Open English Translation EXO Chapter 28

28 Now, have your brother Aharon and his sons brought to you from among the Israelis. Aharon, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar will become my priests. 2 Make sacred clothes for Aharon—they must be uniquely beautiful 3 so speak to all the skilled craftsmen who’ve been given the spirit of wisdom, and they can make Aharon’s clothes to dedicate him as my priest. 4 These are the clothes that they’ll need to make: a small pouch to hang around the neck and an apron, a robe and a tunic of woven work, and a turban and a sash. They must make those sacred clothes for your brother Aharon and for his sons to serve as my priests. 5 The skilled craftsmen must be given gold, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely-spun linen.

6 They must make the sacred apron from twisted finely-spun linen with gold, blue, purple, scarlet yarn embroidered onto it by a skilled craftsman. 7 It should have two shoulder pieces attached to the top two corners so it can be fastened. 8 Then the waistband for the apron shall be made with similar workmanship from twisted finely-spun linen with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn skillfully embroidered onto it. 9 Then get two onyx stones and engrave the names of Yisra’el’s twelve sons onto them—10 six names on one stone and six on the other, in their birth order. 11 A stone craftsman with experience at making signet rings should do the engravings, and then mount the two stones in decorative gold settings. 12 Then attach the two stones to the shoulder pieces of the apron as a reminder about Yisra’el’s sons. That way Aharon will carry their names on his two shoulders as a reminder every time he goes to face Yahweh. 13 Make the decorative settings for the two stones from gold, 14 and then make two twisted chains of pure gold like a cord that you can attach to the decorative settings.

15 Make a sacred pouch for important decision making. A skilled craftsman should make it from twisted finely-spun linen like the apron, embroidered with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn. 16 It needs to be 23cm square when folded over double, 17 and it will have four rows of three gemstones on it: a red ruby, a yellow topaz, a green emerald, 18 then a turquoise, a blue sapphire, a diamond, 19 then a red jacinth, a white agate, a purple amethyst, 20 and in the last row, a yellow beryl, an onyx, and a green jasper. All those stones must be mounted in decorative gold settings, 21 and so they’ll represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The names of the twelve sons must be engraved on the stones similar to how signet rings are made. 22 Make two twisted chains of pure gold like a cord that you can attach to the pouch, 23 then make two gold rings and attach them to the two top corners of the pouch. 24 Attach the two gold chains to the rings on the corners 25 with the other ends fastened to the two decorative settings around the stones and then attached to the front side of the shoulder straps. 26 Make two more gold rings and attach them on the inside to the two bottom corners of the pouch, 27 and another two gold rings to be attached to the bottom of the two shoulder pieces near where the shoulder straps join the apron just above the crafted waistband. 28 Then tie the rings on the sacred pouch to the rings on the apron with a blue cord so that the pouch sits above the waistband and can’t come loose from the apron.

29 Then whenever Aharon enters the sacred inner room to stand in front of me, he’ll be carrying the names of Yisra’el’s sons over his heart on the sacred pouch that’ll be used for making decisions. 30 Then place the ‘Urim’ and the ‘Tummim’[fn] in the sacred pouch so they’ll be over Aharon’s heart when he goes in before Yahweh, thus Aharon will continually bear the decisions of the Israelis over his heart before Yahweh.[ref]

31 Make the robe to be worn under the sacred apron entirely from blue material 32 with an opening for his head in the middle of it. A border will be needed around the opening so it can’t tear—this should be woven like openings in regular clothes. 33 Then on the bottom hem, make decorations that look like pomegranates—they must be made from blue, purple, and scarlet yarn. Gold bells should hang in between the pomegranates 34 so as you go around the hem of the robe there’ll be a gold bell, then a pomegranate, then a gold bell, then a pomegranate, etc. 35 Aharon must wear this robe when he’s serving, so when he goes into my presence in the sacred inner room, I’ll hear the bells when he enters and when he leaves, so he won’t die.

36 Make a plate from pure gold and engrave ‘Dedicated to Yahweh’ on it like you would on a signet ring. 37 Attach it to the front of the turban using a blue cord 38 so it’ll be on Aharon’s forehead. In this way, it’ll bear the deficiencies of human sinfulness when Israelis attempt to make sacred objects and attempt to make sacred offerings. Thus it’ll be on his forehead continually so that I will see it and accept those things.

39 The tunic must be woven from finely-spun linen, and similarly for the turban. An embroiderer must make the waistband.

40 You must also make tunics, waistbands and headbands for Aharon’s sons so they’ll look splendid and beautiful. 41 Put these clothes on your brother Aharon and his sons, then anoint them with oil and ordain and consecrate them as priests to me. 42 Make underwear out of linen to cover their bare flesh from the waist to the thighs—43 they must wear it whenever they enter the sacred tent and whenever they approach the altar to offer sacrifices so they won’t be disobeying and die. Aharon and his descendants must obey that rule forever.