Weaving, weavers

Weaving was an art practised in very early times (Exod 35:35). The Egyptians were specially skilled in it (Isa 19:9; Ezek 27:7), and some have regarded them as its inventors.

In the wilderness, the Hebrews practised it (Exod 26:1, 8; 28:4, 39; Lev 13:47). It is referred to in subsequent times as specially the women’s work (2 Kgs 23:7; Prov 31:13, 24). No mention of the loom is found in Scripture, but we read of the “shuttle” (Job 7:6), “the pin” of the beam (Judg 16:14), “the web” (13, 14), and “the beam” (1 Sam 17:7; 2 Sam 21:19). The rendering, “with pining sickness,” in Isa 38:12 (A.V.) should be, as in the Revised Version, “from the loom,” or, as in the margin, “from the thrum.” We read also of the “warp” and “woof” (Lev 13:48, 49, 51-53, 58, 59), but the Revised Version margin has, instead of “warp,” “woven or knitted stuff.”