Yesterday a friend wrote to me asking, "I was wondering if you have any insight on Proverbs 30:28... KJV says ‘spider’ and most others say ‘lizard.’ Just curious about the confusion ... seems like two totally different creatures, although small, vastly unique from each other."

It’s true-- check it out. Every major translation other than the KJV and NKJV contains lizard instead of spider:

Proverbs 30:28
KJV	The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.
NKJV	The spider* skillfully grasps with its hands, And it is in kings’ palaces. *Or lizard
RV/ASV	The lizard taketh hold with her hands, Yet is she in kings’ palaces.
RSV/ESV	the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.
NASB	The lizard you may grasp with the hands, Yet it is in kings’ palaces.
NIV/TNIV	a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.
JPS	You can catch the lizard in your hand, Yet it is found in royal palaces.
NRSV	the lizard* can be grasped in the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces. *Or spider
NLT	Lizards—they are easy to catch, but they are found even in kings’ palaces.
HCSB	a lizard* can be caught in your hands, yet it lives in kings’ palaces. *Or spider
NET	a lizard you can catch with the hand, but it gets into the palaces of the king.
NETS	and the lizard, though dependent on its hands and being easily caught, it lives in the king’s fortresses.

So, of course I turned to Accordance. I opened up both the NASB and BHS Hebrew Bible modules side by side because I knew that I didn't know the Hebrew word for spider/lizard off the top of my head and the NASB has Hebrew tagging. After determining ‏‏שׂממית/semamit was the word in question, I triple clicked on it to open the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT).

It's a lizard. Maybe even a gecko. Now I'm picturing in my mind the one from the Geico commercials. In fact, in keeping with the context of Prov 30:28, I can picture the little fellow, hanging out in the king's court, with one hand on the throne and the other on his hip, doling out advice and other clever quips.

To double-check, I switched over to Brown-Drivers-Briggs Hebrew lexicon. It's still a lizard of some kind. Definitely not a spider.

So where in the world did the King James translators get "spider"?

I've come to the point in the last couple of years that when I want a quick answer to questions like that, I simply turn first to the NET Bible notes. Sure, commentaries are great for more in depth information, but the NET Bible notes have the answer in a nutshell--usually. I mean, normally there's an answer for everything in those 60K+ notes.

Sure enough, the NET Bible seemed to have it covered:

"The KJV, agreeing with Tg. Prov 30:28, translated this term as ‘spider.’ But almost all modern English versions and commentators, following the Greek and the Latin versions, have ‘lizard.’”

Okay, so this made a good bit of sense to me. The KJV Old Testament translators had a reputation for being very familiar with Jewish literature. Perhaps even the meaning of ‏שׂממית was in question, and they turned to the Targums for answers.

For the curious, here is Prov 30:28 in the LXX and Latin as referred to in the NET Bible Note:

LXX	καὶ καλαβώτης χερσὶν ἐρειδόμενος καὶ εὐάλωτος ὢν κατοικεῖ ἐν ὀχυρώμασιν βασιλέως
VULGATE	stilio manibus nititur et moratur in aedibus regis

As expected, both the LXX and the Vulgate refer to a lizard (or a spotted lizard, or a gecko).

Now, I’ve got the Targums in Accordance as well, but I’ve never really used them much. In fact, I discovered in trying to look up Proverbs 30:28 that I didn’t even have the newest release. After installing the updated set of modules, I was able to look up the passage.

There is indeed a different word here, ‏אקמת/’qmt. I couldn’t find the word in either Hebrew Lexicon, and it does not seem to be similar to the Hebrew word for spider (‏עכביש/‘akkavish). However, if I understand the nature of the Targums correctly, Proverbs was actually copied from the Syriac Peshitta. So, this really isn’t even Hebrew/Aramaic, but rather Syriac. And thus, this is really outside my language skills. Further, I don’t have an English translation of the Targum for Prov 30:28. However, the English gloss in Accordance for ‏אקמת/’qmt is lizard.

Regardless I would be interested in further information. Perhaps Iyov (if you’re back from your travels) or John Hobbins might offer some insight.

---

UPDATE: As expected, Iyov provided helpful information in the comments:

“It is well known that the KJV translators relied on Rashi [Britannica | Wikipedia] at many points -- and Rashi gave the translation here as "erinée" (Old French, in Modern French, "araignée" -- spider). Whether Rashi relied the Targums, I cannot say, but all later Jewish commentators refer back to Rashi.

I would find it a bit remarkable if the KJV used the Targums -- I do not believe they were expert in Aramaic, and Targum to Proverbs is a bit obscure even today.”

So it seems to me--at this point--that it may indeed be the NET Bible notes that are in error. The source for “spider” in the KJV & NKJV seems to be the medieval commentator Rashi, not the Targum on Prov 30:28, which according to the English gloss in Accordance, also uses a word for lizard, not spider.

Tags: Proverbs, Targums, NET, KJV