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2 And bthou shalt make holy | garments for Aaron thy brother, b ch. 29. 5, 29. & 31. 10. & 39. 1, 2. Lev. 8. for glory and for beauty.

7, 30. Numb. 20. 26, 28.

in all its rites, in all offerings upon the 2. Holy garments. Heb. p alter of burnt-offerings. The govern- bigdë kodesh, garments of holiness. Gr. ment and ordering of the sanctuary andσroλn åyıa, a holy stole, or perhaps colof the house of God lay upon them. lectively a quantity of holy stoles. They kept the table of show-bread These garments are called 'holy' beproperly supplied; they attended to cause they were designed for holy men, the lamps of golden candelabrum every and because they formed part of an morning at the same time they burnt establishment whose general character the daily incense, which prevented any was holy. Indeed, whatever was sepaoffensive scent from the dressing of the rated from common use, and conselamps from being perceived. It was crated to the immediate service of God, their duty to keep up the fire upon the acquired thereby a relative holiness; so brazen altar, that the fire originally that we see the amplest ground for the kindled from heaven might never be ex- bestowment of this epithet upon the satinguished. It was their office to make cred dresses. In ordinary life, when the holy anointing oil; and their's to not engaged in their official duties, the blow the silver trumpets at the solemn priests were attired like other Israelfeasts, and also before the Ark at its ites of good condition; but when emremovals. While their numbers were ployed in their stated ministrations, few, there was occupation enough to they were to be distinguished by a 'pekeep them all employed; but when culiar and appropriate dress. Of this they afterwards became numerous, they dress, which was kept in a wardrobe were divided into twenty-four bands, or somehow connected with the Tabernacourses, each of which undertook week-cle, and which was laid aside when ly, in rotation, the sacred services. But this regulation belongs to the time of David, and remains to be considered in another place. Although the Most High had before, Ex. 19. 6, said of Israel in general, 'that they should be to him a kingdom of priests,' yet this did not militate with his concentrating the office, in its active duties, in a single family, as he now saw fit to do. It was only in this way that the great ends of the institution could be attained. Of the four sons of Aaron here selected, the two eldest, Nadab and Abihu, un-ple, attending upon their service, they fortunately showed themselves ere long unworthy of the honor now conferred upon them, and perished miserably in consequence of their presumptuous levity in the discharge of their office. The succession then reverted to the line of Eleazar and Ithamar, in which it was perpetuated down to the latest period of the Jewish polity.

their ministration ceased, and returned to the wardrobe, the Jewish writers have much to say. According to them the priests could not officiate without their robes, neither could they wear them beyond the sacred precincts. Under the Temple, where the usages were no doubt substantially the same as in the Tabernacle, when the priests ar rived to take their turns of duty, they put off their usual dress, washed themselves in water, and put on the holy garments. While they were in the Tem

could not sleep in their sacred habits, but in their own wearing clothes. These they put off in the morning, when they went to their service, and, after bathing, resumed their official dress.-But we shall treat of the details in their order.¶ For glory and for beauty. Heb. 1953 lekabod u-letiphareth, for glory, or honor,

3 And c thou shalt speak unto all that are wise-hearted, dwhom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.

4 And these are the garments

which they shall make; e a breastplate, and fan ephod, and sa robe, and ha broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.

e ver. 15. f ver. 6. g ver. 31. hver. 39. pert, ingenious, as artists. It is clearly intimated, however, by the connected phrase, 'whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom' that the epithet implies more than the mere native gifts and endowments which might be possessed by any in this line. Whatever mechanical skill might be evinced by any of the people, yet here was a work to be executed which required something still higher, and therefore God was pleased to impart a special inspiration to endow them with the re

c ch. 31. 6. & 36. 1. d ch. 31. 3. & 35. 30, 31. and for beauty, ornament, decoration. The expression is very strong, leading us to the inference that a special significancy and importance attached to these garments. They were to be made thus splendid in order to render the office more respected, and to inspire a becoming reverence for the Divine Ma jesty, whose ministers were attired with so much grandeur. As every thing pertaining to the sanctuary was to be made august and magnificent, so were the dresses of those who ministered there. Yet we cannot doubt that a typical de-quisite ability. Compare this with Is. sign governed the fashion and appearance of these gorgeous robes, and that they pointed forward to the 'glory' and 'beauty' both of the internal character and the outward display of the 'great High Priest' of the church, in his yet future manifestation. We may perhaps recognise also a secondary allusion to the beautiful spiritual investment both of his ministers and people, in that bright period when they shall have laid aside the 'filthy garments' of their cap tivity and degradation, and shall shine forth as the 'perfection of beauty in the whole earth,' being clothed in that 'clean linen which is the righteousness of saints.' Accordingly it is said, Is. 51. 1, 'Put on thy beautiful garments (Heb. bigdë tipharthëk, garments of thy beauty),' the very word here employed.

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28. 23-29, where even the necessary skill for rightly conducting the occu pations of husbandry are referred to the same source. To the right-minded it is pleasant as well as proper to ascribe to the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift, the glory of whatever talents may give us eminence or success in any of the lawful or honorable callings of life. - To consecrate him. To render him consecrated; to be a badge and sign of his consecration.

4,5. These are the garments, &c. Of the garments here appointed to be made of these rich materials four were common to the high priest and the inferior priests; viz., the linen breeches, the linen coat, the linen girdle, and the bonnet or turban; that which the high priest wore is called a mitre. The remaining four were peculiar to the high priest, viz., the ephod with its curious girdle, the breast-plate, the long robe with its bells and pomegranates, and the golden plate on his forehead. These

5 And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.

6 And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.

7 It shall have the two shoulder

i ch. 39. 2.

last are frequently termed by the Rabbinical writers, by way of distinction, thebigdë zahab, garments of gold while the others, made of linen, are called bigdë laban, garments of white. We shall consider each of them in order. We may here remark, however, that on one day in the year, viz., the great day of atonement, or fast of annual expiation, the High Priest wore none of the golden garments, but appeared, like the rest of the priests, simply in habiliments of white linen. Even his mitre was then made of linen. The reason of this was, that the day of atonement was a day of humiliation; and as the High Priest was then to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as those of the people, he was to be so clad as to indicate that he could lay claim to no exemption on the score of frailty and guilt; that he recognised the fact that in the need of expiation, the highest and the lowest, the priest and the Levite, stood on a level before God, with whom there is no distinction of persons.

THE EPHOD.

pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together.

8 And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.

reader. From an attentive comparison of all that is said of the Ephod in the sacred text, commentators are for the most part agreed in considering it as approaching to the form of a short double apron, having the two parts connected by two wide straps united on the shoulders. These are called, v. 7, the two shoulder-pieces, which were to be joined at the two edges thereof; i. e. on the very apex of the shoulders. This junction was effected in some way under the two onyx-stones and at the precise point where they rested upon the shoulders. These stones are said by Josephus (who calls them 'sardonyx. stones') to have been very splendid, and Bähr thinks that the symbolical significancy of the Ephod was mainly concentrated in these 'shoulder-pieces,' which, like our modern epaulettes, were a badge of dignity, authority, command-an idea to which we shall advert in the sequel. The two main pieces or lappets of the Ephed hung down, the one in front, the other behind, but to what depth is not stated, although Josephus says it was a cubit,

6. They shall make the ephod, &c. which would bring their lower extremHeb. 7 ephod. Gr. cnwpida, shoulder-ity about to the loins. It seems to us piece. The original comes from TDN probable on the whole that the posterior aphad, to bind or gird on, and there- portion hung down from the shoulders fore signifies in general something to be considerably lower than the anterior. girded on; but as to the precise form of But without some other appendage the vestment itself it is difficult to these dorsal and pectoral coverings gather from the words of the narrative would hang loose upon the person, to a very distinct notion; and even if we prevent which a 'curious girdle,' formsucceed in this, we must still depending an integral part of the Ephod itself, mainly upon a pictured representation and composed probably of two distinct to convey an adequate idea of it to the bands issuing from the sides of either

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Such appears to have been the general which it was made to be fitted close to form of the Ephod, and the manner in the body. As to the material of which

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9 And thou shalt take two onyxstones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: 10 Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth.

11 With the work of an engraver

it was made, this was evidently the same with that of the interior curtains and the separating vail of the Tabernacle, and wrought like it, except that in this ephod-tapestry the figures of cherubim were wanting, and instead of them there was a rich interweaving of threads of gold, which together with the beautiful colors embroidered, must have given it an air of inexpressible richness. On this point the Jewish writers say, "The gold that was in the weaving of the ephod and breast-plate was thus wrought: He (the cunning workman) took one thread of pure gold and put it with six threads of blue and twisted these seven threads as one. And so he did one thread of gold with six of purple, and one with six of scarlet, and one with six of linen. Thus these four threads of gold and twenty-eight threads in all.' Maimonides in Ainsworth. This is a very probable account of the mode of texture, though the proportion of gold strikes us as very small. From the allusion in the description of our Savior's dress, Rev. 1. 13, 'Clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle,' it is reasonably to be inferred that it contained a pretty copious insertion of gold in its texture, from which fact the curious girdle of the Ephod was usually distinguished by this epithet. Though properly and primarily a vestment of the High Priest, yet it appears that garments of the same name were worn by the inferior priests, but they were plain ones of linen. It does not appear that even these were worn at first by the common priests. But we after

in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. 12 And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto

wards read of common priests wearing Ephods; and indeed Samuel, who was only a Levite, wore one; and David, who was not even a Levite, did the same when he danced before the ark. On one occasion Saul consulted the Lord by Urim, and consequently used the Ephod of the high priest, 1 Sam. 28. 6; and on another occasion David did the same, 1 Sam. 30. 7. It is thought by some, however that Saul and David did not themselves use the Ephod, but directed the priest to use it.

9-12. Thou shalt take two onyxstones, &c. On each of the connecting pieces that went across the shoulders was set an arch or socket of gold, containing an onyx-stone (Chal. ‘Berylstone') on which the names of the tribes of Israel were engraved, as in a seal, six on each shoulder. Thus Maimonides; 'He set on each shoulder a beryl-stone four-square, embossed in gold; and he graved on the two stones the names of the tribes, six on one stone and six on the other, according to their births. And the stone whereon Reuben was written, was on the right shoulder, and the stone whereon Simeon was written, was on the left.' The Rabbins say, moreover, that the letters were so equally divided in these two inscriptions that Joseph's name was written 'Jehoseph' in order to make just twenty-five letters in each stone.

According to their birth. Heb. on ketholedotham, their births or generations. That is, according to the order of their respective births or ages. The arrangement is diversely understood by Josephus and most of the

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