Monitor
Animals in the Bible
The desert monitor is one of the largest lizards in the world, reaching a total length of nearly 1.2 meters (4 feet) in Israel and even longer in other countries. They are powerful, but normally slow-moving, except when escaping from danger. They are carnivorous, eating a wide variety of prey, including insects, mice, snakes, lizards, birds’ eggs, nestlings, and carrion from animal carcasses. They are a greyish brown and live in desert and savannah semidesert regions.
The Nile or water monitor is very similar in appearance, but it lives near rivers and in thicker vegetation. It includes turtle and crocodile eggs in its diet.
Pictures
In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
כֹּחַ koach · 1 verse
What it stands for
They are listed as unclean.
More about it
The English versions (KJV “chameleon"; RSV “land crocodile"; NEB “sand-gecko"; JB “koach"; NIV “monitor lizard"; REB “sand-gecko"; NAB “chameleon") reflect the fact that no certain identification can be made of what lizard this is. The RSV term “land crocodile” is the same lizard as the “monitor lizard” of NIV. This suggestion has the most support among modern scholars. The Hebrew name is related to a root meaning “strength,” which could well apply to either the Desert Monitor Varanus griseus or the Nile Monitor Varanus niloticus. The latter creature is not found in Israel, but it would have been well-known from Egypt. Both of these giant lizards are related to the iguanas.
If this word means “chameleon", then the reference is probably to the strength of its grip. It has claws that can close around twigs, with three toes on one side opposed to two on the other, giving it a very tenacious grip. However, this interpretation is not as likely as “monitor lizard".
Also in Snakes and lizards
Sources
Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema