In the Targum of Jonathan and in the Syriac Version the
same root is taken to denote silk; רסריקין פלחי כתנא
Targ. (
Syriac characters) Syr. Both of these seem to admit
of the following literal translation, "those who make silken tunics," or in Latin, "Factores tunicarum e sericis."
Kimchi supposes שריקות to mean silk webs, observing that silk is called אל שרק by the Arabs. The same opinion has been adopted by Nicholas Fuller[1], Buxtorf, and other modern critics. Kennicott, however, arranges the words in two lines as follows,
שריקות וארגים הורי
According to this arrangement, which seems most suitable to the rules of grammatical construction, we have three co-ordinate phrases in the plural number, denoting three different classes of artificers. The second, שריקות, would by its termination denote female artificers, viz. women employed in combing wool, flax, or other substances. On the whole we are inclined to adopt this explanation of the word, as it appears to be attended with the least difficulty, either grammatical or etymological.
Silk is mentioned Prov. xxxi. 22. in King James's Translation, i. e. the common English version, and in the margin of Gen. xli. 42. But the use of the word is quite unauthorized.
After a full examination of the whole question Braunius[2] decides that there is no mention of silk in the whole of the Old Testament, and that it was unknown to the Hebrews in ancient times.
"There can be no doubt," says Professor Hurwitz, "that manufactures and the arts must have attained a high degree of perfection at the time when Moses wrote; and that many of them were known long before that period, we have the evidence
of Scripture. It is true that inventions were at first
