Badger: This word is found in
(Exodus 25:5; 26:14; 35:7,23; 36:19; 39:34; Numbers 4:6) etc.
The tabernacle was covered with badgers' skins; the shoes of women
were also made of them
(Ezekiel 16:10) Our translators seem to have been
misled by the similarity in sound of the Hebrew tachash and the
Latin taxus, "a badger." The revisers have correctly substituted
"seal skins." The Arabs of the Sinaitic peninsula apply the name
tucash to the seals and dugongs which are common in the Red Sea,
and the skins of which are largely used as leather and for sandals.
Though the badger is common in Palestine, and might occur in the
wilderness, its small hide would have been useless as a tent
covering. The dugong, very plentiful in the shallow waters on the
shores of the Red Sea, is a marine animal from 12 to 30 feet
long, something between a whale and a seal, never leaving the water,
but very easily caught. It grazes on seaweed, and is known by
naturalists as Halicore tabernaculi.
