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Friday, October 31st, 2025
the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Bible Encyclopedias
Tortoise
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
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tôr´tus , tôr´tis , tôr´tois . (the King James Version) ( צב , cābh , the Revised Version (British and American) "great lizard"; compare the Arabic word, ḍabb , the thorny-tailed lizard): The word cābh occurs as the name of an animal only in Leviticus 11:29 , being the third in the list of unclean "creeping things."
The same word is found in Isaiah 66:20 , translated "litters," and in Numbers 7:3 , where ‛eghlōth cābh is translated "covered wagons." Gesenius derives the word, in all senses, from the root cābhabh , "to move gently," "to flow"; compare Arabic dabba , "to flow." The Arabic noun dabb is Uromastix spinipes , the Arabian thorny-tailed lizard. This lizard is about 18 inches long, its relatively smooth body being terminated with a great tail armed with rings of spiny scales. The Arabs have a familiar proverb, 'a‛ḳad min dhanab uḍ -ḍabb , "knottier than the tail of the ḍabb ." The Septuagint has for cābh in Leviticus 11:29 ὁ κροκόδειλος ὁ χερσαῖος , ho krokódeilos ho chersaı́os , the English equivalent of which, "land-crocodile," is used by the Revised Version (British and American) for the fifth in the list of unclean "creeping things," kōaḥ , the King James Version "chameleon."
The writer does not know what can have led the translators of the King James Version to use here the word "tortoise." Assuming that the thorny-tailed lizard is meant, the "great lizard" of the Revised Version (British and American) may be considered to be a fair translation. See LIZARD .
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Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Tortoise'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/t/tortoise.html. 1915.
