Talk:שממית
Biblical meaning[edit]
The meaning in Modern Hebrew is well-established. However, the Biblical Hebrew term is a hapax legomenon (Proverbs 30:28) and its translation is less clear. It quite possibly refers to a kind of lizard, possibly a gecko or spotted lizard (stellion?), as the Septuagint gives καλαβώτης (kalabṓtēs). But there may be reasons to doubt that it's specifically a gecko for etymological reasons noted by Klein. [1][2]
OTOH, numerous translators render it as "spider", notably KJV and Rashi (in his commentary on a verse from Sanhedrin using the same word). Here are good summaries of the various translations: [3], [4]. Apparently Ibn Ezra even translates it as monkey/ape [5], and some other sources as "swallow" (but I wasn't able to track down any of the primary sources: "Venet.", Kimchi on Proverbs, or Abulwalîd). I'm not sure the optimal way to present this information, but at the very least the interpretation as "spider" should be incorporated somehow. 70.172.194.25 09:05, 27 January 2023 (UTC)