Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
TOR'TOISE. This translation, Lev 11:29, is doubtful. Bochart's view has most adherents - that the creature intended was the dhabb of the Arabs, a slow-moving lizard, sometimes attaining the length of 2 feet, and found in the Syrian and Arabian wilderness. The Septuagint has, in place of "tortoise," "land-crocodile," but this reptile seems to be meant by the "chameleon" of the next verse. A large land-tortoise is found in all these regions, and,
like the dhabb is eaten by the natives. There is also in Palestine a water-tortoise.