skil, skil'-fool (forms of yadha` (2 Ch 2:14, etc.), bin (1 Ch 15:22), sakhal (Dan 1:4, etc.), lamadh (1 Ch 5:18), chakham (1 Ch 28:21), charash (Ezek 21:31), yaTabh (Ps 33:3); in Apocrypha empeiria (The Wisdom of Solomon 13:13), episteme (Sirach 1:19; 38:3,6); adverb eumathos (The Wisdom of Solomon 13:11)): As a verb "to skill," meaning to have understanding or to be dexterous, common in Elizabethan English and in the King James Version and the English Revised Version (1 Ki 5:6; 2 Ch 2:7 f; 34:12), is obsolete. The American Standard Revised Version substitutes such expressions as "knoweth how" (1 Ki 5:6) and "were skillful with" (2 Ch 34:12). As a noun the word is used in the sense of "knowledge" (Eccl 9:11), "insight" (Dan 1:17), and "wisdom" (1 Ch 28:21). The adjective skillful is used in corresponding senses, especially in the American Standard Revised Version, where it takes the place of "cunning" (Ex 26:31; 31:4; 35:33,35; 38:23; 2 Ch 2:7,13,14; Song 7:1; Isa 40:20; Jer 10:9) and of "curious" (Ex 35:32), where the Hebrew chashabh suggests planning or devising, and thus what we should call "original" work. Both the English Revised Version and the American Standard Revised Version use the word in place of "eloquent" (Isa 3:3), "right" (Eccl 4:4) and "cunning" (1 Ch 25:7). In the first of these instances the Hebrew word means "understanding"; in the second, it refers to the manner of doing a thing, and in the third, to the training that makes one "skilled." the Revised Version (British and American) uses the word "skilled" of those that "took the war upon them" (Nu 31:27 the King James Version). Skillfulness (Ps 78:72) is used with reference to the hands, not only in their work, but also in guiding (as, e.g., a pilot). To play well (Hebrew heTibhu naggen), is rendered "play skillfully" (Ps 33:3). "Unskillful" is used with reference to the uninitiated in the sense of "inexperienced" (Heb 5:13, apeiros).
Nathan Isaacs
(`or, geledh, "human skin" (Job 16:15), basar, "flesh," in the sense of "nakedness" (Ps 102:5 the King James Version); derma):
Literal:
The word `or designates the skin of both men and animals, the latter both raw and in tanned condition: "Yahweh God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins (`or), and clothed them" (Gen 3:21); "She put the skins (`or) of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck" (Gen 27:16); "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" (Jer 13:23). The Hebrew geledh is found in the sense of human skin: "I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my horn in the dust" (Job 16:15).
Figurative:
`To escape by the skin of the teeth' is equivalent to a narrow escape (Job 19:20). Satan says in his calumny of Job: "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life" (Job 2:4). The idea here is, that a man will endure or do the worst, even as it were the flaying of his body, to save his life. The Revised Version (British and American) has replaced "skin" as the translation of Hebrew basar by "flesh": "My bones cleave to my flesh" (Ps 102:5). "The bars of his skin" is a poetical expression for "the members of his body" in Job 18:13 margin, where the text interprets rather than translates the original.
Skins served for purposes of clothing from an early date (Gen 3:21). In later days they were the raiment of prophets and hermits (Zec 13:4; Heb 11:37). Septuagint translates 'addereth, "the mantle" of Elijah (1 Ki 19:13,19; 2 Ki 2:8,13 f), with melote, i.e. "sheepskin," the word in He being derived from these passages. It is not unlikely that the raiment of John the Baptist made "of camel's hair" and the "leathern girdle about his loins" are identical with the rough garb of Old Testament prophets. The skins of cattle were largely employed for technical uses; "rams' skins and badgers' skins" are especially mentioned in the construction of the tabernacle as material for the waterproof covering of the roof (Ex 25:5; Nu 4:8,10 ff).
The Revised Version, rejecting the translation "badgers' skins," substitutes "sealskins" and adds "porpoise skins" in the margin. There is little doubt that the rendering of the King James Version is indeed incorrect. The Hebrew name of the animal (tachash) is the same as the Arabic tuchas, which means the dolphin and the "sea-cow" or halicore of the Red Sea, of which genus there are two species even now extant (H. tabernaculi Russ, and H. Helprichii Ehr.). It is probable that the Jews included various marine animals, seals, porpoises, dolphins and halicores, under the same expression.
See SEALSKIN .
In Ezek 16:10 we find these skins mentioned as material for elegant shoes, and the Arabs of the Red Sea littoral use the same material in the manufacture of sandals. A quaint use was made of skins in the making of skin bottles, the qurbeh or qirbeh of modern Arabia. We find a great variety of Hebrew expressions, which possibly designated special varieties, all of which were rendered askos, in Septuagint and the New Testament (chemeth, no'dh, no'dhah, nebhel, nebhel, baqbuq, 'obh). the Revised Version (British and American) has rendered the Greek askos in the New Testament by "wineskin" (Mt 9:17; Mk 2:22; Lk 5:37) with the marginal addition "that is, skins used as bottles." These skin bottles were made of the skins of goats, sheep, oxen or buffaloes; the former had more or less the shape of the animals, the holes of the extremities being closed by tying or sewing, and the neck of the skin being closed by a tap or a plug, while the larger ones were sewn together in various shapes. As a rule only the inside of the skin was tanned, the skin turned inside out, and the fluid or semi-fluid filled in, e.g. water, milk, butter, cheese. The hairy inside was not considered as in any way injurious to the contents. Only in the case of wine-and oil-skins was it thought advantageous to tan the skins inside and out.
H. L. E. Luering
skurt: (1) kanaph, "wing" "extremity" (Ruth 3:9, etc.), is the usual word. But in 1 Sam 24:4 ff perhaps "corner" is the best translation. (2) shul, "loose hanging" (Ex 28:33, etc.; in the King James Version often rendered "hem"). (3) peh, "mouth," "opening" (Ps 133:2, "the precious oil .... that came down upon the skirt"). But the "opening" is that for is that for the head, so that the Revised Version margin "collar" is the correct translation. "Skirt" is frequently used in a euphemistic sense, for which the commentaries must be consulted.
skul (gulgoleth; kranion): The Hebrew word, which is well known to Bible readers in its Aramaic-Greek form "Golgotha," expresses the more or less globular shape of the human skull, being derived from a root meaning "to roll." It is often translated in English Versions of the Bible by "head," "poll," etc. In the meaning "skull" it is found twice (Jdg 9:53; 2 Ki 9:35). In the New Testament the word is found only in connection with GOLGOTHA (which see), "the place of a skull" (Mt 27:33; Mk 15:22; Jn 19:17), or "the skull" (Lk 23:33).
ski (shachaq, "fine dust" or "cloud," apparently from [?] shachaq, "to rub," "to pulverize"; Samaritan: shechaqayyah instead of Hebrew shamayim; sachq = "cloud," "small dust"):
The Revised Version (British and American) has "skies" for the King James Version "clouds" in Job 35:5; 36:28; 37:21; Ps 36:5; 57:10; 68:34; 78:23; 108:4; Prov 3:20; 8:28, in which passages BDB supports the rendering of King James Version. In Ps 89:6,37 Revised Version (British and American) has "sky" for King James Version "heaven." English Versions has "sky" in Dt 33:26; 2 Sam 22:12; Job 37:18; Ps 18:11; 77:1; Isa 45:8; Jer 51:9. The word occurs mainly in poetical passages.
In the New Testament ouranos, is translated "heaven" (the King James Version "sky") in connection with the weather in Mt 16:2,3; Lk 12:56. In Heb 11:12 we find "the stars of heaven" ("the sky") as a figure of multitude. The conception, however, that the visible "sky" is but the dome-like floor of a higher world often makes it hard to tell whether "heaven" in certain passages may or may not be identified with the sky.
Alfred Ely Day