Bridal garments

Yahweh enters into covenant with Israel at Sinai. It is a kind of wedding event. Yahweh commits Himself to Israel, Israel to Yahweh, and they end with a wedding feast on the mountain.

Then Yahweh gives instructions for a bridal house – the tabernacle, a home where He can dwell with His bride, in the midst of His bride.

The tabernacle curtains and adornments are bridal clothing, as Ezekiel 16 makes clear: Yahweh says that He “clothed [Israel] with embroidered cloth, and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk, and I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands, and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with silver and gold, and your dress was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth” (vv. 10-13). In a number of specifics, this text makes direct allusion to the tabernacle materials, suggesting that the tabernacle was the glory-covering for Yahweh’s bride.

This strengthens the interlocking imagery of sexual and liturgical violation that is built into the Levitical system (cf. Leviticus 18, 20).