Tortoise

The tortoise appears once in the King James Bible in the list of unclean creatures in Leviticus 11:29, where the Hebrew tsabh is rendered "tortoise" among the swarming things that move on the ground. Modern translations and lexicographers generally identify tsabh more precisely as a large lizard — probably the monitor lizard (Varanus niloticus or a related species) common to the Near East, rather than a tortoise properly speaking. The KJV rendering reflects the understanding of seventeenth-century translators. The passage categorizes tsabh among the eight unclean swarming things whose carcasses conveyed ritual impurity to any vessel, food, or person that touched them (Leviticus 11:29–38). The careful distinction of clean and unclean animals in the Mosaic law served both hygienic and symbolic purposes in marking Israel's separateness.