Tents mentioned in the Bible were originally made from goat skin then goat hair

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Five men in a traditional tent Arab Tent. They...
Five men in a traditional tent Arab Tent. They have a fire pit, and are having tea. There is a Falcon in the foreground (created in between 1898 and 1946). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Tents were among the early habitations of man, though not the earliest, since they apparently were not introduced until the time of Jabal, who was in the seventh generation from Adam (see Genesis 4:20). The first tents were doubtless made of skins, though afterwards, when the process of weaving became known, they were made of cloth of camel’s hair, or goat’s hair, spun by women. The latter is the material most commonly used by the Arabs, and since the goats were usually black, or a very dark brown, the tents had the same appearance. 

 It was thus in the days of Solomon with the tents made the descendants of the Ishmaelitish Kedar. “Kedar,” which means “powerful” in Arabic and “black” in Hebrew, designates the descendants of Ishmael in North Arabia. Individually the tents were not very attractive, but when arranged in the form of a circular encampment, with the animals enclosed by the circle of tents, and usually the leader’s tent in the center, they presented a picturesque picture. Balaam was impressed with the beauty of such a scene when he saw the vast encampment of the Israelites and exclaimed: “How beautiful (comely, KJV) are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places (thy tabernacles, KJV), O Israel” (Numbers 24:5)!

If ancient tents were made like tents used for centuries by the Arabs, then the tents were usually of various sizes, according to the number in the family or the wealth of the owner. The number of poles to a tent varied from one to nine. Some tents were circular in shape, some square, and others oblong. The covering was spread over the poles, which were fastened into the ground. 

The edges of the cover had loops made of leather or some other strong material, and to them were fastened the cords of the tent, which were sometimes stretched out tight and fastened to the ground by means of iron or wooden pins, or else were fastened to upright posts, on which a curtain was hung around the tent, forming the walls, which could be removed whenever desired without disturbing the rest of the tent. Other cords reached from the top of the tent to the ground, where they were fastened with tent pegs (pins, KJV), thus steadying the entire structure. It was one of these tent pegs that Jael drove with a mallet into the head of Sisera (Judges 4:21). The mallet and tent peg were easily accessible, since pitching a tent was the woman’s job.



Freeman, J. M., & Chadwick, H. J. (1998). Manners & customs of the Bible (pp. 341–342). North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers.

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