and therefore intended for subsisting chiefly on grain and nuts; they are, on the contrary, supplied with a great number of small teeth, to the extent of twenty-two in each jaw-indicating a partial regimen; for they feed on worms, larvae, and underground insects, as well as on roots, and thus belong to the insectivorous order, which brings the application of the name somewhat nearer to carnivora and its received interpretation weasel.
Bochart, inclined to recognize the word , tsiyim (A.V. wild beast of the desert, etc.), as a general term denoting cats, or any kind of wild beasts that frequent dry places, discovered an incongruity when it is opposed to a single species, , iyim (A.V. wild beast of the islands), which he translates thoes (Isa 34:14; Jeremiah 1:39). Both words are meant, it seems, to imitate the cry of animals; and if he be right in regarding the first as expressive of the mewing or screaming of wild-cats, with such other animals as the ancients included in the feline tribe, and we now class among Viverridae and Mustelidae, each including several genera, more or less represented by species residing in and around Palestine, we then find the opposition of the two words strikingly just, provided that, instead of the single thoes of Bochart, we make iyim include also the various will canide (dogs) of the same region, amounting to at least twelve species, without including two hyenas.
Such is the vagueness of Oriental denominations, and the necessity of noticing certain species which, from their importance, cannot well be supposed to have been altogether disregarded in the Bible, that in this place a few words descriptive of the species of Viverridae and Mustelidae known to reside in and near Palestine, and supposed to be collectively designated by the term tsiyin, may not be irrelevant. They appear, both anciently and among ourselves, collected, into a kind of group, under an impression that they belong to the feline family; hence we, like the ancients, still use the words civet-cat, tree-cat, polecat, etc.; and, in reality, a considerable number of the species have partially retractile-claws, the pupils of the eyes being contractile like those of cats, of which they even bear the spotted and streaked liveries. All such naturally have arboreal habits, and from their low lengthy forms are no less disposed to burrow; but many of them, chiefly in other hemispheres, are excellent swimmers.
One of these species, allied to, if not the same as, Genetta barba.ra, is the Thela Elan, described by Bochart as having various colors, and as being spotted alike a pard. In Syria it is called sephka, in Arabia zebzeb, and lives by hunting birds and shaphans. There are; besides, in the same region, the nimse, ferret or polecat (Putorius vul, qaris), for these two are not specifically distinct; fertel-heile, the weasel (Mustela vulgaris Afiicana), differing from ours chiefly in its superior size and darker colors. Aparadoxurus, identical with, or nearly allied to, P. typus, occurs in Arabia; for it seems these animals are found wherever there are palmiferae, the date palm in particular being a favorite residence of the species. Two or three varieties, or perhaps species, of nems occur in Egypt solely; for the name is again generical in the Arabian dialects, and denotes the ichneumon. Arabia proper has several other animals not clearly distinguished, though belonging to the families here noticed; but which of these are the sungiiab and the simur, or the alphanex of Ibn’Omar ben-Abdulbar, quoted by Bochart, is undetermined; albeit they evidently belong to the tribes of vermin mammals of that region, excepting .as regards the last mentioned, now known to be a kind of miniature fox (Megalotis zer-da, Ham. Smith), orfennec of Bruce, who nevertheless confounded it with Paradoxurns typus, or an allied species which equally frequents palm-trees; but thefennec does not climb. It is equally impossible to point out the cats, tree-cats, and civet-cats noticed by the poet Nemesianus, who was of African birth, or by the Arabian Darmir, who makes no further distinctive mention of them.
The chled is described in Lev 11:29 as one of the small animals which are thrown together under the general designation of creeping things, and which appear to include the smaller carnivorous and insectivorous nammalia, as well as the four-footed reptilia. The whole category is prohibited as unclean. The original word, as above seen, is referred by many to the Arabic and Syriac, in which it is said to imply a creeping, insidious motion; and hence peculiarly appropriate to the Mustelidae, which, from their remarkably long, slender, and vermiform bodies and short legs, seem to glide along the earth more like reptiles than quadrupeds, and insinuate themselves into the smallest crevices. Kitto mentions the fitchet or polecat (Mustela putorius) as found in Palestine in the neighborhood of the villages, but says that it is rarely seen in towns. The skill is of no value ill Syria, as the people have not, as in Europe, any means of divesting it of its unpleasant smell (Phyis. Hist of Pales. p. 355).
The common weasel is doubtless found there also, as it is spread over Europe; but not the stoat or ermine, the climate being too warm for it. All these animals, but particularly the first-named, are most destructive to other small animals; and from their depredations in the poultry-yard are held in detestation by the farmer, who, however, does not consider the benefit they do him in the destruction of myriads of field-mice, house-mice, and rats. Their appetite for blood seems insatiable; their ferocity and courage prompt them to fly at animals larger than themselves; while their carnivorous organization is developed perhaps even more highly than in the typical cats, and they use their powers with the utmost skill and judgment. They prefer the brain and blood of their prey to the flesh.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Weasel
(Heb. holedh), enumerated among unclean animals (Lev. 11:29). Some think that this Hebrew word rather denotes the mole (Spalax typhlus) common in Palestine. There is no sufficient reason, however, to depart from the usual translation. The weasel tribe are common also in Palestine.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Weasel
So the Mishna interprets choled (Lev 11:29), as meaning an animal that glides or slips away. So Septuagint and Vulgate But Bochart takes it as related to the Arabic chuld, “the mole”; chephar is the more usual Hebrew for the mole (Isa 2:20). The choled was unclean.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Weasel
WEASEL (chled, Lev 11:29).An unclean animal. Since the Heb. root chlad means to dig, and the Arab [Note: Arabic.] , khuld is the mole-rat, it is practically certain that this latter is the correct translation of chled. Cf. Mole.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Weasel
wez’l (, holedh; compare Arabic khuld, mole-rat): (1) Holedh is found only in Lev 11:29, where it stands first in the list of eight unclean creeping things that creep upon the earth. the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) agree in rendering holedh by weasel, and the Septuagint has , gale, weasel or marten. According to Gesenius, the Vulgate, Targum, and Talmud support the same rendering. In spite of this array of authorities, it is worth while to consider the claims of the mole-rat, Spalax typhlus, Arabic khuld. This is a very common rodent, similar in appearance and habits to the mole, which does not exist in Palestine. The fact that it burrows may be considered against it, in view of the words, that creepeth upon the earth. The term creeping thing is, however, very applicable to it, and the objection seems like a quibble, especially in view of the fact that there is no category of subterranean animals. See MOLE. (2) The weasel, Mustela vulgaris, has a wide range in Asia, Europe, and North America. It is from 8 to 10 inches long, including the short tail. It is brown above and white below. In the northern part of its range, its whole fur, except the tail, is white in winter. It is active and fearless, and preys upon all sorts of small mammals, birds and insects. See LIZARD.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Weasel
Fig. 341Paradoxurus Typusthe Palm-Martin
The Viverridae and Mustellidae appear, both anciently and among ourselves, collected into a kind of group, under an impression that they belong to the feline family; hence we, like the ancients, still use the words civet-cat, tree-cat, pole-cat, etc.; and, in reality, a considerable number of the species have partially retractile claws, the pupils of the eyes being contractile like those of cats, of which they even bear the spotted and streaked liveries. All such naturally have arboreal habits, and from their low lengthy forms are no less disposed to burrow; but many of them, chiefly in other hemispheres, are excellent swimmers. One of these species, allied to if not the same as genetta barbara, is the Thela Aelan, by Bochart described as having ‘various colors, and as being spotted like a pard.’ There are besides, in the same region, the nimse ferret or polecat, for these two are not specifically distinct, the weasel differing from ours chiefly in its superior size and darker colors. A paradoxurus, identical with or nearly allied to P. typus, occurs in Arabia; for it seems these animals are found wherever there are palmiferae, the date-palm in particular being a favorite residence of the species. Two or three varieties, or perhaps species, of nems occur in Egypt solely. Arabia Proper has several other animals not clearly distinguished, though belonging to the families here noticed.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Weasel
This occurs only in Lev 11:29 as one of the unclean animals. The word is choled, and occurs nowhere else. Gesenius translates it ‘weasel,’ so called from its swift gliding motion, or its gliding into holes. Some, however, judge it to be the mole, the Arabic name of which is chuld, and the Syriac chuldo. This latter interpretation is probably the right one.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Weasel
Lev 11:29
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Weasel
Weasel (chled) occurs only in Lev 11:29, in the list of unclean animals; but the Hebrew word ought more probably to be translated “mole.” Moles are common in Palestine.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Weasel
Weasel. (Hebrew, choled). Occurs only in Lev 11:29 in the list of unclean animals; but the Hebrew word ought more probably to be translated “mole.” Moles are common in Palestine.