BADGER

A small inoffensive animal, of the bear genus, which remains torpid all winter. It is an inhabitant of cold countries, and is not found in Palestine. Hence many think the "badgers’ skins" mentioned Ex 25:5; 26:14; Eze 16:10, and elsewhere, as being used for covering the tabernacle and for shoes, were the skins not of this animal, but of a species of seal found in the Red Sea. Burckhardt remarks that he "saw parts of the skin of a large fish, killed on the coast, which was an inch in thickness, and is employed by the Arabs instead of leather for sandals." Others think it was an animal of the antelope species, the skins of which the Jews had obtained in Egypt.

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Badger. Badger
This word is found in Ex. 25:5; 26:14; 35:7, 23; 36:19; 39:34; Num. 4:6, etc. The tabernacle was covered with badgers’ skins; the shoes of women were also made of them (Ezek. 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.

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BADGER. → (R. V., SEAL or PORPOISE.) → Skins of, used for covering of the tabernacle Ex 25:5; 26:14; 35:7,23; 36:19; 39:34; Nu 4:6,8,10,11,12,14,25 → For shoes Eze 16:10 → (R. V., SEALSKIN.)

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badger. Badger, n. a quadruped the size of a hog, a pedlar

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Badg″er (�), n. [[Of uncertain origin; perh. fr. an old verb badge to lay up provisions to sell again.]] An itinerant licensed dealer in commodities used for food; a hawker; a huckster; — formerly applied especially to one who bought grain in one place and sold it in another.