MOLE. 1. tinshemeth , Leviticus 11:30 (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘mole,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘chameleon’; but same word is in Leviticus 11:18 and Deuteronomy 14:18 tr. [Note: translate or translation.] AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘swan,’ RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘horned owl’). See Chameleon.
2. chaphôr-pçrôth (?‘ burrowing animals’), Isaiah 2:20 , may apply to rats, mice, jerboas, etc., as well as ‘moles.’ The true insectivorous mole does not occur in Palestine, but the rodent Spalax typhlus , the mole rat, is very common. It lives entirely underground, has most rudimentary eyes, and makes very long burrows. It is gregarious, and large areas are sometimes covered thick with its hillocks.
E. W. G. Masterman.