HANGING, HANGINGS.?1. The former is AV?s term for the porti?re 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?s substitute for ?hanging? throughout.
RV, however, retains ?hangings? as the tr. 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, of ?hangings for the Asherah? (cf. RVm), 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.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909