Exodus 28:1-43

28  “And do you bring near to yourself your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the sons of Israel to install him as priest to me: Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons. 2  And you shall make sacred garments for your brother Aaron for dignity and magnificence. 3  And you shall speak to every artist whom I have filled with artistic inspiration, and they shall make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, to install him as priest to me. 4  And these are the garments they shall make: a pectoral and an ephod and a robe and a cord-quilted tunic, a turban and a sash; and they shall make sacred garments for Aaron and his sons to install him as priest to me. 5  And they shall receive the gold and the violet and the purple and the scarlet and the lawn. 6  “And they shall make the ephod of gold, violet, and purple, scarlet and spun-thread lawn, in tapestry work. 7  It shall have two joining shoulder-pieces: it shall be joined on at both ends. 8  And the ephodage ribbon on it shall be in one piece with it, of the same work, gold, violet, and purple and scarlet and spun-thread lawn. 9 * And you shall take the two stones, beryls, and engrave on them the names of Israel’s sons, 10  six of the names on one stone and the names of the other six on the other stone, in order of birth; 11  in lapidary work, in seal-engraving style, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of Israel’s sons. Surrounded with gold filigree you shall make them, 12  and place the two stones on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod as commemorative stones for the sons of Israel, and Aaron shall carry their names before Jehovah on his two shoulder-pieces for a commemoration. 13  “And you shall make pieces of gold filigree, 14  and two twisted cords of pure gold; you shall make them of ropework, and put the rope cords on the filigrees. 15 * “And you shall make a pectoral of judgment: in tapestry work you shall make it, like the work of the ephod; of gold, violet, and purple and scarlet and spun-thread lawn, you shall make it. 16  It shall be square, double, nine inches long and nine wide, 17 * and you shall set in it settings of stones, four rows of stones: a row of a sard, a chrysolite, and a rock-crystal the first row, 18  and the second row a garnet, a lapis lazuli, and a chalcedony, 19  and the third row a cairngorm, an agate, and an amethyst, 20 * and the fourth row a yellow jasper, a beryl, and a green jasper; they shall be enclosed in gold filigree in their setting. 21  And the stones shall be for the names of the sons of Israel, twelve of them for their names; they shall be seal-engravings, each for its name, for twelve tribes. 22  “And you shall make for the pectoral twisted cords of ropework in pure gold; 23  and you shall make for the pectoral two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two edges of the pectoral, 24  and put the two gold ropes in the two rings on the edges of the pectoral; 25  and the two ends of the two ropes you shall put on the two filigrees, and put them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, facing forward. 26  And you shall make two gold rings and place them on the two edges of the pectoral on its lip on the ephod side, inward; 27  and you shall make two gold rings and put them on the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod low down in front close by its juncture, above the ephod-ribbon; 28  and they shall lace the pectoral on, from its rings to the rings of the ephod, with a violet cord, that it may be over the ephod-ribbon and the pectoral may not swing away from the ephod, 29  and Aaron may carry the names of the sons of Israel on his heart in the pectoral of judgment when he goes into the sanctuary, for a reminder before Jehovah always. 30  And you shall put in the pectoral of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart when he goes in before Jehovah; and Aaron shall carry the judgment of the sons of Israel on his heart before Jehovah always. 31  “And you shall make the ephod-robe in solid violet. 32 ** And its head-hole shall be in the middle of it; the hole shall have a woven lip all round; it shall have a hole like that of a linen corselet, not slit. 33  And you shall make on its skirt pomegranates of violet and purple and scarlet, all round on its skirt, and golden bells between them all round, 34  a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, all round on the skirt of the robe; 35  and Aaron shall have it on him for officiating, and the sound of him shall be heard when he goes into the sanctuary before Jehovah and when he comes out, that he may not die. 36  “And you shall make a plate of pure gold, and engrave on it in seal-engraving ‘Sacred to Jehovah,’ 37  and put it on a violet cord and let it be on the turban; it shall be in front of the turban, 38  and Aaron shall have it on his forehead; and Aaron shall carry the responsibility for the faults of the sacred things the sons of Israel consecrate, all their sacred gifts, and shall have it on his forehead always to win them acceptance before Jehovah. 39  “And you shall cord-quilt the tunic in lawn; and you shall make a turban in lawn; and a sash you shall make in embroidery. 40  And for Aaron’s sons you shall make tunics, and you shall make them sashes, and you shall make head-scarfs for them, for dignity and magnificence. 41  And you shall robe them, your brother Aaron and his sons with him, and anoint them and install them and consecrate them, and they shall be priests to me. 42  And make them linen drawers to cover their nudities; let them be from waist to thigh; 43  and let Aaron and his sons have them on when they go into the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to officiate with sacred things, so as not to bear guilt and die; it is a perpetual usage for him and his descendants after him.

Footnotes

28:9 (beryls) Unc.
28:15 Var. of an ephod
28:17-20 Unc.
28:20 (enclosed in gold filigree) Unc.
28:32 Lit. its hole shall have
28:32 Or it shall have it as at the hole of a linen corselet, not to tear