Exodus 25:4

And blue, and purple, and scarlet,.... 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

And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, Blue , [ uwtkeelet (H8504)] - from a shellfish, Helix Ianthina (Linnoeus), a species of mussel found in the Mediterranean, with a

Blue, or sky-coloured; but here you must not understand the mere colours, which could not be offered, but some materials proper for the work, and of the colours here mentioned, to wit, wool, or threads, or some suchlike things, as appears from , and from the testimony of the Jews. Fine linen, which was of great esteem in ancient times, and used by priests and great officers of state. See ,14. Goats’ hair; Heb. goats. But that their hair is understood, is apparent from the nature of the thing, and from the use of the word in that sense in other places.

Exodus 25:4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ [hair],Ver. 4. And blue, and purple, and scarlet,] i.e., Wool dyed with these colours; to teach the Church that both themselves and their actions should be washed and dyed in the blood of Christ.

(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by the coccus ilicis, or cochineal insect of the holm oak, which was largely employed in antiquity, though now superseded by the brighter tint obtained from the coccus cacti of Mexico. Linen yarn of the three colours mentioned seems to have been what the people were asked to furnish (Exodus 35:25; Exodus 39:1). Fine 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. It is of a yellowish white, soft, and wonderfully fine and delicate. (See Wilkinson in Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. ii., p. 233). Goats’ hair.—The covering of an Arab tent is to this day almost always of goats’-hair. 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. 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).

Verse 4. Blue] תכלת techeleth, generally supposed to mean an azure or sky colour; rendered by the Septuagint ὑακινθον, and by the Vulgate hyacinthum, a sky-blue or deep violet. Purple] ארגמן argaman, a very precious colour, extracted from the purpura or murex, a species of shell-fish, from which it is supposed the famous Tyrian purple came, so costly, and so much celebrated in antiquity. See this largely described, and the manner of dyeing it, in Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. ix., c. 60-65, edit. Bipont. Scarlet] תולעת tolaath, signifies a worm, of which this colouring matter was made; and, joined with שני shani, which signifies to repeat or double, implies that to strike this colour the wool or cloth was twice dipped: hence the Vulgate renders the original coccum bis tinctum, "scarlet twice dyed;" and to this Horace refers, Odar., lib. ii., od. 16, v. 35: - ------------Te BIS Afro Murice TINCTAE Vestiunt LANAE.----- "Thy robes the twice dyed purple stains." It is the same colour which the Arabs call al kermez, whence the French cramoisi, and the English crimson. On this subject much may be seen in Bochart, Calmet, and Scheuchzer. Fine linen] שש shesh; whether this means linen, cotton, or silk, is not agreed on among interpreters. Because שש shesh signifies six, the rabbins suppose that it always signifies the fine linen of Egypt, in which six folds constituted one thread; and that when a single fold was meant, בד bad is the term used. See Clarke on Genesis 41:42. Goats' hair] עזים izzim, goats, but used here elliptically for goats' hair. In different parts of Asia Minor, Syria, Cilicia, and Phrygia, the goats have long, fine, and beautiful hair, in some cases almost as fine as silk, which they shear at proper times, and manufacture into garments. From Virgil, Georg. iii., v. 305-311, we learn that goats' hair manufactured into cloth was nearly of equal value with that formed from wool. Hae quoque non cura nobis leviore tuendae; Nec minor usus erit: quamvis Milesia magno Vellera mutentur, Tyrios incocta rubores. Nec minus interea barbas incanaque menta Cinyphii tondent hirci, setasque comantes, Usum in castrorum, et miseris velamina nautis. "For hairy goats of equal profit are With woolly sheep, and ask an equal care. 'Tis true the fleece when drunk with Tyrian juice Is dearly sold, but not for needful use: Meanwhile the pastor shears their hoary beards And eases of their hair the loaden herds. Their camelots, warm in tents, the soldier hold, And shield the shivering mariner from the cold." DRYDEN.

4. Materials spun or woven. blue] more exactly, purple-blue (LXX. ὑάκινθος, ὑακίνθινος, ‘dark blue’), or violet (Esther 1:6 AV.), i.e. yarn or stump so coloured by means of a dye obtained from a shell-fish, found adhering to rocks in the Medit. Sea (cf. Ezekiel 27:7), and said to be the Helix Ianthina (Ges. Thes. 1503; DB. i. 457a). Both this and the next named stuff were highly prized in antiquity, on account of their costliness and brilliancy. 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. purple] more exactly, purple-red (LXX. 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. Verg. ‘Tyrioque ardebat murice laena’). Robes of this colour were particularly distinctive of wealth and royalty: comp. Judges 8:26, Ezekiel 23:6, Son 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. scarlet] lit. ‘worm of shβnξ,’ i.e. probably (comp. the Arab, sanβ, to shine) ‘of brilliancy’ (cf. Pliny, H.N. xxxiii. 40 ‘cocci nitor’). 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. (Our word ‘crimson’ comes from ḳ ?irmiz, the Arabic name of the same insect.) See further NHB. 319, EB. i. 956, DB. iv. 416b. For allusions to this colour (outside the following chapters), see Isaiah 1:18, Jeremiah 4:30, 2 Samuel 1:24, Proverbs 31:1. fine linen] Heb. shηsh, prob. of Egypt, origin (cf. Ezekiel 27:7; and Copt. shens = byssus): linen was much worn in Egypt by men of rank; see Erman, Index, or DB. s.v.; and cf. Genesis 41:42. LXX. βύσσος, βύσσινος, from bϋẓ ?, the later Heb. syn. of shηsh (found exclusively in Chr., Est., as 1 Chronicles 15:27). The marg. cotton is less probable: see EB. iii. 2800. 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. The Egyptians excelled in work of this kind: Amβsis (b.c. 564–526) was said to have sent to Rhodes a corslet of which each thread consisted of 360 separate strands (Hdt. iii. 47, cited by Kn.; cf. Wilkinson-Birch, ii. 166 f.). goats’ hair] This was spun by women into yarn (Exodus 35:26): the fabric woven from it formed the ‘tent,’ or first covering, over the curtains constituting the ‘Dwelling’ (Exodus 26:7). See also Exodus 1 Samuel 19:13.

4. Blue, and purple, and scarlet — The exact colours, tints, or shades denoted by the Hebrew words thus translated it is now hardly possible to determine with absolute certainty.