The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.
The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. The term here, sªmaamiyt (H8079), different from that in Job 8:14 `akaabiysh (H5908). Probably a lizard is meant here. [Modern Greek has the kindred name, samiaminthos, corresponding to the ancient askalabootees: a species of gecko; Latin, stellio.] On under surface of the toes there is a lamellated structure by which they can run over smooth surfaces noiselessly in an inverted position, as house flies on a ceiling. The language, "taketh hold with her hands" (anterior feet), accords with this. The wonderful and characteristic work of the spider is to weave a web, not to take hold with her hands. She is rather in the cottages of the poor than "in kings' palaces." In Leviticus 11:30 the Samaritan and Chaldaic versions translate letaah the Hebrew there for 'the lizard,' by semamitha, the same word as here. The derivation confirms this, from shamam, to stupify; or samam, poison. It catches flies ingeniously, and often is found in chinks of walls and in the small recesses of a ceiling. Compare Augustine, 'Confess,' 10:35. It and the spider (as in the case of Robert Bruce of Scotland) alike teach us what great difficulties can be overcome by skill, patience, and perseverance. Kirby ('Bridgewater Treatise,' 2: 186) says, 'The spider's claws or spinning organs serve both as hands and eyes to the animal.'