SADDLE

A seat fastened across the back of an animal for a rider. Numerous Biblical references mention saddling asses (Ge 22:3; Nu 22:21; 2Sa 17:23; 19:26; 1Ki 2:40; 13:13, 27; 2Ki 4:24), but no description is provided of the saddles. From the evidence of ancient monuments, it appears that early saddles for horses were little more than a cloth or leather padding. The Hebrew verb “saddle” basically means “bind,” indicating that the saddles were strapped to the animal. One ancient relief depicts a boxlike saddle strapped to the back of a one-humped camel. Nothing definite can be said about “the woman’s saddle basket of the camel” mentioned at Genesis 31:34. The Hebrew expression kar hag·ga·malʹ has been variously rendered “camel-bag” (NE), “camel’s litter” (JB), and “camel’s saddle” (AT).

Under the Law, anyone touching a saddle upon which one with a running discharge had been riding became unclean, as did a person touching an article on which a menstruating woman had been sitting.​—Le 15:9, 19-23.