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HANGING, HANGINGS.—1. The former is AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ’s term for the portière closing the entrance to the court of the Tent of Meeting (Exo_35:17 etc.), for the similar curtain at the entrance to the Tent itself (Exo_26:36 f. etc.), and once for the ‘veil’ or hanging separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Tabernacle. In the last passage, Num_3:31, we should probably read, as in Num_4:5, ‘the veil of the screen,’ ‘screen’ being RV [Note: Revised Version.] ’s substitute for ‘hanging’ throughout.
RV [Note: Revised Version.] , however, retains ‘hangings’ as the tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of a different original denoting the curtains ‘of fine twined linen’ which surrounded the court (Exo_27:9 etc.). See, for these various ‘hangings,’ the relative sections of the art. Tabernacle.
2. In a corrupt passage, 2Ki_23:7, we read of ‘hangings for the grove,’ or rather, as RV [Note: Revised Version.] , of ‘hangings for the Asherah’ (cf. RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ), woven by the women of Jerusalem. The true text is probably Lucian’s, which has ‘tunics,’ the reference being to robes for an image of the goddess Asherah (wh. see). In the religious literature of Babylonia there is frequent reference to gifts of sheepskins, wool, etc., as clothing ‘for the god’ (ana lubushti ili).
A. R. S. Kennedy.