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Making the Ephod

Bezalel[a] made the ephod of finely woven linen and embroidered it with gold and with blue, purple, and scarlet thread. He made gold thread by hammering out thin sheets of gold and cutting it into fine strands. With great skill and care, he worked it into the fine linen with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread.

The ephod consisted of two pieces, front and back, joined at the shoulders with two shoulder-pieces. The decorative sash was made of the same materials: finely woven linen embroidered with gold and with blue, purple, and scarlet thread, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. They mounted the two onyx stones in settings of gold filigree. The stones were engraved with the names of the tribes of Israel, just as a seal is engraved. He fastened these stones on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod as a reminder that the priest represents the people of Israel. All this was done just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

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Footnotes

  1. 39:2 Hebrew He; also in 39:8, 22.

The Ephod

He made the ephod of gold, blue, purple, scarlet yarn, and fine twisted linen. They hammered the gold into thin sheets and cut it into narrow strips to weave[a] them into the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and into the fine linen, the work of an artistic designer. They made shoulder pieces for it, attached to two of its corners, so it could be joined together. The artistically woven waistband of the ephod that was on it was like it, of one piece with it,[b] of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

They set the onyx stones in gold filigree settings, engraved as with the engravings of a seal[c] with the names of the sons of Israel.[d] He put[e] them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of memorial for the Israelites, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 39:3 tn The verb is the infinitive that means “to do, to work.” It could be given a literal rendering: “to work [them into] the blue….” Weaving or embroidering is probably what is intended.
  2. Exodus 39:5 tn Heb “from it” or the same.
  3. Exodus 39:6 tn Or “as seals are engraved.”
  4. Exodus 39:6 sn The twelve names were those of Israel’s sons. The idea was not the remembrance of the twelve sons as such, but the twelve tribes that bore their names.
  5. Exodus 39:7 tn Or “attached.”