Exodus 25:5 - Exposition

And rams' skins dyed red . The manufacture of leather was well-known in Egypt from an early date, and the Libyan tribes of North Africa were celebrated for their skill in preparing and dyeing the material (Herod. 4.189). Scarlet was one of the colours which they peculiarly affected ( ibid. ). We must suppose that the skins spoken of had been brought with them by the Israelites cut of Egypt. And badgers' skins . It is generally agreed among moderns that this is a wrong translation. Badgers are found in Palestine, but not either in Egypt or in the wilderness. The Hebrew takhash is evidently the same word as the Arabic tukhash or dukhash , which is applied to marine animals only, as to seals, dolphins, dugongs, and perhaps sharks and dog-fish. "Seals' skins" would perhaps be the best translation. Shittim wood . It is generally agreed that the Shittah (plural Shittim) was an acacia, whether the seyal ( Acacia seyal ) which now grows so abundantly in the Sinaitic peninsula, or the Acacia Nilotica , or the Serissa , is uncertain. The seyal wood is "hard and close-grained of an orange colour with a darker heart, well-adapted for cabinet work;" but the tree, as it exists nowadays, could certainly not furnish the planks, ten cubits long by one and a half wide, which were needed for the Tabernacle ( Exodus 35:21 ). The Serissa might do so, but it is not now found in the wilderness. We are reduced to supposing either that the seyal grew to a larger size anciently than at present, or that the serissa was more widely spread than at the present day.