The bat gets only a few lines, but they say something about it. In the law, it appears among the birds that must not be eaten: “the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat” (Leviticus 11:19), and the same list is given again in Deuteronomy 14:18. Isaiah mentions it in a different setting. When the LORD comes in judgment, people will throw away their silver and gold idols “to the moles and to the bats” (Isaiah 2:20), leaving them for dark, forgotten places. See Leviticus 11 for the full list of creatures.
3 verses
And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
Matthew George Easton, 1897
The Hebrew word (atalleph’) so rendered (Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18) implies “flying in the dark.” The bat is reckoned among the birds in the list of unclean animals. To cast idols to the “moles and to the bats” means to carry them into dark caverns or desolate places to which these animals resort (Isa. 2:20), i.e., to consign them to desolation or ruin.
William Smith, 1884
(Leviticus 11:19; 14:18) Many travellers have noticed the immense numbers of bats that are found in caverns in the East, and Mr. Layard said that on the occasion of a visit to a cavern these noisome beasts compelled him to retreat.