Badger in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

(Exodus 26:14). Badger skins were the outer covering of the tabernacle, in the wilderness; and of the ark, the table, the candlestick, the golden altar, and altar of burnt offering (Numbers 4:6-14). In Ezekiel 16:10 Jehovah alludes to this, under the image of the shoes made of badger skins for delicate and beautiful women; "I shod thee with badger skin." This was the material of the shoes worn by Hebrew on festival days. Weighty authorities render Hebrew tachash a "seal," not a "badger"; seals were numerous on the shores of the Sinaitic peninsula. Others say it is the halicore, a Red Sea fish, which still is used by the Arabs to make soles for shoes and like purposes; called dahash, like tachash. Others think it is the stag goat, of the antelope kind, called thacasse, related perhaps to tachash, to be seen on Egyptian monuments. A great objection to the badger is, it is not found in Bible lands, Syria, Arabia, or Egypt, and certainly not in sufficient quantities for the Israelites' purpose. The objection to the halicore is Leviticus 11:10; "all that have not fins and scales in the seas." But that prohibition refers only to using them as food; moreover, the tachash probably includes marine animals in general, their skins made into "leather" were well fitted to protect against the weather. Josephus makes the color sky blue (Ant. 3:6, section 4).