(5) Rams' skins dyed red.--North Africa has always been celebrated for the production of the best possible leather. Herodotus describes the manufacture of his own times (Hist. iv. 189). Even at the present day, we bind our best books in morocco. Brilliant colours always were, and still are, affected by the North African races, and their "red skins" have been famous in all ages. It is probable that the Israelites had brought with them many skins of this kind out of Egypt.

Badgers' skins.--The badger is not a native of North Africa, nor of the Arabian desert; and the translation of the Hebrew takhash by "badger" is a very improbable conjecture. In Arabic, tukhash or dukhash is the name of a marine animal resembling the seal; or, perhaps it should rather be said, is applied with some vagueness to a number of sea-animals, as seals, dugongs, dolphins, sharks, and dog-fish. The skins here spoken of are probably those of some one or more of these animals. They formed the outer covering of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26:14).

Shittim wood.--That the shittah (plural, shittim) was a species of Acacia is now generally admitted.

It was certainly not the palm; and there are no trees in the Sinaitic region from which boards could be cut (see Exodus 26:15) except the palm and the acacia. The Sinaitic acacia (A. Seyal) is a "gnarled and thorny tree, somewhat like a solitary hawthorn in its habit and manner of growth, but much larger" (Tristram). At present it does not, in the Sinaitic region, grow to such a size as would admit of planks, ten cubits long by one and a half wide, being cut from it; but, according to Canon Tristram (Nat. Hist. Of the Bible, p. 392), it attains such a size in Palestine, and therefore may formerly have done so in Arabia. The wood is "hard and close-grained, of an orange colour with a darker heart, well adapted for cabinetwork."

Verse 5. - 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. (Compare Plin. H. N. 2:55; Sueton. Octav § 90.) 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.

Parallel Commentaries ...


ram
אֵילִ֧ם (’ê·lim)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 352: Strength, strong, a chief, a ram, a pilaster, an oak, strong tree

skins
וְעֹרֹ֨ת (wə·‘ō·rōṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 5785: Skin, hide, leather

dyed red
מְאָדָּמִ֛ים (mə·’ād·dā·mîm)
Verb - Pual - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 119: Flush, turn rosy

and fine leather;
תְּחָשִׁ֖ים (tə·ḥā·šîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8476: Perhaps porpoise (a kind of leather or skin)

acacia
שִׁטִּֽים׃ (šiṭ·ṭîm)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 7848: Acacia (a tree and a wood)

wood;
וַעֲצֵ֥י (wa·‘ă·ṣê)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 6086: Tree, trees, wood


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OT Law: Exodus 25:5 Rams' skins dyed red sea cow hides (Exo. Ex)