She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn’t given to him as a wife.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 14. Veil; (theristrum) a long robe, covering the whole body, except the eyes. Thus she was disguised; or, as it were, masked, as Aquila translates. Harlots herein imitated modest women, chap. 24:65.—Cross way. Hebrew Henayim, which the Septuagint and Syr. take for a proper name. Others translate “at the gate of the eyes,” which means two roads, where a person must open his eyes to judge which is the right one—or “at the gate of the two fountains leading to Thamnas.” Judith 14:1. Prostitutes formerly infested the high roads. Jeremiah 3:2. Ezekiel 16:25. Chrysippus says, “at first harlots remained out of the city, and covered their faces; but afterwards growing more hardened, they laid aside the mask,” and so forth