Creeping Thing - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

CREEPING THING

krep'-ing (remes, sherets; herpeton):

Remes and sherets, with the root verbs ramas and sharats, are used without any sharp distinction for insects and other small creatures. Ramas means clearly "to creep," and is used even of the beasts of the forest (Psalms 104:20), while sharats is rather "to swarm." But in at least one passage (Leviticus 11:44), we have the noun, sherets, with the verb ramas; "with any manner of creeping thing that moveth upon the earth." The principal passages where these words occur are the accounts of the Creation and the Flood and the references to unclean animals in Le and in the vision of Peter. In the last we have the word herpeton as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew words (Acts 10:12). Winged creeping things (sherets ha-`oph, Leviticus 11:20), as well as the wingless, are unclean, but an exception is made in favor of the locusts, "which have legs above their feet, where-with to leap upon the earth."

See INSECTS; LOCUST.

Alfred Ely Day

Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'CREEPING THING'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.