tas'-'l (tsitsith): This word occurs only in Numbers 15:38 (Revised Version margin), which reads "tassels in the corners" for "fringes in the borders of their garments" (the King James Version).

It is probable that the dress of the Palestinian peasant has undergone little change in the centuries since the occupation of the land by the Hebrews. His outer garment, worn for protection against cold and rain, is the simlah of Exodus 22:26, now known as 'abayah by the Arabs. It is a square cloak, with unsewn spaces for armholes, and is composed of either three or four widths of woven stuff. The outer strips of the stuff, folded back and sewn at the upper edges, form shoulder-straps. It was to such a garment as this that the injunctions of Numbers 15:37-41 and of Deuteronomy 22:12 applied.

See FRINGES .

W. Shaw Caldecott

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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