Leech
Animals in the Bible
Leeches are worm-like creatures of the order Hirudinea. They live in streams, swamps, or damp ground but are also able to live on dry land. The largest of the Middle Eastern leeches is the Nile Leech Limnatis nilotica. Leeches have specialized mouths that enable them to make small cuts in the skin of their victims, which may be humans, animals, reptiles, or even fish. They then fasten firmly on to the surrounding skin and gorge themselves on blood. Their skin has many small folds, and as the leech feeds, it expands until it is many times its original size. When sufficiently gorged it drops off.
If forcibly pulled from the skin, the small cut made by the leech bleeds profusely. Since leeches are sensitive to salt on their skin, they have been removed since very ancient times by putting salt on them. The leeches then detach themselves, and the wound does not bleed nearly as much.
Leeches have been used since ancient times by doctors to cause patients to bleed in a reasonably controlled way.
Pictures
In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
עֲלוּקָה ‘aluqah · 1 verse
What it stands for
In the single scriptural reference the leech is a symbol of greediness.
More about it
A few scholars have suggested that ‘aluqah was the name of a demon believed to suck blood from humans, but this suggestion does not have much support and can be discounted. Similarly the suggestion that some have made that the word refers to the bloodsucking vampire bat can be discounted. Such bats are only found in Latin America and would have been unknown to the biblical writers. It is much more generally accepted that this word refers to the leech. The root from which the Hebrew word is derived means “to adhere to,” or “to suck".
Also in Insects, spiders, and worms
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