[Heb., ʽakh·barʹ].

The Hebrew word ʽakh·barʹ, variously rendered “mouse,” “rat,” “jerboa,” and “jumping rodent,” is understood by many scholars as possibly embracing all varieties of rats, mice, and related animals such as the jerboa. However, a Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon by Koehler and Baumgartner gives the meaning of the Hebrew term as “jerboa.”

The jerboa is a jumping rodent that somewhat resembles a miniature kangaroo and is still encountered in the arid parts of the Middle East. The desert jerboa (Jaculus jaculus) has a body length of from 10 to 15 cm (4-6 in.) and weighs 50 to 70 g (1.8-2.5 oz). Their ears and eyes are large.  The front limbs are short, but the two hind limbs measure about two thirds of the total head and body length. The tail is the longest part of the animal and terminates in a small brush. This nocturnal animal prefers desert lands, spending the hot day in its underground burrow but venturing forth during the cooler night to procure food.

Although the Arabs inhabiting the Syrian desert use the jerboa for food, it was legally unclean to the Israelites. (Le 11:29) But it seems that apostate Israelites ignored this prohibition of the Law.​—Isa 66:17, ftn.

Jerboas are destructive to grain and other crops. During the time the sacred Ark was in the territory of the Philistines, the divinely sent plague of jerboas brought the land to ruin.​—1Sa 6:4, 5, 11, 18.