SILK. Whether this fabric was known to the Hebrews is extremely doubtful. There is no word in Hebrew answering to it, for the Hebrew words translated silk in the A. V., Vho (Ezek. xvi. ro, ir3), and Lt./ (Prov. xxxi. 22), cannot be proved to be 1 proper y so rendered. Of the latter, indeed, it may be confidently affirmed that it is erroneously so rendered [SHEsii] ; and the presumption that the former designates silk rests solely on its being supposed to stand connected with the verb ren, 7liashah, to draw out. The LXX. render it by i-pixarroy, which, though it may be used of silk, is used genemlly of any fine fabric. Some have sug gested that the word pvini (Amos iii. i2) should Arabic dimakso or disnkds silk. But this denotes razu silk, not spun or thread silk ; and besides, the Hebrew and Arabic words are different (Hender son, in ; Pusey, in /or.) The only undoubted reference to silk in the Bible is in Rev. xviii. 12,
where onpuc6v is mentioned as among the treasures of Babylon.—W. L. A.
snioN (flo) occurs in Ezek. xxviii. 24, where it is rendered 'prickling brie? in the A. V. As sillon is here mentioned with koz, it has been in ferred that it must mean something of the same kind. Several Arabic words resemble it in sound ; as seel, sig-nifying a kind of wormwood ; silleh, the plant Zilla myagrum ; sillak, the rpci-yors of the Greeks, supposed to be Saluda kali and S. tragus ; sulal or sulalon, which signifies the thorn of the date-tree, while the Chaldee word silleta signifies a thorn simply. It is probable, therefore, that sillon has something of the same meaning, as also sal kninz or silloninz, which occurs in Ezek. 6 along with sarabim ; but we are unable to fix upon any particular plant of Syria as the one intended.— J. F. R.