BABYLONISH GARMENT.

By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., Gerson B. Levi

An article of dress mentioned in connection with the theft of Achan (Josh. vii. 21) during the spoil of the captured city of Jericho. The connection would indicate that the garment was one of considerable value. That a Babylonish garment should have been found in Jericho is not at all impossible, and points to commercial contact with Babylonia which we know, from other sources, began long before the days of Joshua. It is difficult to determine the exact kind of garment meant by the expression.

Bereshit Rabbah (lxxxv. 14) states that it was a purple robe, while Josephus says it was made of gold. Two other opinions are registered in the Talmud (Sanh. 44a). Abba Arika says it was a robe made of fine wool, while Samuel says that it meant a cloak made in Ẓerifa (near Pumbedita; Rashi: "dyed with alum"). These opinions, however, do not conflict, but touch upon different sides of the question—one, the material; the other, the method of dyeing.