Unclean Skirts

Larry Lyke ( I Will Espouse You Forever: The Song of Songs and the Theology of Love in the Hebrew Bible ) notes the use of the word “skirts” (Heb. shwl ) in Lamentations 1:9, and comments that outside Jeremiah, Nahum, and Lamentations the term “is always used in reference to clothing worn in the temple.”  Isaiah 6:1 envisions Yahweh enthroned in temple garb, using the same word.

He suggests that “Jeremiah’s use may suggest that the term was heavily loaded with associations to the temple and vestments appropriate to it; its use became all the more shocking when associated with exposed nakedness.  We cannot be sure that Jeremiah or Lamentations implies an association with the temple with this term, but its use in the latter . . . followed as it is by the invasion of the emple by unauthorized visitors, is highly suggestive indeed.”

The garments of Israel are the garments of the priests, and it’s the abominations of the priests that render the whole of Jerusalem unclean, the whole bride clothed in filthy skirts.