Keluaran 28:1

The Clothing of the Priests

28:1 ¹ “And you, bring near ²  to you your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the Israelites, so that they may minister as my priests ³  – Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.

Keluaran 28:41

28:41 “You are to clothe them – your brother Aaron and his sons with him – and anoint them ⁴  and ordain them ⁵  and set them apart as holy, ⁶  so that they may minister as my priests.

Keluaran 29:27

29:27 You are to sanctify the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution, ⁷  which were waved and lifted up as a contribution from the ram of consecration, from what belongs to Aaron and to his sons.

Keluaran 29:33-34

29:33 They are to eat those things by which atonement was made ⁸  to consecrate and to set them apart, but no one else ⁹  may eat them, for they are holy. 29:34 If any of the meat from the consecration offerings ¹⁰  or any of the bread is left over ¹¹  until morning, then you are to burn up ¹²  what is left over. It must not be eaten, ¹³  because it is holy.

Keluaran 29:36

29:36 Every day you are to prepare a bull for a purification offering ¹⁴  for atonement. ¹⁵  You are to purge ¹⁶  the altar by making atonement ¹⁷  for it, and you are to anoint it to set it apart as holy.

Keluaran 29:44

29:44 “So I will set apart as holy ¹⁸  the tent of meeting and the altar, and I will set apart as holy Aaron and his sons, that they may minister as priests to me.

Keluaran 32:29

32:29 Moses said, “You have been consecrated ¹⁹  today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.” ²⁰ 

Keluaran 35:2

35:2 In six days ²¹  work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day ²²  for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. ²³  Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

Keluaran 35:21

35:21 Everyone ²⁴  whose heart stirred him to action ²⁵  and everyone whose spirit was willing ²⁶  came and brought the offering for the Lord for the work of the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. ²⁷ 

Keluaran 36:3

36:3 and they received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to do ²⁸  the work for the service of the sanctuary, and they still continued to bring him a freewill offering each morning. ²⁹ 

Keluaran 36:6

36:6 Moses instructed them to take ³⁰  his message ³¹  throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman do any more work for the offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing any more. ³² 

Keluaran 39:41

39:41 the woven garments for serving ³³  in the sanctuary, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons to minister as priests.

Keluaran 40:9

40:9 And take ³⁴  the anointing oil, and anoint ³⁵  the tabernacle and all that is in it, and sanctify ³⁶  it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy.

[28:1]  ¹ sn Some modern scholars find this and the next chapter too elaborate for the wilderness experience. To most of them this reflects the later Zadokite priesthood of the writer’s (P’s) day that was referred to Mosaic legislation for authentication. But there is no compelling reason why this should be late; it is put late because it is assumed to be P, and that is assumed to be late. But both assumptions are unwarranted. This lengthy chapter could be divided this way: instructions for preparing the garments (1-5), details of the apparel (6-39), and a warning against deviating from these (40-43). The subject matter of the first part is that God requires that his chosen ministers reflect his holy nature; the point of the second part is that God requires his ministers to be prepared to fulfill the tasks of the ministry, and the subject matter of the third part is that God warns all his ministers to safeguard the holiness of their service.

[28:1]  ² tn The verb is the Hiphil imperative of the root קָרַב (qarav, “to draw near”). In the present stem the word has religious significance, namely, to present something to God, like an offering.

[28:1]  ³ tn This entire clause is a translation of the Hebrew לְכַהֲנוֹ־לִי (lÿkhahano-li, “that he might be a priest to me”), but the form is unusual. The word means “to be a priest” or “to act as a priest.” The etymology of the word for priest, כֹּהֵן (kohen), is uncertain.

[28:41]  ⁴ sn The instructions in this verse anticipate chap. 29, as well as the ordination ceremony described in Lev 8 and 9. The anointing of Aaron is specifically required in the Law, for he is to be the High Priest. The expression “ordain them” might also be translated as “install them” or “consecrate them”; it literally reads “and fill their hands,” an expression for the consecration offering for priesthood in Lev 8:33. The final instruction to sanctify them will involve the ritual of the atoning sacrifices to make the priests acceptable in the sanctuary.

[28:41]  ⁵ tn Heb “fill their hand.” As a result of this installation ceremony they will be officially designated for the work. It seems likely that the concept derives from the notion of putting the priestly responsibilities under their control (i.e., “filling their hands” with work). See note on the phrase “ordained seven days” in Lev 8:33.

[28:41]  ⁶ tn Traditionally “sanctify them” (KJV, ASV).

[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.

[29:33]  ⁸ tn The clause is a relative clause modifying “those things,” the direct object of the verb “eat.” The relative clause has a resumptive pronoun: “which atonement was made by them” becomes “by which atonement was made.” The verb is a Pual perfect of כִּפֵּר (kipper, “to expiate, atone, pacify”).

[29:33]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew word is “stranger, alien” (זָר, zar). But in this context it means anyone who is not a priest (see S. R. Driver, Exodus, 324).

[29:34]  ¹⁰ tn Or “ordination offerings” (Heb “fillings”).

[29:34]  ¹¹ tn The verb in the conditional clause is a Niphal imperfect of יָתַר (yatar); this verb is repeated in the next clause (as a Niphal participle) as the direct object of the verb “you will burn” (a Qal perfect with a vav [ו] consecutive to form the instruction).

[29:34]  ¹² tn Heb “burn with fire.”

[29:34]  ¹³ tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect negated. It expresses the prohibition against eating this, but in the passive voice: “it will not be eaten,” or stronger, “it must not be eaten.”

[29:36]  ¹⁴ tn The construction uses a genitive: “a bull of the sin offering,” which means, a bull that is designated for a sin (or better, purification) offering.

[29:36]  ¹⁵ sn It is difficult to understand how this verse is to be harmonized with the other passages. The ceremony in the earlier passages deals with atonement made for the priests, for people. But here it is the altar that is being sanctified. The “sin [purification] offering” seems to be for purification of the sanctuary and altar to receive people in their worship.

[29:36]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is וְחִטֵּאתָ (vÿhitte’ta), a Piel perfect of the word usually translated “to sin.” Here it may be interpreted as a privative Piel (as in Ps 51:7 [9]), with the sense of “un-sin” or “remove sin.” It could also be interpreted as related to the word for “sin offering,” and so be a denominative verb. It means “to purify, cleanse.” The Hebrews understood that sin and contamination could corrupt and pollute even things, and so they had to be purged.

[29:36]  ¹⁷ tn The construction is a Piel infinitive construct in an adverbial clause. The preposition bet (ב) that begins the clause could be taken as a temporal preposition, but in this context it seems to express the means by which the altar was purged of contamination – “in your making atonement” is “by [your] making atonement.”

[29:44]  ¹⁸ tn This verse affirms the same point as the last, but now with an active verb: “I will set apart as holy” (or “I will sanctify”). This verse, then, probably introduces the conclusion of the chapter: “So I will….”

[32:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Your hand was filled.” The phrase “fill your hands” is a familiar expression having to do with commissioning and devotion to a task that is earlier used in 28:41; 29:9, 29, 33, 35. This has usually been explained as a Qal imperative. S. R. Driver explains it “Fill your hand today,” meaning, take a sacrifice to God and be installed in the priesthood (Exodus, 355). But it probably is a Piel perfect, meaning “they have filled your hands today,” or, “your hand was filled today.” This was an expression meant to say that they had been faithful to God even though it turned them against family and friends – but God would give them a blessing.

[32:29]  ²⁰ tn The text simply has “and to give on you today a blessing.” Gesenius notes that the infinitive construct seems to be attached with a vav (ו; like the infinitive absolute) as the continuation of a previous finite verb. He reads the verb “fill” as an imperative: “fill your hand today…and that to bring a blessing on you, i.e., that you may be blessed” (see GKC 351 §114.p). If the preceding verb is taken as perfect tense, however, then this would also be perfect – “he has blessed you today.”

[35:2]  ²¹ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[35:2]  ²² tn The word is קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holiness”). S. R. Driver suggests that the word was transposed, and the line should read: “a sabbath of entire rest, holy to Jehovah” (Exodus, 379). But the word may simply be taken as a substitution for “holy day.”

[35:2]  ²³ sn See on this H. Routtenberg, “The Laws of the Sabbath: Biblical Sources,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 41-43, 99-101, 153-55, 204-6; G. Robinson, “The Idea of Rest in the Old Testament and the Search for the Basic Character of Sabbath,” ZAW 92 (1980): 32-43.

[35:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “man.”

[35:21]  ²⁵ tn The verb means “lift up, bear, carry.” Here the subject is “heart” or will, and so the expression describes one moved within to act.

[35:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “his spirit made him willing.” The verb is used in Scripture for the freewill offering that people brought (Lev 7).

[35:21]  ²⁷ tn Literally “the garments of holiness,” the genitive is the attributive genitive, marking out what type of garments these were.

[36:3]  ²⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the infinitive “to do it” comes after “sanctuary”; it makes a smoother rendering in English to move it forward, rather than reading “brought for the work.”

[36:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in the morning, in the morning.”

[36:6]  ³⁰ tn The verse simply reads, “and Moses commanded and they caused [a voice] to cross over in the camp.” The second preterite with the vav may be subordinated to the first clause, giving the intent (purpose or result).

[36:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “voice.”

[36:6]  ³² tn The verse ends with the infinitive serving as the object of the preposition: “from bringing.”

[39:41]  ³³ tn The form is the infinitive construct; it means the clothes to be used “to minister” in the holy place.

[40:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “you will take” (perfect with vav, ו).

[40:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and you will anoint” (perfect with vav, ו).

[40:9]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and you will sanctify” (perfect with vav, ו).