Schaff's Bible Dictionary
VAT. Isa 33:2. See Wine-Fat. VEIL is, in our translation, the rendering of several Hebrew words which properly mean shawls or mantles. Gen 24:65; Gen 38:14; Ruth 3:15; Song 5:7; Isa 3:23. These shawls or mantles may occasionally have been drawn over the face, but they were not designed for that purpose. Veils proper were used by the Hebrew women only on special occasions - as ornaments. Song 4:1, Num 1:3; Song 6:7; as a bridal-symbol, Gen 24:65; Jer 29:25; and for the purpose of concealment. Gen 38:14. Generally the Hebrew women appeared in public without veils.
Gen 12:14; 2 Chr 24:16; Gen 29:10; 1 Sam 1:12, and so did the Egyptian and Assyrian women, as seen by the Egyptian and Assyrian sculptures and paintings. The custom now almost universal among Oriental women to be veiled whenever they appear in public dates from the Koran, 33:55, 59, which forbids the Mohammedan women to show themselves unveiled outside of the circle of their nearest relatives.