Snail: (1.) Heb. homit, among the unclean creeping things (Lev. 11:30).
This was probably the sand-lizard, of which there are many
species in the wilderness of Judea and the Sinai peninsula.
(2.) Heb. shablul (Ps. 58:8), the snail or slug proper.
Tristram explains the allusions of this passage by a reference
to the heat and drought by which the moisture of the snail is
evaporated. "We find," he says, "in all parts of the Holy Land
myriads of snail-shells in fissures still adhering by the
calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the
rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted,
'melted away.'"