Badgers' Skins

The word tachash has been referred to several animals, principally the seal or dugong. The R.V. translates it ’seal-skins’ and ’porpoise-skins’ in the margin; but the badger seems to answer all the purposes for which the skin was used. It is a good protection from the weather, and we find the tachash was used for the outer covering of the tabernacle, and to cover the ark when it was being carried. One passage speaks of its being used for the shoes or sandals of delicate women, and in Exodus it is included among the costly articles, so that it was comparatively rare. Exo 25:5; Exo 26:14; Exo 35:7; Exo 35:23; Exo 36:19; Exo 39:34; Num 4:6-25; Eze 16:10. Typically the badgers’ skins refer to the holy, separate walk of the Lord Jesus, in entire protection from all the contaminations of the world: He was always morally ’separate from sinners.’

BADGERS’ SKINS.—Mentioned (in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ) as the upper covering of the Tabernacle, etc. (Exo 25:5; Exo 26:14 etc.), and materials for making sandals (Eze 16:10). It is almost certain the word tahash is mistranslated ‘badger,’ as badgers, though found in Southern Palestine, are not common enough, nor are their skins suitable for such use to have been made of them. The RV [Note: Revised Version.] sealskins (mg. porpoise-skins) hardly eases the difficulty zoologically, although having some support from etymology. Delitzsch, from the similarity of tahash to the Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] tahshan = ‘wether,’ thinks it probable that the word means the same in Hebrew. A recent suggestion that the Heb. word tahash is taken from the Egyp. ths, meaning ‘leather,’ seems the most reasonable explanation.

E. W. G. Masterman.