Linen and wool

Flax grew well in Egypt and around the Sea of Galilee. Its stalks were soaked in water until the fibers came loose, dried in the sun — Rahab hid the spies among stalks of flax on her roof (Joshua 2:6) — then split and combed for spinning. Linen ranged from coarse to very fine; the finest was worn by kings and nobles, and Pharaoh clothed Joseph “in garments of fine linen” (Genesis 41:42). Wool, from creamy white to brown and black, was the cloth of herding people; King Mesha of Moab paid Israel “the wool of a hundred thousand rams” (2 Kings 3:4).

Wool was washed, dried and beaten to loosen the fibers, then combed and spun. Women spun and wove at home for their families, and professional spinners also worked; the capable wife of Proverbs “selects wool and flax” and grasps the spindle (Proverbs 31:13, 19). A spindle was a thin stick weighted with a whorl of clay or stone. Looms were of three kinds: a horizontal loom pegged to the ground, which nomads could roll up — Delilah wove Samson’s braids into one (Judges 16:13–14) — a vertical two-beam loom, and an upright loom with clay weights.