SPIDER (שְׂמָמִית, H8532; SPIDER KJV; LIZARD ASV, RSV. The tr. “lizard” (gecko) is preferred: see Lizard. עַכָּבִישׁ, H6571, SPIDER all Eng. VSS). Spider is the name given to a large fairly well-defined class of the Anthropods (joint footed animals) differing from insects in having four pairs of legs and no wings. All spiders have special glands for producing silk; this is extruded in strands and used for making nests, egg cases, etc., as well as for web spinning by certain families, esp. those known as the orb spinners, which make webs of some complexity. The Heb. clearly refers to one of these. “They weave the spider’s web” (Isa 59:5); “His trust is a spider’s web” (Job 8:14). The word here tr. “web” is Heb. bayith, a common word usually tr. “house.” Its use could change the metaphor somewhat, and it could refer to a different species, one that makes a more obvious nest.

Job 27:18, “He buildeth his house as a moth” (KJV and ASV), from the LXX, Heb. and Syr. RSV regards the text as indefinite and in need of reconstruction. This is thus rendered, “The house which he builds is like a spider’s web, like a booth which the watchman makes,” a picture of the spider watching its trap from the vantage point alongside. (See Moth.)