Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
Thou shalt not wear or make a garment that combines different sorts together in one cloth, understood as wool and linen together, and more broadly as different sorts and colors. The original word rendered as linen and woolen has an uncertain meaning. The requirement means that the garment described in the following verse is to be made from one kind of material only, with the blue band and fringes then added to it. The prohibition served as a safeguard against pride, which was especially displayed through such garments in that land and age.
Israel's clothing, including the materials from which garments were made, was part of its religious instruction, so that everyday choices would teach holiness and point to the Redeemer who takes away sin. The rule against combining wool and linen teaches that unlike things should not be mingled in ways that dull moral sensibility, and it belongs with the rules about mixed seed and yoking different kinds of animals in teaching against incongruous and unholy mixtures. The rule was meant to impress that there must be no mixing with the world, with God's people remaining distinct because their nature and motives differ and a forbidden union brings no profit to either side.
The garment is a type of Christ's righteousness that clothes those whose sins are forgiven, and its single material teaches that the believer is to be clothed wholly in that righteousness, which cannot be mixed with evil or selfishness even in the smallest degree, not even one thread. Clothing also recalls the light and glory humanity had before sin and points to the heavenly dress God will give the redeemed. As an Israelite national law governing the making of garments, the verse is not binding today as law, though its underlying principle remains binding.
Thou shalt not wear or make a garment that combines different sorts together in one cloth, understood as wool and linen together, and more broadly as different sorts and colors. The original word rendered as linen and woolen has an uncertain meaning. The requirement means that the garment described in the following verse is to be made from one kind of material only, with the blue band and fringes then added to it. The prohibition served as a safeguard against pride, which was especially displayed through such garments in that land and age.
Israel's clothing, including the materials from which garments were made, was part of its religious instruction, so that everyday choices would teach holiness and point to the Redeemer who takes away sin. The rule against combining wool and linen teaches that unlike things should not be mingled in ways that dull moral sensibility, and it belongs with the rules about mixed seed and yoking different kinds of animals in teaching against incongruous and unholy mixtures. The rule was meant to impress that there must be no mixing with the world, with God's people remaining distinct because their nature and motives differ and a forbidden union brings no profit to either side.
The garment is a type of Christ's righteousness that clothes those whose sins are forgiven, and its single material teaches that the believer is to be clothed wholly in that righteousness, which cannot be mixed with evil or selfishness even in the smallest degree, not even one thread. Clothing also recalls the light and glory humanity had before sin and points to the heavenly dress God will give the redeemed. As an Israelite national law governing the making of garments, the verse is not binding today as law, though its underlying principle remains binding.