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Summary
- Spiders appear in Job 8:14 and Isaiah 59:5–6, where the Hebrew word is akkabish and the web stands for trust and schemes that cannot hold.
- Proverbs 30:28 reads “spider” in the King James Version, the Reina-Valera 1960 and Luther’s 1545 Bible, but “lizard” in the NIV, ESV, NASB and most modern translations.
- The Hebrew word there, semamit, probably names a lizard; the Septuagint and Vulgate read a lizard, while Rashi glossed it as “spider.”
- Some translations also have a spider in Job 27:18 (Revised Standard Version) and Psalm 90:9 (Douay-Rheims, following the Latin Vulgate).
- No verse calls the spider evil, and Leviticus 11 does not list it among unclean animals.
- Scripture records no dream about spiders and gives no key to dream images.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version (Job 8:13–15; Job 27:18; Isaiah 59:5–6; Psalm 90:9; Proverbs 30:28), the King James Version (Proverbs 30:24–28), the Revised Standard Version (Job 27:18) and the Douay-Rheims Bible (Psalm 89:9). Comparisons from the NKJV, NIV, NASB, NRSVUE, Reina-Valera 1960, Nueva Versión Internacional, Almeida Revista e Corrigida, Louis Segond, Luther 1545 and CEI texts. https://www.biblegateway.com/
- Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, “akkabish” and “semamit.” https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5908.htm and https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8079.htm
- Rashi on Proverbs 30:28, in The Judaica Press Complete Tanach with Rashi, trans. A. J. Rosenberg. https://www.sefaria.org/Rashi_on_Proverbs.30.28
- Septuagint, Psalm 89:9 (Greek text). https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/chapter.asp?book=24&page=89
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