And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.
Gold ... cut it into wires, to work it - i:e., the metal was beaten with a hammer into thin plates, cut with scissors or some other instrument into long slips, then rounded into filaments or threads. 'Cloth of golden tissue is not uncommon on the monuments, and specimens of it have been found rolled about mummies; but it is not easy to determine whether the gold thread was originally interwoven or subsequently inserted by the embroiderer' (see the note at Exodus 28:1-43.) (Taylor, 'Bible illustrated by Egyptian Monuments,' p. 76; Rawlinson, 'Herodotus,' b. 2:, ch. 18:, note 2; Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egypt,' vol. 3:, p. 128).