Chapter Twenty-Eight

1–5. Establishment of the old covenant hierarchy and sacred garments. 6–39. The garments of Aaron the high priest. 40–43. The garments of the sons of Aaron.

Exodus 28:1. And bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, that he may serve me as priest – Aaron and Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. The establishment of the old covenant hierarchy. Before the Sinai law, the Hebrews had the right of natural priesthood: the head of a family was also a priest – he offered sacrifices (Gen 12:7). But with the construction of the tabernacle and the arising of complex worship, special priests were appointed for the service, members of the family of Aaron, with him as high priest (Lev 21:10, Exod 20:7, Num 35:28) at their head. For service at the tabernacle they are appointed by God already in Egypt (1 Sam 2:27-28), and it is given to them as a gift (Num 18:7). Yet, being an act of free divine appointment, the choice of priests from the tribe of Levi was apparently prompted by their comparative moral purity and religiousness. Even if we do not attach special significance to the testimony of Jewish tradition that before the exodus from Egypt the tribe of Levi waged a struggle for the confession of the Almighty against those who were drawn to idolatry, we can see evidence of their religiousness in the conduct of the Levites after the worship of the golden calf at Sinai (Exod 32:27-28). “Take to yourself,” – you are close to me, you are a mediator between me and the people; in the same position I command you to place your brother with his sons. The fulfilling of priestly service, which places the servants in the position of mediators between God and the people, makes them belong to God. They are not priests of the people, but priests to God.

Exodus 28:2. And you shall make sacred garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. The garments of Aaron and his sons indicated their rank and served as an external distinguishing mark of the sacred persons from the rest of the people. Hence, being worn only by the priests, they are called “sacred.” They are sacred also because they were put on only for the sacred actions (Exod 29:29). Speaking further of the “glory and beauty” of the service, the garments corresponded to the beauty of the sanctuary.

Exodus 28:3. And you shall speak to all the skilled, whom I have filled with the spirit of skill and of understanding, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, so that he may serve me as priest. Moses was to choose from the “wise of heart,” people skilled in crafts and arts (Exod 31:6) to make the garments.

Exodus 28:4. And these are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a checkered coat, [a head covering] and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests. Exodus 28:5. And they shall take the gold and the blue and the purple and the scarlet material and the fine linen. Exodus 28:6. And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet material, and of fine twisted linen, the work of a skilled craftsman. The ephod. Derived by interpreters from the Hebrew verb “aphad” – “to bind,” this name indicates a garment consisting of two pieces of material, one covering the back and the other the chest down to the waist; on the shoulders they were fastened by shoulder-straps (see verse 7), and at the waist by ties (Exod 28:8). The material for the ephod consisted of threads of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, fine linen, and gold. The latter was stretched into sheets, cut into threads, which were then woven between the loops of the specified colors (Exod 39:3). “The ephod,” said blessed Jerome, “is woven from four colors: hyacinthine, linen, brilliant scarlet and gold. Gold sheets, that is, thin plates, are stretched to an extraordinary fineness, threads cut from them are twisted together with weft of three colors and thread warp.”

Exodus 28:7. It shall have two shoulder-straps attached to its two edges, so that it may be fastened. The shoulder-straps, or fastenings on the shoulders, bound the ephod on both its edges (Exod 39:4). This indication makes it clear that the ephod was not a single garment – otherwise there would be no need to fasten or bind its two edges on the shoulders. It consisted of two pieces of cloth woven in the manner described above, one of which ended on the shoulders of the high priest on the front side and the other on the back. To prevent the ends of these halves from separating, they were bound on each shoulder with a shoulder-strap of a special kind – a clasp. The form of this clasp is unknown, but as can be seen from Exod 28:9-12, each of them was decorated with a stone called “shoham” – onyx, set in a gold setting (Exod 39:6-7).

Exodus 28:8. And the waistband of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same workmanship and materials as the ephod itself, of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet material, and of fine twisted linen. At the shoulders the two pieces of material were fastened with shoulder-straps, and at the bottom at the waist they were fastened with ties.

Exodus 28:9. And you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel. Exodus 28:10. Six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth. According to tradition, on the stone designated for the right shoulder were engraved the names of the six older sons of Jacob.

Exodus 28:11. In the work of an engraver in stone, like the engraving of signet rings, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel; you shall mount them in gold settings. Exodus 28:12. And you shall put the two stones on the shoulder-straps of the ephod; they are stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders as a memorial. The names of the sons of Israel engraved on each stone were worn by Aaron before the Lord “as a memorial” – so that he would not forget his people in his supplicatory prayer. Together with the high priest, who appeared before the face of God, the tribes of Israel appeared before the face of God.

Exodus 28:13. And you shall make filigree settings of gold. Exodus 28:14. And you shall make two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings. The chains mentioned in these verses must not be confused with the chains by means of which the judgment breastpiece was attached to the shoulder-straps (Exod 28:22-25). A separate commandment is given regarding their construction (Exod 28:22). It is more natural to suppose that the chains, Exod 28:13-14, wound around the settings and thereby prevented the shoulder-stone from falling out of its mounting.

Exodus 28:15. And you shall make a breastpiece of judgment, in the skilled work like the ephod you shall make it; of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet material, and of fine twisted linen you shall make it. Exodus 28:16. It shall be folded double, a span long and a span wide. The name breastpiece is given to this garment from the fact that it was worn on the chest, and the name “of judgment” came from the presence of the Urim and Thummim in it (see the explanation of verse 30). Made of the same material as the ephod, it was a square cloth a span in length and width (approximately five vershoks). The breastpiece was double, consisting of cloth folded in half.

Exodus 28:17. And you shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of ruby, topaz, and emerald shall be the first row. Exodus 28:18. And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. Exodus 28:19. And the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst. Exodus 28:20. And the fourth row a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper; they shall be set in gold filigree. Exodus 28:21. There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel; they shall be like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes. In the breastpiece, on its front side, twelve precious stones were to be set in gold mountings in four rows. What exactly these stones were is impossible to say with certainty. On the basis of ancient translations, it can be assumed with probability that in the upper row were a carnelian, topaz, and emerald; in the second – an emerald, sapphire, and jasper; in the third – a jacinth, agate, and amethyst; in the fourth – a chrysolite, beryl, and onyx. The carnelian is red; topaz is golden; emerald is green; emerald is fiery; sapphire is blue; jasper is various colors; jacinth is golden-yellow; agate is various colors; amethyst is violet; chrysolite is greenish; beryl is green-blue; onyx is like agate. In what order the names of the tribes should follow, the text does not say, but probably in the order of seniority, as on the shoulder-straps (Exod 28:10).

Exodus 28:22. And you shall make on the breastpiece two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords. Exodus 28:23. And you shall attach two gold rings to the breastpiece and put the rings on the two ends of the breastpiece. Exodus 28:24. And you shall put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece. Exodus 28:25. The other ends of the two cords you shall attach to the two settings, and so attach it in front of the shoulder-straps of the ephod. To each of the two upper, that is, those closest to the shoulders, corners of the breastpiece was attached a gold ring; to them in turn was attached a gold chain, and each of these was attached to the corresponding setting of the shoulder-strap.

Exodus 28:26. And you shall make two rings of gold and attach them to the other two ends of the breastpiece, on the inside edge next to the ephod. Exodus 28:27. And you shall make two rings of gold and attach them to the two shoulder-straps of the ephod at its seams just above the waistband of the ephod. Exodus 28:28. And they shall bind the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, so that it may lie upon the waistband of the ephod, and so the breastpiece shall not come loose from the ephod. In the same way a gold ring was attached to each of the two lower corners of the breastpiece, only they were located not on its front side but on the underside facing the ephod. In turn this latter had on each corner under the waistband that bound it a ring, ring opposite ring to the breastpiece. The breastpiece ring was bound to the ephod ring by a cord, and thanks to this the breastpiece did not fall off the ephod, did not slip to the side.

Exodus 28:29. So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the sanctuary, for a continual remembrance before the Lord. The wearing by the high priest on his chest, at his heart, of the stones with the names of the sons of Israel indicated his spiritual relationship with his people. The high priest was bound to the people by the bonds of the most intimate love.

Exodus 28:30. And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord always. With the breastpiece of judgment was joined the “Urim and Thummim.” The Hebrew text, in speaking of the relation of the latter to the first, uses the expression “nattah” (from “natan”), meaning: “add, attach” the Urim and Thummim to the breastpiece (Lev 8:8). Accordingly, the name “Urim and Thummim” meant an object attached to the breastpiece. The relationship between them is clarified more precisely by comparing this verse and Lev 8:8 with Exod 25:16. In both the latter it is said that the tablets of the covenant are placed in the ark, and in the Hebrew text the same verb ‘natan’ with the preposition ‘el’ is used, which appears in Exod 28:30, Lev 8:8. But if in them it characterizes the relationship of the tablets to the ark, then in the latter – the relationship of Urim and Thummim to the breastpiece. As the tablets are placed in the ark of the covenant, so the Urim in the breastpiece. The possibility of this is evident from the fact that the latter was “double,” consisted of two pieces of material. But if Urim and Thummim was “placed” in the breastpiece, then it cannot be identified, as some do, with the 12 stones: they were on the breastpiece, but not in it. The representation of Urim and Thummim as an object coincides with another view expressed by interpreters that this name was given to the revelation received by the high priest. In particular, the distinction of Urim from revelation is indicated by Num 27:21: “and he (Joshua) shall stand before Eleazar the priest and shall ask him for a decision by means of Urim.” From the comparison of the words: “and they (Urim and Thummim) shall be upon Aaron’s heart” with the further expression: “and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the sons of Israel upon his heart,” it follows with certainty that the name “judgment” is attributed to Urim and Thummim and that in connection with this the breastpiece containing them received the name “breastpiece of judgment” (Exod 28:15). And since the expression “judgment” (Heb. “mishpat”) is connected with the concept of revelation (Isa 51:4), the name of Urim “judgment” indicates that through it the will of God was revealed, revelation was obtained (Num 27:21).

Exodus 28:31. And you shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. The “robe” – in contrast to the ephod, was single-colored. The robe is called “robe of the ephod,” that is, a part of the ephod, which without it was not put on.

Exodus 28:32. It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it, with a woven binding around the opening, like the opening of a coat of mail, so that it does not tear. The garment was not open or fastened, but whole, with an opening for the head in the upper part. The opening should not be cut out but made during the weaving of the robe, which was entirely woven (Exod 39:22). To prevent the opening from tearing, it was bound with a woven binding (Exod 39:23).

Exodus 28:33. And on the hem of the robe you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet material, all around the hem [and between them golden bells all around]. Exodus 28:34. A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of the robe. Exodus 28:35. And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and his sound shall be heard when he goes into the sanctuary before the Lord, and when he comes out, so that he does not die. Along the hem of the robe (Exod 39:26), which reached, according to Josephus and blessed Jerome, to the knees, there alternated three-colored likenesses of pomegranates, made from blue, purple, and scarlet twisted yarn (Exod 39:24), and golden bells. While the pomegranates, distinguished by their sweetness, reminded of the sweetness of the law proclaimed by the high priest (Ps 118:72), the sound of the bells when Aaron entered the sanctuary and left it had the closest relation to the high priest’s personal safety: “and he shall not die.” Entering the sanctuary, the place of God’s special presence, Aaron, clothed in his sacred garments, appeared as the representative and intercessor of the people, not as one who had offended the sanctity of the place; therefore Aaron should be free from fear of punishment by death for the offense of God’s majesty. The explanation of Jesus son of Sirach (Sir 45:11) does not clarify the expression: “and he shall not die.”

Exodus 28:36. And you shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, “Holy to the Lord. Exodus 28:37. And you shall fasten it on the front of the turban with a cord of blue. Exodus 28:38. It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall bear any guilt connected with the holy offerings that the people of Israel sanctify as their holy gifts; it shall regularly be on his forehead, to make atonement for them before the Lord. Attached to the head covering of the high priest, the gold plate, the “diadem of holiness” (Exod 29:6), with its inscription: “Holy to the Lord,” indicated that the high priest bore the sins or defects of the offerings of the sons of Israel. What these sins of offerings were and from what they arose is difficult to say with certainty. Some attribute the cause to the sins of the one offering the sacrifice, which contaminated with their uncleanness the offering itself. Others understand by the sins of offerings the sins of the priests in the performance of sacrifices, arising from the violation of ceremonial ordinances. If the high priest did not bear, that is, did not take away, these sins, the sacred gifts, intended for the purification of man and the appeasement of God, would not achieve their goal. There is no description of the high priest’s head covering in the Bible. According to Josephus, it consisted of linen cloth, the ordinary priestly headband, over which was another, made of patterned purple cloth with a triple hammered gold crown (Josephus, Antiq. 3:7, 6).

Exodus 28:39. And you shall weave the coat of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash of woven work. The coat was made of fine linen, woven (Exod 28:4). It is likely that from single-colored threads the material of the coat was woven in small squares, in which threads went in different directions, forming the material in the manner of pique. The sash was made of fine linen and material of blue, purple, and scarlet color, of woven work (Exod 39:29).

Exodus 28:40. For Aaron’s sons you shall make coats and sashes and caps; you shall make them for glory and beauty. Exodus 28:41. And you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and you shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. The silence regarding the construction of the priestly coats and sashes suggests that they did not differ from the corresponding garments of the high priest (Exod 39:27). The name of the priestly headband – “migba’a” (Exod 39:28, Lev 8:13) differs from the name of the high priest’s head covering “mitznefet,” which in turn indicates a difference in the construction of the headgear themselves.

Exodus 28:42. And you shall make linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh; they shall reach from the loins to the thighs. Exodus 28:43. And they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they approach the altar to minister in the holy place, so that they do not incur guilt and die. This shall be a perpetual statute for him and for his offspring after him. The undergarments, lower linen clothing, extending from the loins to the shins (the part of the leg from the knee to the foot), covered the nakedness of the body. Their wearing indicated the priests’ consciousness of their sinfulness and their reverent attitude toward the holiness of the place and therefore saved from death. * * * A long lower garment. A head covering. Slavonic: “robe,” or “ephod.” It is interesting here to examine the corresponding text of the Slavonic Bible – “And he girded him according to the arrangement of the Ephod, and bound him with it: and put upon him a word, and put upon the word a manifestation and truth.” Editor’s note. This interpretation is suited to the Slavonic interpretation of “Urim” and “Thummim” as “word” and “truth.” Editor’s note. Slavonic: long robe, inner. Slavonic: “robe with a pattern” – fringed, or according to another explanation, checkered.