New Jerusalem Bible again transliterates several of these difficult terms (“the various kinds of lizards: gecko, koah, letaah, chameleon and tinshamet”), which is not very helpful to the common language translator or to the average Bible reader.

Even if these animals were easily identified, they are not always easy to translate into the languages of the world. It may be necessary to summarize as in Good News Translation, using general and well-known terms that cover the intention of the writer, rather than trying to find an exact equivalent for each one. In some languages these animals may not be seen as significantly different from the other four-footed animals already mentioned, but for the people of Israel they are in a different category called swarming things. The list is probably intended to be representative of the whole group.

As in the list of birds (verses 13-19), the singular form is used in its collective sense and will have to be translated as a plural in many languages.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .