fine linen: a costly, bright white cloth of flax, the luxury fabric of temple furnishings, royal dress, and foreign trade in the later Old Testament books
Fine linen of this kind was a luxury good: flax spun and woven into a smooth, brilliantly white cloth that cost far more than ordinary clothing material. It turns up wherever the writers are describing wealth, rank, or ceremony:
- the curtain that closed off the holiest room of Solomon's temple
- the robes of the Levite singers who stood before the altar
- the mantle David wore when the ark came up to Jerusalem
- the cords that held the awnings at a Persian king's banquet
- the merchandise carried into the markets of Tyre
The word is also a latecomer to Hebrew. The older books call the same cloth by a different name (שֵׁשׁ), and this one appears only in Chronicles, Esther, and Ezekiel, books written during the exile and after it. When the Chronicler describes the curtain of Solomon's temple he uses this word, where the older account of the tabernacle curtain used the earlier one. The change in vocabulary marks a change of era rather than a change of fabric.
In all eight appearances it names the material itself, not a particular garment or a shade of white. A family of craftsmen can work it, a skilled foreign artisan can list it among the things he knows how to handle, a weaver can twist it into cord, and a courtier can be dressed in it. One verse makes the point neatly: when the ark comes up to Jerusalem, David wears a robe of this costly cloth and also a shoulder garment of the plain linen (בַּד) that priests wore for ordinary service. Two fabrics, two words, one scene.