Bible Dictionary

Mentioned only in Mark 6:9 and Acts 12:8. The sandal was simply a sole, made of wood or palm-bark, fastened to the foot by leathern straps. Sandals were also made of seal-skin (Ezek. 16:10; lit. tahash, "leather;" A.V., "badger's skin;" R.V., "sealskin," or marg., "porpoise-skin"). (See [549]SHOE.)

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 Palestine, 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.