Badger: this word is found in Ex. 25:5; 26:14; 35:7, 23; 36:19; 39:34;
Num. 4:6, etc. The tabernacle was covered with badgers' skins;
the shoes of women were also made of them (Ezek. 16:10). Our
translators seem to have been misled by the similarity in sound
of the Hebrew "tachash" and the Latin "taxus", "a badger." The
revisers have correctly substituted "seal skins." The Arabs of
the Sinaitic peninsula apply the name "tucash" to the seals and
dugongs which are common in the Red Sea, and the skins of which
are largely used as leather and for sandals. Though the badger
is common in Israel, and might occur in the wilderness, its
small hide would have been useless as a tent covering. The
dugong, very plentiful in the shallow waters on the shores of
the Red Sea, is a marine animal from 12 to 30 feet long,
something between a whale and a seal, never leaving the water,
but very easily caught. It grazes on seaweed, and is known by
naturalists as Halicore tabernaculi.