1:6

This verse describes how the garden was decorated. There were marble pillars around the edge of the garden. Blue and white curtains were hung between these pillars and were tied to silver rings on the pillars by purple and white cords. Blue and white were the royal colors of Persia. The meaning of many of the Hebrew words in this verse is not known and that is why there are many differences in detail between the English versions.

1:6a

Hangings of white and blue linen: This probably refers to two separate sets of curtains, one set blue and the other white, not two-colored curtains.

linen: This is a finely woven cloth made from the flax plant.

1:6b

purple: Purple is a color between red and blue.

silver rings: This could refer to:

(1) rings made of silver which were attached to or embedded in the pillars (Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Good News Translation, New Century Version, Contemporary English Version).

(2) silver rods which joined the pillars (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, God’s Word).

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation.

marble: This is a kind of beautiful stone. It is hard and usually shiny. It can be different colors—white, black or white with stripes of other colors in it. It was used for pillars or for paving, as well as for statues.

1:6c

couches: This means a long low seat, often soft, where someone would normally recline (lie) to eat.

1:6d

mosaic pavement: The ground where the couches were was covered with beautiful stones of different colors arranged in patterns. There are four types of stone listed, but scholars are not sure what the Hebrew words mean, so nearly every version has a different translation. The important thing is that the area was paved with beautiful stones of different colors and this is how the verse has been translated in the Display. It is recommended that you do the same, rather than introducing names of stones which your readers do not know.

© 2000 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.