Les Feldick Bible Study

Where were the seal skins used in the tabernacle?

The seal skins, rendered "badger skins" in the King James text, formed the hide covering placed on the outside of the tabernacle tent. They were the outermost layer of that movable dwelling, and they appear in the list of willing offerings Israel brought for its construction.

Les explains that the word "badger" has to be identified and defined, because in North America we picture the animal that is about that wide across the top with big long claws, and they don't know that animal in the Middle East. So the badger here was really a seal, a seawater animal. He asks his listeners to remember that, because of the hide of these seals that will be put on the outside of the little tabernacle tent, and he says he will point that out when they come to it. The skins are named in the list of offerings in Exodus chapter 25, alongside gold, silver, brass, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goat's hair, and ram skins dyed red. Les also notes that all this material came out of Egypt, where the Israelites spoiled Egypt and the Egyptians simply gave everything to them, because God had all this in mind and sovereignly caused those Egyptians to give of their wealth.

Exodus 25:5

And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,

More Questions

What were the badger skins in the tabernacle actually made from?

The 'badger' skins of Exodus 25 were actually seal skins, because the North American badger is an animal not known in the Middle East.