account of the contrast to the white snow, says Hitzig, he clothes the family in crimson. But this contrast would be a meaningless freak. Rather it is to be supposed that there is ascribed to the red material a power of retaining the heat, as there is to the white that of keeping off the heat; but evidence for this are wanting. Therefore Rosenmüller, Vaihinger, and Böttcher approve of the translation duplicibus (Jerome, Luther) [= with double clothing], because they read, with the lxx, שׁנים.[1]
But, with right, the Syr., Targ. abide by זהוריתא, scarlet. The scarlet clothing is of wool, which as such preserves warmth, and, as high-coloured, appears at the same time dignified (2Sa 1:24).
Verse 22
From the protecting, and at the same time ornamental clothing of the family, the poet proceeds to speak of the bed-places, and of the attire of the housewife: 22 מ She prepareth for herself pillows; Linen and purple is her raiment.
Regarding מרבדּים (with ב raphatum), vid., at Pro 7:16. Thus, pillows or mattresses (Aquila, Theodotion, περιστρώματα; Jerome, stragulatam vestem; Luther, Decke = coverlets) to make the bed soft and to adorn it (Kimchi: ליפּות על המטות, according to which Venet. κόσμια); Symmachus designates it as ἀμφιτάπους, i.e., τάπητες (tapetae, tapetia, carpets), which are hairy (shaggy) on both sides.[2]
Only the lxx makes out of it δισσὰς χλαίνας, lined overcoats, for it brings over שׁנים. By עשׂתה־לּהּ it is not meant that she prepares such pillows for her own bed, but that she herself (i.e., for the wants of her house) prepares them. But she also clothes herself in costly attire. שׁשׁ (an Egyptian word, not, as Heb., derived from שׁוּשׁ, cogn. ישׁשׁ, to be white) is the old name for linen, according to which the Aram. translates it by בּוּץ, the Greek by βύσσος, vid., Genesis, pp. 470, 557, to which the remark is to be added, that
- ↑ The lxx reads together שנים מרבדים, δισσὰς χλαίνας, and brings into Pro 31:21 (her husband remains without care for the members of the family if it does not snow χιονίζη, as it is to be read for χρονίζη) and 22 the husband, who appears to the translator too much kept in the background.
- ↑ Vid., Lumbroso, Recherches sur l'Economie politique de l'Egypte sous les Lagides (Turin, 1870), p. 111; des tapis de laine de premeère qualité, pourpres, laineux des deux côtés (ἀμφίταποι).
