mouse / rat

The Hebrew word ‘akbar is a very general one including all of the small rodents. The word thus includes house mice, field mice, voles, dormice, jerboas, jirds, gerbils (sand or desert rats), black rats, brown rats, hamsters, and others. The Canaanites hunted and ate the larger rodents such as jerboas and gerbils (which are not rats at all, in spite of their nickname “sand rats”), and so do many of the desert tribes today in the Middle East.

It would not be possible to describe here all the various rodents covered by the Hebrew word ‘akbar. The descriptions will thus be limited to rats, voles, jerboas, and gerbils. House mice and field mice are too well known all over the world to warrant description.

Rats are larger than mice (25-30 centimeters [1 foot] long including tail) but otherwise look very much like them. Both the Black Rat Rattus rattus and the Brown Rat Rattus norvegicus vary in color from black to grayish brown with the brown rat having a slightly shorter snout. The black rat is host to a certain type of flea that is a carrier of the dreaded bubonic plague. Although zoologists in the 1960’s believed that Rattus rattus originated in Asia remains of this rat have been found in Israel dating from prehistoric times. The Brown Norwegian Rat only arrived in the land in the 1930’s.

Levant Vole Microtus socialis guentheri: Voles differ from small mice only in the shape of their cheek teeth so to most people they look just like mice. They are small grayish brown and have pale bellies. They feed on grass stalks and the stalks of grains such as wheat and barley. They are active day and night for about two or three hours at a time eating their own body weight and more each day. They also produce up to sixteen litters a year with up to twelve babies in a litter. Thus in a good season when there is plenty of food and cover in which to hide from predators their population explodes and this vast increase in numbers poses a very serious threat to crops. Of all mice these are the most destructive.

Lesser Jerboa Jaculus jaculus: The scientific name means “jumper”. Jerboas are slightly larger than most mice and have very long hind legs and very short front legs. They hop like kangaroos and are even known (erroneously) as “kangaroo rats”. They have a long tail with a tuft at the end and this is used for balance when they hop. They live in desert and semidesert areas and are the color of sand. They are active only at night and have large eyes and ears to compensate for this. They feed on seeds and can go without water for long periods.

Palestinian Gerbil Gerbillus andersoni allenbyi: Gerbils are very similar to jerboas but are smaller. When alarmed they can move very fast covering up to 3 meters (10 feet) with each leap. Although called “sand rats” or “desert rats”, they are actually not rats at all in the strict sense of the word.

In Leviticus 11:29 the ‘akbar is listed as an unclean animal. It is not clear and has often been debated by rabbinic scholars whether all “mice” are included in the ban, or only some species. Jerboas, gerbils, and hamsters are a common food among Middle Eastern desert tribes and are not classified as “mice” today.

The major exegetical choice to be made by the translator is whether the ban is on all types of small rodents or only on some. Commentators are divided on the issue. NEB, JB, NIV, and REB all take the prohibition to apply to specific species: rats (JB and NIV) or jerboas (NEB and REB). “Rats” is an understandable choice, since rats, especially the black rat, are known to be carriers of disease. TEV takes the view that all species are included in the ban and has “rats, mice”. KJV, RSV, and NAB have “mouse”, probably with a wide rather than a restricted meaning.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

lizard

There is a reasonably strong consensus among scholars that leta’ah refers to the lacertid and agama lizards, both of which are common and fairly obvious in Israel. The lacertids are soft-skinned lizards that live in close proximity to roads and houses. One of the more colorful is the Syrian Green Lizard Lacerta trilineata, which lives in orchards and woods. The most common of the agamas is the Rainbow Agama Agama stellio, which is very common around houses and on walls and rocks.

Most scholars agree that tsav is the name for the dab or thorn-tailed lizards of which there are many species in Israel. Two of the most common are the Egyptian Thorn-tailed Lizard Uromastyx aegyptius and the Colored Thorn-tailed Lizard Uromastyx ornatus. The name “dab” is an English version of their Arabic name dhabb (ضب), which is reflected in the Hebrew tsav.

Lacertid lizards (leta’ah) are fairly small, about 15-20 centimeters (6-8 inches) long, and they have a shiny smooth skin. Syrian green lizards have dark green spots on a lighter green background, with a yellow-green belly. They feed on flies, gnats, mosquitoes, and ants.

The rainbow agama is much larger, reaching 50-60 centimeters (20-24 inches) in length. In the breeding season the male develops bright colors, with a blue tail, green body, and bright orange or bright green head, dependent on the subspecies. The females and non-breeding males are a dull gray color. All agamas are characterized by the fact that they bob their heads vigorously by doing “push-ups” with their front legs. They have long, fairly stiff tails, which they raise when they run. They feed on a wide variety of insects and also prey on smaller lizards. In most of the Arab-speaking world they are known as hardoun lizards. Some agamas have the ability to change color to match their surroundings in the same way that chameleons do.

The thorn-tailed lizards (tsav) are relatively large desert lizards with a length of about 65 centimeters (26 inches). They have a fairly thick, squat appearance and have a thick short tail covered with sharp spikes, which are actually cone-shaped scales. They use this tail for defense. They often crawl into holes or cracks in rocks and then block the entrance with their thorny tail. They are vegetarian, eating various succulent desert plants. Even though they are on the list of unclean foods, they are commonly eaten by Arabs and Bedouin, who keep them in cages and fatten them.

They are listed as unclean.

Agamas are found throughout Africa and in tropical Asia. Lacertids are found all over Europe. Elsewhere a general word for lizard can be used.

For tsav a phrase, such as “big thorny lizard” or “big lizard with a thorny tail”, is usually the best option. Where languages differentiate between smaller lizards and monitor lizards, “thorny monitor” or “monitor with a thorny tail” will better convey the idea of large size.

Egyptian thorn-tailed lizard, Wikimedia Commons

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

complete verse (Leviticus 11:29)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 11:29:

  • Kupsabiny: “Other animals that walk on the ground and are not clean are: voles, rats and big lizards of various kinds,” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “All [those] that creep on the ground, such as the gecko, the mouse, the lizard [and] the badger are unclean for you.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) are-to-consider these animals that crawl dirty/unclean just-like rats, mice, geckos, house-lizard, monitor lizards, crocodile/alligator, sand-lizards, and the chameleon. Whoever touches their dead bodies is-considered dirty/unclean until (it) becomes-dusk/twilight.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘From all the animals that walk on the ground, these are the ones that defile you/cause you to become unacceptable to me if you touch them: Moles, rats, any kind of lizard,” (Source: Translation for Translators)

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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. )

Translation commentary on Leviticus 11:29 - 11:30

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 .