Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Joseph I. Lauer" <josephlauer AT hotmail.com>]

    With regard to the meaning of "perot", Prof. Yehuda Feliks mentions in a
note regarding "nefel esheth" in Psalm 58:9/8: "The ashuth, or mole, is also
called .hafarpereth in Hebrew, or as Isaiah has it, .hafor-peroth, that is,
who digs burrows (pera in Aramaic is a burrow).  The prophet describes (Isa.
2:21) the day of God in which the pride of man will be brought low in that
he will cast away his idols to 'the moles and to the bats'.").  Y. Feliks,
Nature & Man in the Bible (The Soncino Press, 1981), p. 192, n. 8.
    In the text (p. 192), though, Prof. Feliks states that "Ashuth is
identical with the mole-rat, Spalax ehrenbergi, an eyeless rodent which
burrows in the ground and gnaws at plant roots.  In the Mishnah [Moed Katan
1:4], ashuth is mentioned, together with mice, as a field pest."
    Joseph I. Lauer
    Brooklyn, New York