SHESH (shesh). 1. (Heb. shaysh, bleached), also SHESHI (she'shi), translated fine linen in the Authorized Version, occurs twenty-eight times in Exodus, once in Genesis, once in I'roverbs, and three times in Ezekiel.
(1) Distinctions. In the article BYSSUS we have seen that the word bad, translated linen, oc curs in various passages of the Old Testament, but that the word buff, translated fine linen and white linen, is employed only at a later period. Under the word KARPAS, used in Esth. i :6, we have shown the probability of its being derived from the Sanscrit karpasum, and that it signifies 'cotton.' We have there stated our opinion that cotton was known to the Hebrews when in Per sia, and that but; which is not used before the time when the book of Chronicles was written, probably also signifies cotton. Ethun, as well as othonion, appears to have been applied either to linen or cotton cloth. Bad we conceive may mean linen only. Pishtah, flax, we know, was one of the great productions of Egypt.
In the several passages where we find the word shesh used, we do not obtain any information re specting the plant; but it is clear it was spun by women (Exod. xxxv :23), was used as an article of clothing, also for hangings, and even for the sails of ships, as in Ezek. xxvii:7, 'Fine linen (shesh) with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail.' It is evident from these facts, that it must have been a plant known as cultivated in Egypt at the earliest period, and which, or its fiber, the Israel ites were able to obtain even when in the desert. As cotton does not appear to have been known at this very early period, we must seek for shcsh among the other fiber-yielding plants, such as flax and hemp. Both these arc suited to the pur pose, and were procurable in tlrose countries at the times specified. Lexicographers do not give us much assistance in determining the point, from the little certainty in their inferences. The word shesh, however, appears to us to have a very great resemblance, with the exception of the aspirate, to the Arabic name of a plant, which, it is cu rious, was also one of those earliest cultivated for its fiber, namely, hemp. Of this plant one of the Arabic names is hushcesh, or the herb par excel lence. Though we are unable at present to prove that it was cultivated in Egypt at an early period, and used for making garments, yet there is noth ing improbable in its having been so. Indeed as
it was known to various Asiatic nations, it could hardly have been unknown to the Egyptians. and the similarity of the word husheesh to the Arabic shesh would lead to the belief that they were ac quainted with it, especially as in a language like the Hebrew it is more probable that different names were applied to totally different things, than that the same thing had two or three differ ent names. Hemp might thus have been used at an early period, along with flax and wool, for making cloth for garments and for hangings, and would be much valued until cotton and the finer kinds of linen catne to be known.
(2) Flax and Linen. Reference has been made to this article from BYSSUS and from FISHTAIL for an account of flax and the cloth made from it. So many words are translated linen in the Au thorized Version of the Scriptures, that it has been considered doubtful whether they indicate only different qualities of the same thing, or totally different substances. The latter has by some been thought the most probable, on account of the pov erty of the Hebrew language; hence, instead of considering the one a synonym of the other, we have been led to inquire, as above, whether shesh may not signify cloth made of hemp instead of flax. This would leave bad and pishtale as the only words peculiarly appropriated to linen and flax. The passages in which bad occurs have al ready been indicated (see Bvssus). On referring to them we find that it is used only when articles of clothing are alluded to. It is curious, and probably not accidental. that the Sanskrit word pal signifies cloth made from wax-like substances. It has been remarked that the official garments of the Hebrews, like those of the Egyptians, were all made of linen; and we find in the several passages where bad occurs, that linen garments and clothes, linen breeches, linen girdle, linen ephod. linen miter, arc intended; so in Exod. xxxix :A, and they made for Aaron and his sons 'a miter of fine linen, and goodly bonnets of fine linen. and linen breeches of fine twined linen.' In the article Corrox we have seen that the mummy cloths are composed very generally, if not universally, of linen cloth.