the lower hem of a long robe: the bottom border that runs all the way around and trails nearest the ground
Ancient robes reached the ankles, so their lowest edge was a large and visible part of the garment. This word names exactly that edge: the border running around the bottom of a robe, the part that sweeps closest to the floor. It is narrower than a general word for any rim or border (שָׂפָה), which fits the lip of a cup or the edge of a curtain just as well, and it is not the corner where the cloth runs out (כָּנָף). Hebrew always speaks of it as a plural, much as older English says "skirts".
Because the hem is the part of a robe everyone sees first, it carries a great deal of weight. The high priest's blue robe had woven pomegranates and small gold bells fastened around its hem, so that he could be seen and heard as he moved through the sanctuary. When Isaiah saw the Lord enthroned, it was the hem of the robe, and nothing else, that filled the temple.
That same lowest edge also does the opposite work. Lifted, it exposes; left to trail, it collects whatever the wearer has walked through. The prophets use both pictures for a city being disgraced in public. So one plain word for a piece of tailoring ends up doing four different jobs:
- decorated, the hem announces who the wearer is
- spread out, it measures how great the wearer is
- lifted up, it strips the wearer of honor
- stained, it shows what the wearer has become