אַ֣ךְ אֶת־זֶ֞ה לֹ֤א תֹֽאכְלוּ֙ מִמַּֽעֲלֵ֣י הַגֵּרָ֔ה וּמִמַּפְרִיסֵ֥י הַפַּרְסָ֖ה הַשְּׁסוּעָ֑ה אֶֽת־הַ֠גָּמָל וְאֶת־הָאַרְנֶ֨בֶת וְאֶת־הַשָּׁפָ֜ן כִּֽי־מַעֲלֵ֧ה גֵרָ֣ה הֵ֗מָּה וּפַרְסָה֙ לֹ֣א הִפְרִ֔יסוּ טְמֵאִ֥ים הֵ֖ם לָכֶֽם׃
7Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cleft you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger because they chew the cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.
The Hebrew that is translated as “rock badger” (or: “rock hyrax”) in English is translated in a West African language as “boulder goat.” (See this blog entry )
In Hiligaynon it is translated as “animals which chews again their cud/food/what-they-ate but their hooves do-not-have splitting, just-like a camel and a rabbit” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation).
See also hyrax.
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is translated in English as “camel” is translated in Muna as “water buffalo.” René van den Berg explains: “Camels are unknown; the biggest known animal is the water buffalo (though now rare on Muna).”
In Bislama is is translated as buluk: “cow” / “bull” (source: Ross McKerras) and in Bahnar as aseh lăk-đa which is a combination of the Vietnamese loan word for “camel” (lăk-đa) and the Bahnar term for “horse” (aseh) to communicate that the camel is a beast of burden (source: Pham Xuan Tin in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 20ff. ).
In the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) it was as ĸatigagtôĸ or “big-backed ones.” “Katigagtôĸ (modern qatigattooq), which has the literal meaning of ‘something with a big back.’ It comprises the noun ĸatigak (modern qatigak) ‘back’ combined with the suffix –tôĸ (modern –tooq) ‘something possessing a big X.’” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)
In Luke 18:25, Mark 10:25, and Matthew 19:24 some versions of the Peshitta translation in Syriac Aramaic (Classical Syriac) show an ambiguity between the very similar words for “camel” and “rope.” Some translations of the Peshitta, therefore, use the “rope” interpretation, including the Classical Armenian Bible (մալխոյ for “rope”), the English translation by George Lamsa (publ. 1933) (It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle), or the Dutch translation by Egbert Nierop (publ. 2020) (het voor een kabel eenvoudiger is het oog van een naald binnen te gaan).
In the above-mentioned three verses, it is translated in Noongar as “kangaroo” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
There were two types of camel known in Bible times the most common being the Arabian Dromedary camelus dromedarius, which was indigenous to the area. The two-humped Bactrian Camel camelus bactrianus was also known and prized, but it was imported from Central Asia.
Camels belong to the same family as the South American llama, vicuna, alpaca, and guanaco, but camels are much larger and have a big fatty hump on their backs. Bactrian camels may reach a height of about two meters (6.5 feet), while dromedaries are even bigger. Dromedaries are a uniform light fawn color, while Bactrian camels are darker, especially in winter when they grow longer fur.
Camels do not have hooves but a large footpad with two broad toes ideally suited to walking on sand. In other ways too they are ideally suited to life in desert areas. They store excess food in their humps and this makes it possible for them to go a long time without eating. Special blood cells also enable them to go without water for long periods. They also have a very efficient digestive system and can extract the maximum amount of nutrition from apparently dry vegetation. This adaptation to harsh environments means that camels can make long journeys through dry areas which would be beyond the abilities of other types of pack animal such as donkeys. Camels were used for riding and for carrying heavy loads. They were also used to pull carts.
In winter the fur of camels thickens and grows longer and then when summer comes they shed their winter fur in large wads. These wads of camel hair are collected and twisted into cords and ropes or spun into thread which is then used for weaving coarse cloth. This cloth was usually used for making tents but it was sometimes used for making outer robes.
Camels’ milk was used as food and drink but their meat was considered unclean by the Israelites.
In spite of the fact that camels were considered to be unclean for food they were a symbol of wealth and commerce. People or nations with many camels were automatically viewed as commercially successful and wealthy as the possession of camels opened up the possibility of transporting goods long distances and engaging in trade.
In areas where camels are not known, the word is often transliterated from Hebrew or the dominant language of the area. However, in some languages descriptive names have been invented. In some South American languages names meaning “hump-backed llama” or “big alpaca with a hump” have been used. Elsewhere expressions such as “hump-backed horse” have been used. A fuller description should usually be included in a glossary or word list.
Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)
For information on the domestication of camels, see Early camel incidents in the Hebrew Bible .
Coney: The seventeenth century English word “coney” was the common word at that time for the rabbit, “rabbit” being used at that time only for the baby rabbit. In later English, “rabbit” came to be used for the adults as well. “Coney” then dropped out of use except among fur traders. However it is certain that the Hebrew word shafan does not mean “rabbit” so the King James Version translation “coney” was incorrect. In the nineteenth century, Bible readers perhaps not being sure what a “coney” was, came to identify the “coney” with the Syrian hyrax, probably as the result of hearing preachers describe the animal. To these readers then “coney” acquired a new meaning that it had nowhere else. The use of “coney” is thus both archaic and incorrect.
Badger: Two types of badger live in the land of Israel. The more common is Meles meles and the second is the ratel or Honey Badger Mellivora capensis. The ratel eats anything from small mammals to lizards, insects, snails, fruit, honey and any dead animal or bird. But the animal referred to in Leviticus 11:5 and Deuteronomy 14:7 eats only vegetation and in Psalm 104:18 and Proverbs 30:26 it is associated with rocks as its natural habitat. Shafan therefore cannot be the badger or the ratel Thus those versions using “badger” are likewise incorrect.
Rock badger: Mystery surrounds the name “rock badger”. There was no known animal popularly called a “rock badger” prior to the release of the Brown, Driver, and Briggs translation of Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon in 1906. In this lexicon apparently for the first time, “rock badger” appears as the translation of the Hebrew shafan. It is unclear why they coined this new word in preference to the more common “rock rabbit”, but it was probably the result of translating the Cape Dutch klip dassie (“little rock badger”) too literally. However “rock badger” has been used by most English translators ever since. Both “coney” and “rock badger” are, however, not only basically meaningless to most readers but are also incorrect.
The animal referred to by the Hebrew word shafan is undoubtedly the Syrian Rock Hyrax Procavia capensis syriaca. This identification was first made by Canon Tristram in 1867 and has been confirmed many times since. It is a very common animal in the Middle East and Africa eats only vegetation and lives among the rocks.
In southern and eastern Africa other subspecies of the Hyrax Procavia capensis and the Yellow-spotted Hyrax Heterohyrax brucei are sometimes called “rock rabbit”, but are more usually called by the Afrikaans name “dassie”.
Hyraxes are found only in the Middle East and Africa. They are the size of small rabbits, but there the similarity ends. Hyraxes are unique in many ways. They have small round ears, no visible tail, and short legs. They look a bit like giant guinea pigs or cane rats, but they are not really rodents. They live mainly on leaves and herbs. The structure of their jaws, teeth, and feet and the size of their prehistoric ancestors link them to the rhinoceros and elephant.
Two of their top front teeth develop into small tusks which sometimes protrude from the side of their mouth. They have four toes on their front feet and three on the back feet. These toes do not have claws but each has a small hoof-like nail. The soles of their feet are perpetually clammy, being lubricated by a special gland. This enables them to run up almost vertical rock faces and climb trees with ease. In the middle of their back they have another large gland covered with an oval patch of hairs of a different color. These hairs can be raised as an alarm signal.
For such small mammals hyraxes have a very long gestation period of seven months. They live in fairly large family groups and since they are unable to regulate their body temperature by perspiring they huddle together in cavities under rocks when the weather is cold and lie stretched out in breezy locations in the shade of the rocks or trees when it is hot. They are thus only active and visible when the temperature is neither very hot nor cold.
They are quite vocal creatures, communicating by a variety of grunts, whistle-like alarm squeals, and territory-marking barks.
The Syrian rock hyrax is a fawny gray color with a yellowish back patch. Today they are easily seen in the wadis of the Judean Desert and in many parts of Galilee. They are also found in the Sinai, Arabian Peninsula, Syria and Lebanon.
In Leviticus 11:5 and Deuteronomy 14:7 hyraxes are said to “chew the cud”. This is not factually correct but they often look as if they are chewing endlessly. The reasons for them being declared “unclean” are strictly religious. As vegetation eaters they are no more a health hazard than for example goats or sheep. They actually spend a lot of time cleaning themselves.
Apart from being viewed as “unclean” animals there is one additional significance associated with the hyrax. Being virtually defenseless and easy prey for hawks, leopards, and human beings, the hyrax in Proverbs 30:26 symbolizes a combination of defenselessness and wisdom. It is defenseless but wise enough to seek the protection of the rocks which in turn are symbolic of the timeless protective stability of God.
Hyraxes are distributed over a wide area of eastern, western, central, and southern Africa. It is thus not usually difficult to find a word for hyrax in this region. In many eastern and southeastern Bantu languages the word for hyrax is mbira, mbila, mpila, or some similar derivative. It is usually classified in these languages as a type of rat.
Outside of the Middle East and Africa, however, it is difficult to find a word that will be both accurate and well known. Phrases such as “cliff rabbits” or “rock rabbits” are sometimes acceptable, but the best solution is probably to transliterate either the Hebrew word shafan or the scientific general name “hyrax”, and to include a fuller description in a footnote or in a glossary.
In the passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy the translator is obliged to translate the writer’s view that the hyrax is a cud-chewing animal, even though this may not be factually correct.
Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)
See also rock badger.
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Deuteronomy 14:7:
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Camel: this animal is referred to many times in the Bible. If a language distinguishes between the two main types of camels, the one referred to here is the “dromedary,” which has only one hump on its back. Otherwise translators may borrow the general term “camel” and explain it in a footnote or glossary.
Hare: Good News Translation says “rabbit”; see Lev 11.6. Hares and rabbits don’t really chew the cud, but their jaws move in such a way that they appear to be doing this. But in any case they were considered unclean by the Hebrews because they do not have cloven hoofs, and thus were not to be eaten.
Rock badger: as noted above, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “damian”; New International Version and New Jerusalem Bible have “coney” (New International Version footnote, “hyrax or rock badger”). It appears also in Lev 11.5 (and see badger in Psa 104.18; Pro 30.26). This animal is about the same size as a rabbit and normally lives in rocky areas. It also does not chew the cud, but like the rabbit it appears to.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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