שְׂמָמִית

From the study of Proverbs 30:28

Range of meaning

This word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. In later Rabbinic Hebrew it names a small house creature, and Modern Hebrew uses it for the gecko. Lexicons such as HALOT favour 'gecko' and compare Arabic sāmm abraṣ ('gecko'), which comes from a root linked with poison. Geckos were widely, and wrongly, believed to be poisonous.

Against the English

Most modern versions (BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV, NASB, NLT) say 'lizard'. KJV and YLT say 'spider', following an older line of Jewish and Reformation translation (compare Luther's Spinne).

How it drifted

The 'spider' reading came from medieval Jewish interpretation: Rashi's Old French gloss is usually taken to mean 'spider'. It passed into Luther, the Geneva Bible and the KJV. It was not a mistake in English so much as a different guess about an unknown animal. Today it simply looks wrong next to the oldest evidence.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (the Greek translation, 3rd–2nd century BC) has kalabōtēs, a spotted lizard or gecko. The Vulgate (Jerome's Latin, about AD 400) has stellio, a star-spotted lizard. Talmud Shabbat 77b includes the śəmāmît in a list of 'the fear of the weak over the strong' (the śəmāmît over the scorpion). The house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) is common in buildings across the Levant and climbs walls and ceilings with adhesive toe pads.