Exodus 28:2

28:2 You must make holy garments ¹  for your brother Aaron, for glory and for beauty. ² 

Exodus 39:27

39:27 They made tunics of fine linen – the work of a weaver, for Aaron and for his sons –

Exodus 29:35

29:35 “Thus you are to do for Aaron and for his sons, according to all that I have commanded you; you are to consecrate them ³  for ⁴  seven days.

Exodus 31:10

31:10 the woven garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons, to minister as priests,

Exodus 4:28

4:28 Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had ⁵  sent him and all the signs that he had commanded him.

Exodus 29:26-27

29:26 You are to take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s consecration; you are to wave it as a wave offering before the Lord, and it is to be your share. 29:27 You are to sanctify the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution, ⁶  which were waved and lifted up as a contribution from the ram of consecration, from what belongs to Aaron and to his sons.

Exodus 29:29

29:29 “The holy garments that belong to Aaron are to belong to his sons after him, so that they may be anointed ⁷  in them and consecrated ⁸  in them.

Exodus 35:19

35:19 the woven garments for serving in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons to minister as priests.”

Exodus 39:41

39:41 the woven garments for serving ⁹  in the sanctuary, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons to minister as priests.

Exodus 28:4

28:4 Now these are the garments that they are to make: a breastpiece, ¹⁰  an ephod, ¹¹  a robe, a fitted ¹²  tunic, a turban, and a sash. They are to make holy garments for your brother Aaron and for his sons, that they may minister as my priests.

Exodus 29:28

29:28 It is to belong to Aaron and to his sons from the Israelites, by a perpetual ordinance, for it is a contribution. It is to be a contribution from the Israelites from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord.

Exodus 39:1

The Making of the Priestly Garments

39:1 From the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn they made woven garments for serving in the sanctuary; they made holy garments that were for Aaron, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ¹³ 

[28:2]  ¹ sn The genitive “holiness” is the attribute for “garments” – “garments of holiness.” The point of the word “holy” is that these garments would be distinctive from ordinary garments, for they set Aaron apart to sanctuary service and ministry.

[28:2]  ² tn The expression is לְכָבוֹד וּלְתִפְארֶת (lÿkhavod ulÿtif’aret, “for glory and for beauty”). W. C. Kaiser (“Exodus,” EBC 2:465), quoting the NIV’s “to give him dignity and honor,” says that these clothes were to exalt the office of the high priest as well as beautify the worship of God (which explains more of what the text has than the NIV rendering). The meaning of the word “glory” has much to do with the importance of the office, to be sure, but in Exodus the word has been used also for the brilliance of the presence of Yahweh, and so the magnificence of these garments might indeed strike the worshiper with the sense of the exaltation of the service.

[29:35]  ³ tn Heb “you will fill their hand.”

[29:35]  ⁴ tn The “seven days” is the adverbial accusative explaining that the ritual of the filling should continue daily for a week. Leviticus makes it clear that they are not to leave the sanctuary.

[4:28]  ⁵ tn This verb and the last one in the verse are rendered with the past perfect nuance because they refer to what the Lord had done prior to Moses’ telling Aaron.

[29:27]  ⁷ sn These are the two special priestly offerings: the wave offering (from the verb “to wave”) and the “presentation offering” (older English: heave offering; from a verb “to be high,” in Hiphil meaning “to lift up,” an item separated from the offering, a contribution). The two are then clarified with two corresponding relative clauses containing two Hophals: “which was waved and which was presented.” In making sacrifices, the breast and the thigh belong to the priests.

[29:29]  ⁹ tn The construction is an infinitive construct with a lamed (ל) preposition. The form simply means “for anointing,” but it serves to express the purpose or result of their inheriting the sacred garments.

[29:29]  ¹⁰ tn This form is a Piel infinitive construct with a lamed (ל) preposition. It literally reads “for filling the hands,” the idiom used throughout this chapter for ordination or installation. Here too it has a parallel use of purpose or result.

[39:41]  ¹¹ tn The form is the infinitive construct; it means the clothes to be used “to minister” in the holy place.

[28:4]  ¹³ sn The breastpiece seems to have been a pouch of sorts or to have had a pocket, since it was folded in some way (28:16; 39:9) and contained the Urim and Thummim (Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8).

[28:4]  ¹⁴ sn The word “ephod” is taken over directly from Hebrew, because no one knows how to translate it, nor is there agreement about its design. It refers here to a garment worn by the priests, but the word can also refer to some kind of image for a god (Judg 8:27).

[28:4]  ¹⁵ tn The word תָּשְׁבֵּץ (tashbets), which describes the tunic and which appears only in this verse, is related to a verb (also rare) of the same root in 28:39 that describes making the tunic. Their meaning is uncertain (see the extended discussion in C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:473-75). A related noun describes gold fasteners and the “settings,” or “mountings,” for precious stones (28:11, 13, 14, 20, 25; 36:18; 39:6, 13, 16, 18; cf. Ps 45:14). The word “fitted” in 28:4 reflects the possibility that “the tunic is to be shaped by sewing, … so that it will fit tightly around the body” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:475).

[39:1]  ¹⁵ sn This chapter also will be almost identical to the instructions given earlier, with a few changes along the way.