Exodus 28:21

Context
28:21 The stones are to be for the names of the sons of Israel, twelve, according to the number of¹ their names. Each name according to the twelve tribes is to be like² the engravings of a seal.

Exodus 28:32

Context
28:32 There is to be an opening³ in its top⁴ in the center of it, with an edge all around the opening, the work of a weaver,⁵ like the opening of a collar,⁶ so that it cannot be torn.⁷

Exodus 30:32

Context
30:32 It must not be applied⁸ to people’s bodies, and you must not make any like it with the same recipe. It is holy, and it must be holy to you.

[28:21] ¹tn For clarity the words “the number of” have been supplied.

[28:21] ²tn The phrase translated “the engravings of a seal” is an adverbial accusative of manner here.

[28:32] ³tn Heb “mouth” or “opening” (פִּי, pi; in construct).

[28:32] ⁴tn The “mouth of its head” probably means its neck; it may be rendered “the opening for the head,” except the pronominal suffix would have to refer to Aaron, and that is not immediately within the context.

[28:32] ⁵tn Or “woven work” (KJV, ASV, NASB), that is, “the work of a weaver.” The expression suggests that the weaving was from the fabric edges itself and not something woven and then added to the robe. It was obviously intended to keep the opening from fraying.

[28:32] ⁶tn The expression כְּפִי תַחְרָא (kÿfi takhra’) is difficult. It was early rendered “like the opening of a coat of mail.” It occurs only here and in the parallel 39:23. Tg. Onq. has “coat of mail.” S. R. Driver suggests “a linen corselet,” after the Greek (Exodus, 308). See J. Cohen, “A Samaritan Authentication of the Rabbinic Interpretation of kephi tahra’,” VT 24 (1974): 361-66.

[28:32] ⁷tn The verb is the Niphal imperfect, here given the nuance of potential imperfect. Here it serves in a final clause (purpose/result), introduced only by the negative (see GKC 503-4 §165.a).

[30:32] ⁵tn Without an expressed subject, the verb may be treated as a passive. Any common use, as in personal hygiene, would be a complete desecration.