A blind, underground rodent with large front teeth that makes small soil heaps on the surface.
About Mole Rat
This word occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible and it is very difficult to know what it refers to. In the Masoretic Text it is written as two words lachpor perot which seem to mean “to dig holes". But the ancient versions interpret the two words of the Masoretic Text to be a single word lachafarparot a noun phrase literally meaning to “the dig-diggers” or “to the search-searchers” so it is taken by them to mean “to the moles". The verb form chafar occurs more frequently in the Bible and means “to dig", “to search” or “to spy” (JOS 2:2; JOS 2:3). The only place where the supposed noun form occurs is in ISA 2:20 where it is in parallel with a word meaning “bats". “Moles” and “bats” seems to be a strange pairing especially since the Israelites classified bats among the birds.
Key References
In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.
All Scripture References (1)
Isaiah (1)
In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.