Hebrew word · H7642
שַׁבְּלוּל
shebelul
snail
Found only here in the Bible. Post-biblical Hebrew (rabbinic and modern) uses it for 'snail'. Some connect it to the root šābal, 'to flow, go along', which would fit a creature known for its trail. It covers snails and slugs alike: soft, slow creatures that leave a slimy track.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
snail
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Found only here in the Bible. Post-biblical Hebrew (rabbinic and modern) uses it for 'snail'. Some connect it to the root šābal, 'to flow, go along', which would fit a creature known for its trail. It covers snails and slugs alike: soft, slow creatures that leave a slimy track.
- Against the English
KJV, WEB, YLT, ESV and NASB say 'snail'. BSB and NIV say 'slug', which fits the 'melting' picture well, since a slug has no shell and looks like it is nothing but wet body. Both are fair. The Hebrew word does not separate the two.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Its only biblical use is here. The Septuagint did not translate it as an animal: it has 'wax' (κηρός), probably from reading the verse differently or guessing. Jerome's translation made from the Hebrew has a 'worm' or creeping thing that melts away, and medieval Jewish commentators such as Rashi explain it as a snail that seems to waste away in its own moisture as it crawls.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 58:8 שַׁ֭בְּלוּל a snail
Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.
Here: A word found only here in the Bible. Later Hebrew uses it for 'snail', and ancient Jewish tradition took it that way. The point is a soft creature that seems to use itself up as it moves along.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.