an independent conception; not derived from חטב (cogn. חצב), to hew wood (whence Arab. ḥaṭab, fire-wood), according to which Kimchi, and with him the Graec. Venet. (περιξύστοις), understands it of the carefully polished bed-poles or bed-boards, but from חטב = Arab. khaṭeba, to be streaked, of diverse colours (vid., under Psa 144:12), whence the Syriac machṭabto, a figured (striped, checkered) garment. Hitzig finds the idea of coloured or variegated here unsuitable, but without justice; for the pleasantness of a bed is augmented not only by its softness, but also by the impression which its costliness makes on the eye. The following אטוּן מצרים stands in an appositional relation to חטבות, as when one says in Arabic taub-un dı̂bâg'-un, a garment brocade = of brocade. אטוּן (after the Syr. for אטוּן, as אמוּן) signifies in the Targum the cord (e.g., Jer 38:6), like the Arab. ṭunub, Syr. (e.g., Isa 54:2) tûnob; the root is טן, not in the sense of to bind, to wind (Deitr.), but in the sense of to stretch; the thread or cord is named from the extension in regard to length, and אטון is thus thread-work, whether in weaving or spinning.[1]
The fame of Egyptian manufactures is still expressed in the Spanish aclabtea, fine linen cloth, which is equivalent to the modern Arabic el-ḳobṭı̂je (ḳibṭije); they had there particularly also an intimate acquaintance with the dye stuffs found in the plants and fossils of the country (Klemm's Culturgeschichte, v. 308-310).
Verses 17-18
These verses remind us of expressions in the Canticles. There, at Pro 4:14, are found the three names for spicery as here, and one sees that מר אהלים are not to be connected genitively: there are three things, accented as in the title-verse Pro 1:3. The myrrh, מר (Balsamodendron myrrha), belongs, like the frankincense, to the species of the Amyris, which is an exotic in Palestine not less than with us; the aromatic quality in them does not arise from the flowers or leaves, so that Sol 1:13 leads us to think of a bunch of myrrh, but from the resin oozing through the bark (Gummi myrrhae or merely myrrha), consisting of bright glossy red or golden-yellow grains more or less transparent. אהלים (used by Balaam, Num 24:6) is the Semitic Old-Indian name of the aloë, agaru or aguru; the aromatic quality is in the wood of the Aquilaria agallocha, especially its root (agallochum or
- ↑ Hence perhaps the Greek ὀθόνη, which Fick in his Vergl. Wörterbuch connects with the Arab. verb-root vadh, to bind, wind, clothe, but not without making thereto interrogation marks.
