Badger

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

תחש . This word in a plural form occurs,  Exodus 25:5;  Exodus 26:14;  Exodus 35:7;  Exodus 35:23;  Exodus 36:19;  Exodus 39:34;  Numbers 4:6;  Numbers 4:8;  Numbers 4:10-12;  Numbers 4:14;  Numbers 4:25;  Ezekiel 16:10; and is joined with ערת , skins used for the covering of the tabernacle in the wilderness. The Jewish interpreters are agreed as to its being some animal. Jarchi says it was a beast of many colours, which no more exists. Kimchi holds the same opinion. Aben Ezra thinks it some animal of the bovine kind, of whose skins shoes are made; alluding to  Ezekiel 16:10 . Most modern interpreters have taken it to be the badger, and among these our English translators; but, in the first place, the badger is not an inhabitant of Arabia; and there is nothing in its skin peculiarly proper either for covering a tabernacle or making shoes. Hasaeus, Michaelis, and others, have laboured to prove that it is the mermaid, or homo marinus, the trichekus of Linnaeus. Faber, Dathe, and Rosenmuller, think that it is the seal, or sea calf, vitulus marinus, the skin of which is both strong and pliable, and was accounted by the ancients as a most proper outer covering for tents, and was also made into shoes, as Rau has clearly shown. Niebuhr says, "A merchant of Abushahr called dahash that fish which the captains in English vessels call porpoise, and the Germans, sea hog. In my voyage from Maskat to Abushahr, I saw a prodigious quantity together near Ras Mussendom, that were all going the same way, and seemed to swim with great vehemence." Bochart thinks that not an animal, but a colour, was intended,   Exodus 25:5; so that the covering of the tabernacle was to be azure, or sky blue.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

( Exodus 26:14). Badger skins were the outer covering of the tabernacle, in the wilderness; and of the ark, the table, the candlestick, the golden altar, and altar of burnt offering ( Numbers 4:6-14). In  Ezekiel 16:10 Jehovah alludes to this, under the image of the shoes made of badger skins for delicate and beautiful women; "I shod thee with badger skin." This was the material of the shoes worn by Hebrew on festival days. Weighty authorities render Hebrew Tachash a "seal," not a "badger"; seals were numerous on the shores of the Sinaitic peninsula.

Others say it is the Halicore , a Red Sea fish, which still is used by the Arabs to make soles for shoes and like purposes; called Dahash , like Tachash . Others think it is the Stag Goat , of the antelope kind, called Thacasse , related perhaps to Tachash , to be seen on Egyptian monuments. A great objection to the badger is, it is not found in Bible lands, Syria, Arabia, or Egypt, and certainly not in sufficient quantities for the Israelites' purpose. The objection to the halicore is  Leviticus 11:10; "all that have not fins and scales in the seas." But that prohibition refers only to using them as food; moreover, the Tachash probably includes marine animals in general, their skins made into "leather" were well fitted to protect against the weather. Josephus makes the color sky blue (Ant. 3:6, section 4).

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) A carnivorous quadruped of the genus Meles or of an allied genus. It is a burrowing animal, with short, thick legs, and long claws on the fore feet. One species (M. vulgaris), called also brock, inhabits the north of Europe and Asia; another species (Taxidea Americana / Labradorica) inhabits the northern parts of North America. See Teledu.

(2): (n.) A brush made of badgers' hair, used by artists.

(3): (v. t.) To beat down; to cheapen; to barter; to bargain.

(4): (n.) 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.

(5): (v. t.) To tease or annoy, as a badger when baited; to worry or irritate persistently.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

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  Exodus 25:5;  26:14;  Ezekiel 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.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Exodus 25:5 26:14 35:7,23 36:19 39:34 Numbers 4:6 Ezekiel 16:10 Tachash_ and the Latin _taxus Tucash

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

BADGER . Rock badger (  Leviticus 11:5 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ), i.e. Hyrax Syriacus . See Coney.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Animals

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

(See under "SKINS")

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

This is unquestionably a wrong interpretation of the word tachash, since the badger is not found in Southern Asia, and has not as yet been noticed out of Europe. The word occurs in the plural form in  Exodus 25:5;  Exodus 26:14;  Exodus 35:7;  Exodus 35:23;  Exodus 36:19;  Exodus 39:34;  Numbers 4:6;  Numbers 4:8;  Numbers 4:10-12;  Numbers 4:14;  Numbers 4:25; and  Ezekiel 16:10; and in connection, with oroth, skins, is used to denote the covering of the Tabernacle. Negroland and Central and Eastern Africa contain a number of ruminating animals of the great antelope family; which are known to the natives under various names, such as pacasse, empacasse, thacasse, facasse, and tachaitze, all more or less varieties of the word tachash: they are of considerable size; often of slaty and purple grey colors, and might be termed stag-goats and ox-goats. Of these one or more occur in the hunting-scenes on Egyptian monuments, and therefore we may conclude that the skins were accessible in abundance, and may have been dressed with the hair on for coverings of baggage, and for boots, such as we see worn by the human figures in the same processions. Thus we have the greater number of the conditions of the question sufficiently realized to enable us to draw the inference that tachash refers to a ruminant of the Aigocerine or Damaline groups, most likely of an iron-grey or slaty-colored species.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

baj´ẽr תּחשׁ , taḥash or תּחשׁ ion ‛ōr taḥash mean "soft-dressed skin." This suits the context in every passage and is very promising explanation.