There was a superior quality of fine linen, called ‘fine twined linen’ ( Exodus 26:1 Exodus 26:31 Exodus 26:36, Exodus 27:9 Exodus 27:16 Exodus 27:18, Exodus 28:6 Exodus 28:8 Exodus 28:15, Exodus 39:28-29): this was made from yarn of which each thread was composed of many delicate strands. of shçsh (found exclusively in Chr., Est., as 1 Chronicles 15:27). shens = byssus): linen was much worn in Egypt by men of rank see Erman, Index, or DB. For allusions to this colour (outside the following chapters), see Isaiah 1:18, Jeremiah 4:30, 2 Samuel 1:24, Proverbs 31:1.įine linen] Heb. (Our word ‘crimson’ comes from ḳirmiz, the Arabic name of the same insect.) See further NHB. The ‘worm’ is the cochineal insect, which resembles a berry, and is found attached to the leaves and twigs of the Syrian Holm-oak (whence its technical name of coccus ilicis): the colouring matter is obtained from the dried body of the female. the Arab, sanâ, to shine) ‘of brilliancy’ (cf. Jdg 8:26, Ezekiel 23:6, Song of Solomon 3:10, 1Ma 4:23 1Ma 10:20, Mark 15:17, Luke 16:19 and the frequent mention of purpura, purpureus by Latin authors in connexion with royalty. Robes of this colour were particularly distinctive of wealth and royalty: comp. πορφύρα), a dye extracted from a small gland in the throat of two other species of shell-fish, the Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus, found on the coasts of Phoenicia (cf.

Violet is mostly mentioned in connexion with the Tent of meeting: but see also Jeremiah 10:9, Ezekiel 23:7 Ezekiel 27:7 Ezekiel 27:24, Esther 1:6 Esther 8:15, Sir 6:30. Both this and the next named stuff were highly prized in antiquity, on account of their costliness and brilliancy. Ezekiel 27:7), and said to be the Helix Ianthina (Ges. yarn or stump so coloured by means of a dye obtained from a shell-fish, found adhering to rocks in the Medit. Materials spun or woven.īlue] more exactly, purple-blue (LXX. Goats' hair though the word hair is not in the text, it is rightly supplied, as it is by the Septuagint version, and others, for not goats themselves, but their hair must be meant of this the curtains for the covering of the tabernacle were made Jarchi interprets it the down of goats, the short, small, fine hair that grows under the other.Ĭambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 4. The Jewish doctors are much divided about the sense of the words so rendered by us some will have one colour, and some another meant but, according to those learned men, who have taken much pains in searching into the meaning of them, as Bochart and Braunius, it appears that our version of them is most correct: and by these we are not to understand the colours themselves, which could not be brought, nor even the materials for dying them are intended but wool, or clothes, either silken or linen of those colours: of the former the apostle has taught us to expound them, Hebrews 9:19 and so Jarchi interprets them of wool thus died, and Josephus (a) also which was made up into yarn, and wove, and was much used in the garments of the priests, in the curtains of the tabernacle, and in the vail between the holy and the most holy place:Īnd fine linen the best of which was made in Egypt only, as Aben Ezra says, and much wore there, especially by the priests and they had such an abundance of it that they traded to other nations with it, see Isaiah 19:9 and of which the Israelites might bring a considerable quantity with them out of Egypt and Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd blue, and purple, and scarlet. Yarn of goats’-hair was to be offered, that from it might be produced the first of the three outer coverings of the Tabernacle ( Exodus 26:7-14). An excellent fabric is woven from the soft inner hair of the Syrian goat, and a coarse one from the outer coat of the animal. Goats’ hair.-The covering of an Arab tent is to this day almost always of goats’-hair. (See Wilkinson in Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol.

It is of a yellowish white, soft, and wonderfully fine and delicate. Linen yarn of the three colours mentioned seems to have been what the people were asked to furnish ( Exodus 35:25 Exodus 39:1).įine linen-i.e., white thread spun from flax, which is found to be the material of almost all the Egyptian dresses, mummy cloths, and other undyed fabrics. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) And blue, and purple, and scarlet.-The colours intended are probably a dark blue produced from indigo, which was the only blue known to the Egyptians, a purplish crimson derived from the murex trunculus, the main source of the “Tyrian dye” of the ancients, and a scarlet furnished by the coccus ilicis, or cochineal insect of the holm oak, which was largely employed in antiquity, though now superseded by the brighter tint obtained from the coccus cacti of Mexico.

Indigo color meaning bible