Weasel

The weasel (Hebrew holedh) appears once in the Old Testament in the list of unclean creeping things that defile by contact (Leviticus 11:29). Most modern lexicographers accept the identification as a weasel or mole-rat — a small carnivorous mammal common to the Middle East — though some earlier translators rendered the word as "mole." Whatever the precise species, the holedh is grouped with the mouse, the great lizard, the gecko, the sand lizard, and other small animals among the creatures "that creep upon the earth" whose carcasses conveyed ritual impurity. Anyone who touched such a carcass was unclean until evening; any vessel, food, or water the carcass fell into was similarly defiled (Leviticus 11:31–38). The dietary and purity laws served to distinguish Israel from surrounding nations and to maintain the symbolic holiness of the covenant community.