Ezekiel 16:10 - Exposition

Broidered work ; the "raiment of needlework" of Psalms 45:14 ; 5:30 ; Exodus 35:35 ; Exodus 38:23 . The word meets us again in Ezekiel 27:24 , as among the imports of Tyre from Egypt. Curiously enough, the Hebrew verb ( rakam ) has passed through Arabic into tide languages of Western Europe, and we have the Italian ricamare, the Spanish recamare, the French recamer, for" embroidering." Badgers' skin. Elsewhere in the Old Testament the word is found only in the Pentateuch ( Exodus 28:5 ; Exodus 26:14 ; Numbers 4:6 , Numbers 4:8 , Numbers 4:10 , e t al. ) . It has been commonly taken as meaning the skin of some animal—badger, dolphin, or porpoise, or, as in the Revised Version, seal, which was used for sandals. All the older versions, however, take it as a word of colour, the LXX . giving ὑακίνθον ("dark red"); Aquila, Symmachus, and Vulgate, ianthino ("violet"). Possibly the two meanings may coalesce, one giving the material, the other the tint which met the eye. Fine linen. The byssus of Egyptian manufacture ( Exodus 25:4 ; Exodus 26:1 ; Exodus 39:3 , et al. ) . Silk . The Hebrew word (here and in Ezekiel 27:13 ) does not occur elsewhere. The word so translated in Proverbs 31:22 is that which we find here and elsewhere for "fine linen." Silk, in the strict sense of the term, had its birthplace in China, and there is no evidence that even the commerce of Tyre extended so far; but the context points to some fine texture of the lawn or muslin kind, like the Coan vestments of the Greeks. So the LXX . gives τριχαπτόν , as though it were made of fine hair; the Vulgate, subtilia. It is significant that three out of the four articles specified are prominent (as the references show) in the description of the tabernacle and the priestly dress, in Exodus 28:1-43 ; Exodus 39:1-43 . The dress of the bride symbolized the ritual and cultus of Judaism.