[Heb., ʼana·qahʹ; sema·mithʹ].

A small, usually thick-bodied lizard with tiny scales covering its body. The eyes are relatively large, catlike, and the gecko’s toes are comparatively broad. Found in warm climates, the geckos live in the woods, among rocks, in trees, and sometimes in human dwellings. Six kinds of these nocturnal lizards are found in Palestine.

The “gecko fanfoot” (Hemidactylus turcicus) of Leviticus 11:29, 30 is listed as “unclean” for the Israelites. At Proverbs 30:28, “the gecko lizard” (Heb., sema·mithʹ) is spoken of as taking “hold with its own hands” and making its way into the king’s palace. Regarding the gecko’s toes, The International Wildlife Encyclopedia says: “They have numerous microscopic hooks that catch in the slightest irregularities, even those in the surface of glass, and so a gecko can cling to all but the most highly polished surfaces. The hooks are directed backwards and downwards and to disengage them the toe must be lifted upwards from the tip. As a result, a gecko running up a tree or a wall or along a ceiling must curl and uncurl its toes at each step with a speed faster than the eye can follow. Some of the hooks are so small the high power of a microscope is needed to see them, yet a single toe armed with numbers of these incredibly small hooks can support several times the weight of a gecko’s body.”​—Edited by M. and R. Burton, 1969, Vol. 7, pp. 856, 857.