Badger

Badgers’ skins are listed with the gifts for the tabernacle, and that is nearly all the Bible says. In Exodus 25:5 they come beside rams’ skins dyed red and shittim wood, and Exodus 26:14 says the tent gets a covering of rams’ skins and, above it, “a covering above of badgers’ skins”. The people bring them freely in Exodus 35, and the craftsmen put them in place in Exodus 36 and 39. The covering sits on the outside, facing the weather, so the colour and the gold stay hidden within. Read Exodus 26:1-14 to see the layers in order.

6 verses

Exodus

Exodus 25:5

And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood,

Exodus 26:14

And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers' skins.

Exodus 35:7

And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood,

Exodus 35:23

And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers' skins, brought them.

Exodus 36:19

And he made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above that.

Exodus 39:34

And the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers' skins, and the vail of the covering,

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

This word is found in Ex. 25:5; 26:14; 35:7, 23; 36:19; 39:34; Num. 4:6, etc. The tabernacle was covered with badgers’ skins; the shoes of women were also made of them (Ezek. 16:10). Our translators seem to have been misled by the similarity in sound of the Hebrew tachash_ and the Latin _taxus, “a badger.” The revisers have correctly substituted “seal skins.” The Arabs of the Sinaitic peninsula apply the name tucash to the seals and dugongs which are common in the Red Sea, and the skins of which are largely used as leather and for sandals. Though the badger is common in Palestine, and might occur in the wilderness, its small hide would have been useless as a tent covering. The dugong, very plentiful in the shallow waters on the shores of the Red Sea, is a marine animal from 12 to 30 feet long, something between a whale and a seal, never leaving the water, but very easily caught. It grazes on seaweed, and is known by naturalists as Halicore tabernaculi.

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