ARE THERE ANY HEDGEHOGS IN THE BIBLE?

An illustration in the Summer 2024 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review magazine shows a beautiful ancient statue of a hedgehog. The body of the statue reminded me very much of a fanciful hollow ceramic animal I picked up in an art colony in Southern California soon after I was married and still have today. The only difference was that the nose of my animal flares out like a horn, a convenient feature since we used it for years as a piggy bank.

Some cultures employ hedgehogs as a source of food, and in America they are even adopted as household pets. But they had an entirely different connotation in biblical times, appearing in conjunction with such assorted beasts as owls, ostriches, hyenas, jackals, and even demonic creatures like satyrs and night-hags. And the context of their appearances is always that of a deserted city which has suffered or will suffer God's judgment on it: Babylon in Isaiah 14:23, Idumea in Isaiah 34:11,15 and Assyria in Zephaniah 2:14.

The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery notes that these are “particularly sinister elements of the animal kingdom. These could be identified by their habits. Any creatures that could see at night (and so must be in league with darkness), hissed (giving off evil spirits), were poisonous (and hence allied with the anti-Creation forces) or inhabited desolate regions (where demons were known to cavort) were linked with the Prince of Darkness.”

The two related Hebrew words in question here are, in order of appearance, qippod, qippod, qippoz, and qippod. Unfortunately, the passages above are the only four times these related words appear in the Bible, and so their proper meaning is hard to pin down. In that sense, they are typical of many biblical words of a somewhat technical nature that describe animals, plants, or minerals. Below is a sampling of the various ways these Hebrew words have been rendered in modern translations and paraphrases of the four passages in Isaiah and Zephaniah:

RSV                      hedgehog         porcupine         owl                      hedgehog

NRSV                   hedgehog         hedgehop          owl                      desert owl

NIV                      owl                   owl                   owl                       owl

NEB                     bustard             bustard              sand partridge      owl

TEV                     owl                   owl                    owl                       owl

The Message        hedgehog         owl                    carrion birds        raccoons or coyotes

Living Bible        porcupine         porcupine          owl                       hedgehog

JB                        hedgehog          hedgehog          viper                     pelican

AB                       bittern               hedgehog          owl                       owl

ESV                     hedgehog          porcupine         owl                       hedgehog

As you can see, even within the same translation, there is often little consistency as to how these words are rendered in English. And Young's Analytical Concordance defines qippod as either hedgehog, bittern, or porcupine; and quippoz as bittern, owl, or arrow-snake.

At this point, you might rightly wonder what criteria scholars use in order to determine the meaning of a technical word that only appears briefly in the Bible. On occasion, one can find related words in other Ancient Near-Eastern languages, but that is apparently not very helpful on this occasion. Then there is the etymology (origin) of the word to use as a guide. Thirdly, one can rely on ancient translations of the word into other languages. And lastly, the context in which the word appears can often help to narrow down the possibilities. You will see all of these tools being employed in the citations from scholars below:

The editors of BAR express the opinion that the animal in Zephaniah 2:14 cannot possibly be a hedgehog since (a) the context is a swamp rather than the desert and (b) the animal is said to be characterized by its loud cries. Replying to the first comment, Blenkinsopp says that “hedgehogs do not haunt watery wastelands if they can help it.” And the second argument is just as iffy since the same BAR article admits that “these solitary nocturnal mammals can be surprisingly loud, stomping and giving out a pig-like grunt – hence their name in English.”

Commenting on Isaiah 34:15, Oswalt admits that “'owl' is somewhat conjectural, but is preferable to the alternative, 'arrow-snake'...Along with the tentativeness of the identification, neither the hatching not the keeping of the young under the mother's shadow applies to this snake.”

Concerning Zephaniah 2:14, Berlin has the following to say: “The Versions translate 'hedgehog, porcupine' (cf. Isa 14:23, 34:11. Note that the two different terms q't and qpd both occur in Isa 34:11). Modern scholars prefer to see here a type of wild bird, given that the term is found in the context of other birds nesting in the tops of the columns. But Roberts responds that the columns would be lying on the ground and therefore any animal could make a home in their capitals...However, the point is not that the buildings lie in ruins, but that they are harboring animals.” And one could no doubt continue this back-and-forth argument by asserting that the city no doubt has suffered destruction as well as desertion.

Kuichi: “It is not certain if this is an animal [sic] or a short-eared owl. The meaning hedgehog can be traced to the LXX [Septuagint] (echinos), whereas the medieval commentator Rashi understood the term in Isa 34:11 and Zeph 2:14...as a kind of bird. HALAT [The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament] favors the meaning hedgehog in Isa 14:23 and 34:11, and short-eared owl in Zeph 2:14 and possibly Isa 34:11. In all three passages the nom. symbolizes desolation.”

DBI: “The focus shifts almost immediately [in Zephaniah 2:13] to the destruction of Nineveh, Assyria's capital city, which fell in 612 BC. Animals, both domestic (flocks, beasts in herds) and wild (pelican, hedgehog, birds) will inhabit this once bustling city, reflective of its utter destruction and desertion.”

Robertson: “Kapelrud...regards...the qippod as probably an owl. Other suggestions include... porcupine (Driver) and...hedgehog (Keil). BDB [Brown, Driver, and Briggs] suggests that qippod is porcupine, in light of the possible derivation of the word from the verb qapad, 'roll together.'” But note that this last derivation applies equally well to a hedgehog.

The bottom line is that this is an area of which we will never be entirely sure. However, it is comforting to realize that most of these types of translation issues involving technical descriptions in the Bible have no effect on any doctrinal issue of importance.