Bible Dictionary
HANGINGS
Hangings were curtains or screens used in the tabernacle court and its entrances. They were made of fine linen or embroidered fabric; the term can also refer to textile coverings associated with idolatrous worship.
Definition
Hangings were textile curtains or screens. In the tabernacle, they enclosed the court and were suspended from hooks attached to its pillars. Related screens closed the entrances of the court and tabernacle, and one term also referred to the veil before the Holy of Holies. The word may also describe textile structures connected with Asherah worship.
Biblical Usage
The tabernacle hangings were made of fine twined linen, while the entrance screens were embroidered in colors. The term also occurs in a passage describing women weaving objects for the Asherah.
Historical Background
The court hangings were five cubits high, with lengths corresponding to the sides of the enclosure and the spaces beside the entrance.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>hang'-ingz:</p><p>(1) In English Versions of the Bible this word in the plural represents the Hebrew qela`im, the curtains of "fine twined linen" with which the court of the tabernacle was enclosed. These were five cubits in height, and of lengths corresponding to the sides of the enclosure and the space on either side of the entrance in front, and were suspended from hooks fastened to the pillars of the court. They are described at length in Ex 27:9-15; 38:9-18. See, besides, Ex 35:17; 39:40; Nu 3:26; 4:26.</p><p>(2) In the King James Version another word, macakh (the Revised Version (British and American) uniformly "screen"), is distinguished from the preceding only by the singular, "hanging" (Ex 35:17; 38:18, etc.). It is used of the screen or portiere, embroidered in colors, that closed the entrance of the court (Ex 27:16; 35:17; 38:18; 39:40; 40:8,33; Nu 3:26; 4:26); of the screen of similar workmanship at the entrance of the tabernacle (Ex 26:36,37; 35:15; 36:37; 39:38; 40:5,28; Nu 3:25; 4:25); and once (Nu 3:31) of the tapestry veil, adorned with cherubim, at the entrance of the Holy of Holies (elsewhere, parokheth, "veil," Ex 26:31-33, etc., or parokheth ha-macakh, "veil of the screen," Ex 35:12, etc.). In Nu 3:26, the King James Version renders macakh "curtain," and in Ex 35:12; 39:34; 40:21 (compare also Nu 4:5), "covering."</p><p>(3) In 2Ki 23:7 we read of "hangings" (Hebrew "houses") which the women wove for the Asherah. If the text is correct we are to think perhaps of tent shrines for the image of the goddess. Lucian's reading (stolas, "robes") is preferred by some, which would have reference to the custom of bringing offerings of clothing for the images of the gods. In 1Ki 7:29 the Revised Version (British and American), "wreaths of hanging work" refers to a kind of ornamentation on the bases of the lavers. In Es 1:6, "hangings" is supplied by the translators.</p><p>Benjamin Reno Downer</p>