Tachash

Tachash is an animal referred to in the Bible (Exodus 25, 26, 35, 36 and 39; Numbers 4, and Ezekiel 16:10), the skin of which was used in the Tabernacle, as the outer covering of the tent of the Tabernacle and to wrap sacred objects used within the Tabernacle for transport.

What animal the word 'tachash' refers to is a matter of some debate. According to the Babylonian Talmud and Rashi's commentary, the tanchash was a kosher, multi-colored, one horned desert animal which came into existence to be used to build the Tabernacle and ceased to exist afterward. The King James Version of the Bible translates the word tachash as badger. Another hypothesis is that the Hebrew term "orot t'chashim" refers to very fine dyed sheep or goat leather, hence the Jerusalem Bible translates the term as "fine leather". A currently popular hypothesis is that the term "tachash" means dugong. This translation is based upon the similarity between tachash and the Arabic word tukhas, which means dugong. In accordance with this hypothesis several translations, such as the Jewish Publication Society translation, render tachash as dolphin or sea cow. Others believe the tachash was related to the keresh, a creature most often identified with the giraffe, with a similar description mentioned in the Gemara. It is not explicitly stated if the tachash was a mammal or not.

In Literature

The poet Robert Graves says in The White Goddess the covering skin of the Ark was "dolphin hide", but in I, Claudius, has the narrator describe it as badger skin.