Isaiah 3:18. Their cauls and their round tires like the moon.
1. What is meant by shebisim, “cauls,” is not certain. The marginal reading is “net-works,” and many writers suppose that nets for the hair are meant. These were anciently worn, as is evident from the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, and from specimens which have found their way to museums. Others think that reference is made here to the mode of dressing the hair, arranging it into tresses, and attaching to it golden ornaments and small coins, or so braiding it as to resemble checker-work. A German author, Schroeder, conjectures that shebisim were small metallic ornaments resembling the sun, and he would associate them with the moon-ornaments mentioned in the same verse. This interpretation is accepted by Fuerst and others, but rejected by authorities equally good.
2. Saharonim, “round tires like the moon,” were metallic moon-shaped ornaments hung around the neck. Similar ornaments were sometimes hung about the necks of camels. See note on Judges 8:21 (#231).