SADDLE

Numerous Biblical references mention saddling asses (Gen. 22:3; Num. 22:21; 2 Sam. 17:23; 19:26; 1 Ki. 2:40; 13:13, 27; 2 Ki. 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 “to saddle” basically means “to 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 “saddle basket of the camel” mentioned at Genesis 31:34 (NW). The Hebrew expression kar hag-ga·malʹ has been variously rendered “camel-bag” (NE, 1970 ed.), “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.—Lev. 15:9, 19-23.