Silk

Silk appears in scripture as a luxury fabric — first as wedding-finery for Jerusalem in Ezekiel's parable, then as one of the merchandise items mourned over fallen Babylon.

Wedding-finery in Ezekiel's parable

In Ezekiel's allegory of Jerusalem as the foundling whom Yahweh raised and clothed, silk is the outer covering laid over fine linen: "I clothed you also with embroidered work, and put sandals on you with sealskin, and I girded you about with fine linen, and covered you with silk" (Ezek 16:10). The summary of her finery a few verses later names silk again among the costly fabrics that adorned her: "Thus you were decked with gold and silver; and your raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine flour, and honey, and oil; and you were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate" (Ezek 16:13).

Merchandise of Babylon

In John's vision of Babylon's fall, silk is named in the inventory of luxury goods her merchants will no longer sell: "merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stone, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet; and all thyine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of most precious wood, and of bronze, and iron, and marble" (Rev 18:12).