The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,
Ver. 19. And the chains and the bracelets, &c.] The particulars of all their bravery we can say little unto upon certainty, since we are at this day ignorant of what ornaments and habiliments were then in use; and besides, the names here given unto them are such as the Jews themselves can hardly tell what to make of. It is a sad thing that the gauds and gaities of this age and country are such and so many, as that not six or seven verses, but so many whole Chapter s might be easily taken up in inventorying them. Lysander, a heathen, will rise up in judgment against many among us; for he would not allow his daughters to wear gorgeous attire, saying it would not make them so comely as common. That is very remarkable that is reported a of Mr Foxe the martyrologue, that when a son of his, returning from his travels into foreign parts, came to him in Oxford, attired in a loose, outlandish fashion, Who are you? said his old father, not knowing him. He replied, I am your son. Oh, what enemy of thine, said he, hath taught thee so much vanity? The Hebrew word, beghed, for a garment, comes from baghad, which signifies to deal perfidiously or treacherously, Isa 21:3 perhaps because it is tegumentum et testimonium, not more a covering of man's shame than a testimony of his first sin in falling from God. So that a man or woman hath no more cause to brag about his fine clothes, or to be proud of them, than a thief of a silk rope, or than one hath of a plaster laid to his filthy Sore.
a Hist. of Mod. Div., by Lupton.