Lev. vii. 8. Lev. iv. 11. viii. 17. ix. 11. Gen. iii. 7, 21.SKINS. Our first Parents had no sooner committed Sin, but they perceived their own Nakedness, and made themselves Aprons with Fig-leaves few’d together. But soon afterwards God gave them Coats of Skins to cloath themselves withal: Fecit eis tunicas pelliceas & induit eos. By these Coats of Skins, some Antients1 understood the Barks of Trees. Others translate the Hebrew thus: He made them Coats to cover their Skins. The Chaldee says, He made them Robes of Honour, to cover their Flesh.
Moses leaves to the Priests the Skins of the Victims, and this was one of their chief Perquisites. But when the Sacrifice was offer’d for the Sins of the Priest, the Skin was burn’d out of the Camp, or without the City.
Levit. xi. 32. xiii. 48. xv. 17. Hab. iii. 7. Cant. i. 4. 2 Sam. vii. 2. Ps. ciii. 2. Jer. iv. 20. 2 Kings i. 8. Matth. iii. 4.Tents were antiently made of Skins. Pelles terræ Madien: The Tents of the Midianites. Pelles Salomonis: The Tents of King Solomon. The Ark of the Lord was lodg’d under a Covering of Skins: Cùm arca Dei posita sit in medio pellium. The Psalmist compares the Heavens to a vast Tent of Skins. Extendens Cœlum sicut pellem. And Jeremiah; Suddenly are my Tents spoiled, and my Curtains in a Moment. Repentè vastata sunt Tabernacula mea, subito pelles meæ.
Country People were often cloathed with Skins; and Skins are found enumerated among the Cloathing of the People. The Prophets, and such as profess’d a more than ordinary Austerity, wore Girdles of Leather. Elijah and John the Baptist wore Girdles of this Kind; Zona pellicea circa lumbos ejus.2
When the Philistines were smitten with Emerods, for having taken away the Ark of the Lord, they made themselves Cushions or Seats of Skins. Fecerunt sibi sedes pelliceas; probably that they might sit down with the greater Ease. But this Passage is neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee, nor in a good many Editions of the Septuagint. But some others read it as well as the Vulgate.
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