Exodus 25:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins— A badger being an unclean animal according to the law, Bochart, after several of the best interpreters, insists that the passage should be rendered, rams' skins dyed of a red, and of a violet or purple colour. "All the ancient versions agree," says Parkhurst, "that the word rendered badger, means not an "animal, but a colour." See his Lexicon on the word תחשׁ. Shittim-wood, rendered by the LXX incorruptible wood, is generally supposed to mean cedar. St. Jerome, however, says, that the shittim-wood resembles the white thorn; that it is of admirable beauty, solidity, strength and smoothness. It is thought that he means the black acacia. See more in Calmet's Dictionary on Shittim; who observes further, that this tree is very thorny, and has even its bark covered with very sharp thorns; and hence, perhaps, it had the Hebrew name שׁטה shittah, from making animals decline or turn aside, lest they should be wounded by it. Dr. Shaw is of opinion, that the acacia (being by much the largest and most common tree of the deserts of Arabia, as it might likewise have been of the plains of Shittim over against Jericho) supplied this wood for the tabernacle: "this tree abounds," says he, "with flowers of a globular figure, and of an excellent smell, which may further induce us to take it for the same with the shittah-tree, which, in Isaiah 41:19 is joined with the myrtle and other sweet-smelling plants." Trav. p. 444. Scarlet, in the fourth verse, is the worm of scarlet, from the worm which feeds on the shrub whence the scarlet dye is made. Goats-hair in the original is only goats; but the hair of goats, which was in high price in the eastern countries, is generally supposed to be meant. The use of these several particulars will appear as we proceed.