Spider
The Hebrew word ’accabish in (Job 8:24; Isaiah 59:5) is correctly rendered “spider.” Put semamith is wrongly translated “spider” in (Proverbs 30:28) it refers probably to some kind of lizard.
(But “there are many species of spider in Palestine: some which spin webs, like the common garden spider; some which dig subterranean cells and make doors in them, like the well-known trap-door spider of southern Europe; and some which have no web, but chase their prey upon the ground, like the hunting-and the wolf-spider.”—Wood’s Bible Animals.)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on Spider
Spider spi'-der ((1) `akkabhish; compare Arabic `ankabut, English Versions of the Bible "spider"; Septuagint arachne (Job 8:14; Isa 59:5); (2) semamith, "lizard," the King James Version "spider"; Septuagint kalabotes (Pr 30:28)): Semamith of Pr 30:28 is probably the gecko, a kind of lizard, as Septuagint and the Revised Version (British and American) have it. See LIZARD. In Job 8:14 the spider's web is an emblem of frailty: "Whose confidence shall break in sunder, and whose trust is a spider's web." Frailty or futility seems to be indicated also in Isa 59:5-6: "They hatch adders' eggs, and weave the spider's web: .... Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works" "Spider's web" is in Job 8:14 both `akkabhish, "spider's house," while in Isa 59:5 it is qure `akkabhish, qur, according to BDB, being "thread" or "film." ⇒See a list of verses on SPIDER in the Bible. Alfred Ely Day ⇒See the definition of spider in the KJV Dictionary ⇒See also the McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible on Spider
Two words are tr" ' spider ' in A V. 1. r';;y 'akkdhUh (Arab, 'ankabut), dpdx"'?, aranai. In both the passagesin which this word occur.s (Job 8", Is 59°-') the allusion is to the gossamer web of the spider, as an emblem of frailty and speedy destruction, Bildad declaring that the hope of the wicked is as the spider's web (m. ' house ; cf. beit'ankabiH in Arab.), and Isaiah saj'ing that the tenuous web cannot be wrought into a garment. The number of species of spiders in Palestine and Syria is very large. 2. n'tc^ simamith (Pr 30-'). This word, from an obsolete root c;;' sdmam, 'to poison,' refers to some noxious, reputedly poisonous creature, which is probably some species of lizard (so RV ; see, furliier. Toy, Proverbs, ad loc.). The L.\X /ta\a- fiuirT)! signilies a newt, gecko, or spotted lizard. The latter may he the abu hurcis of tlie Aralis. Stcllio in the Vulg. signihes tlie newt or gecko. Several species of lizards frequent houses, as the gecko, wall lizard, green lizard, etc. See Chamkl- EON, Gecko, Lizaud. G. E. Post.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary on Spider
'akabish. Job 8:14, "the hypocrite's trust shall be a spider's web," namely, frail and transitory, notwithstanding its ingenuity; the spider's web sustains it, the hypocrite's trust will not sustain him. Hypocrisy is as easily swept away as the spider's web by the wind; it is as flimsy, and is woven out of its own inventions, as the spider's web out of its own bowels. Isa 59:5, "they weave the spider's web ... their webs shall not become garments"; the point is the thinness of the garment, as contrasted with what is substantial (Pro 11:18). When a spider attacks a fly it plunges its two fangs into its victim, and through them (being tubular) injects poison. In Pro 30:28 translated semamith, "the gecko ('lizard") taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." it can run over smooth surfaces noiselessly in an inverted position, as flies on a ceiling. But the spider's characteristic is not this, but to weave a web; it is in cottages rather than "palaces." The gecko teaches, as much as the spider taught Robert Bruce, the irresistible power of perseverance. The spider's spinning o…
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Easton, M.G. (1893) Easton's Bible Dictionary. 3rd edn. Thomas Nelson. [Public Domain]
- Nave, O.J. (1897) Nave's Topical Bible. Topical Bible Publishing Co.. [Public Domain]
- Hastings, J. (ed.) (1909) A Dictionary of the Bible. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Smith, W. (ed.) (1884) Smith's Bible Dictionary. London: John Murray. [Public Domain]
- Fausset, A.R. (1878) Fausset's Bible Dictionary. [Public Domain]A Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia