Babylonish Garment

Babylonish Garment. Literally "robe of Shinar", Jos 7:21 an ample robe, probably made of the skin or fur of an animal, compare Gen 25:25, and ornamented with embroidery or perhaps a variegated garment with figures inwoven in the fashion for which the Babylonians were celebrated.

(אִדֶּרֶת שַׁנְעָד, adde’reth Shinar’; Sept. ψιλὴ ποικίλη, Vulg. pallium coccineum), a Babylonish mantle, SEE ATTIRE, i.e. a large rote variegated with the figures of men and animals interwoven in rich colors (comp. Pliny, Hist.Nat. 8:48), such as were fabricated at Babylon (q.v.); hence a valuable piece of clothing in general (Jos 7:21). SEE EMBROIDERY.

By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., Gerson B. Levi

—Biblical Data:

An article of dress mentioned in connection with the theft of Achan (Josh. vii. 21) during the spoil of the captured city of Jericho. The connection would indicate that the garment was one of considerable value. That a Babylonish garment should have been found in Jericho is not at all impossible, and points to commercial contact with Babylonia which we know, from other sources, began long before the days of Joshua. It is difficult to determine the exact kind of garment meant by the expression.

—In Rabbinical Literature:

Bereshit Rabbah (lxxxv. 14) states that it was a purple robe, while Josephus says it was made of gold. Two other opinions are registered in the Talmud (Sanh. 44a). Abba Arika says it was a robe made of fine wool, while Samuel says that it meant a cloak made in Ẓerifa (near Pumbedita; Rashi: "dyed with alum"). These opinions, however, do not conflict, but touch upon different sides of the question—one, the material; the other, the method of dyeing.

BABYLONISH GARMENT (’addereth Shin’âr).—Stolen by Achan (Jos 7:21); literally ‘mantle of Shinar’; probably a cloak of embroidered stuff. Babylonia was famous in classical times for such costly garments, and the sculptures exhibit the most elaborately embroidered dresses. The Babylonian inscriptions enumerate an almost endless variety of such garments, worked in many colours.

C. H. W. Johns.

bab-i-lō´nish gar´ment: In the King James Version, Jos 7:21, for BABYLONISH MANTLE.