Exodus 28:36

And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold,.... It was, as Jarchi says, two fingers broad, and reached from ear to ear, and so Maimonides (f); it is sometimes called the holy crown, and the plate of

And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, TO THE LORD.

The plate of pure gold was like a half coronet, reaching, as the Jews say, from ear to ear. Holiness to the Lord, to mind the priest of his special consecration to God, and of that singular holiness which was required of him, as at all times, so especially in his approaches to God. It might also represent Christ, who is called the Holy One of God, and who is a crowned Priest, or both King and Priest.

Exodus 28:36 And thou shalt make a plate [of] pure gold, and grave upon it, [like] the engravings of a signet, TO THE LORD.Ver. 36. TO THE LORD.] Hence it was not lawful for the high priest, say the Jews, to put off his bonnet to whomsoever he met, were he never so great a man; lest the name and glory of God, whose person he sustained, should seem to submit to any man.

4. THE MITRE.(36-39) The head-dress of the high priest was to be of fine white linen (shêsh) and appears by the description of Josephus (Ant. Jud. iii. 7, § 3) to have been a turban, made of several thick swathes or folds in the usual way. It was to be adorned in front with a plate of pure gold bearing the inscription “Holiness to Jehovah,” which was to be attached to the linen fabric by a ribbon or “lace” of blue.

Verse 36. Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold] The word ציץ tsits, which we render plate, means a flower, or any appearance of this kind, The Septuagint translate it by πεταλον, a leaf; hence we might be led to infer that this plate resembled a wreath of flowers or leaves; and as it is called, Exodus 29:6, נזר nezer, a crown, and the author of the book of Wisdom 18:24, who was a Jew, and may be supposed to know well what it was, calls it διαδημα, it was probably of the form, not of the ancient diadem, but rather of the radiated crown worn by the ancient Roman emperors, which was a gold band that went round the head from the vertex to the occiput; but the position of the Jewish sacerdotal crown was different, as that went round the forehead, under which there was a blue lace or fillet, Exodus 28:37, which was probably attached to the mitre or turban, and formed its lowest part or border. HOLINESS TO THE LORD.] This we may consider as the grand badge of the sacerdotal office. 1. The priest was to minister in holy things. 2. He was the representative of a holy God. 3. He was to offer sacrifices to make an atonement for and to put away SIN. 4. He was to teach the people the way of righteousness and true holiness. 5. As mediator, he was to obtain for them those Divine influences by which they should be made holy, and be prepared to dwell with holy spirits in the kingdom of glory. 6. In the sacerdotal office he was the type of that holy and just ONE who, in the fulness of time, was to come and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. It is allowed on all hands that this inscription was, in the primitive Hebrew character, such as appears upon ancient shekels, and such as was used before the Babylonish captivity, and probably from the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. The קדש ליהוה Kodesh Laihovah, of the present Hebrew text, would in those ancient characters appear thus: - which, in the modern Samaritan character, evidently derived from that above, is as follows: [Samaritan]. And the word [Samaritan] in this ancient and original character is the famous Tetragrammaton, or word of four letters, which, to the present day, the Jews will neither write nor pronounce. The Jews teach that these letters were embossed on the gold, and not engraven in it, and that the plate on which they were embossed was about two fingers broad, and that it occupied a space on the forehead between the hair and the eyebrows. But it is most likely that it was attached to the lower part of the mitre.

36. a plate] Heb. ẓ ?iẓ ?,—properly, it seems, a shining thing (usu. a flower, Isaiah 40:7 al.), i.e., here, a burnished plate (in this sense only Exodus 39:30, Leviticus 8:9 besides); LXX. πέταλον, a leaf, fig. a thin plate of metal. Cf. Polycrates ap. Eus. v. 24 (a πέταλον worn by St John, as priest). According to tradition, the ‘plate’ was 2 fingers broad. HOLY TO YAHWEH] The high priest, in virtue of his office, was brought specially near to Jehovah, and was thus specially ‘holy’ to Him. Cf., in other connexions, Exodus 30:37, Exodus 31:15, Leviticus 27:23; Leviticus 27:30 Zechariah 14:10. Jos. (BJ. v. 5, 7), and Pseudo-Aristeas (ap. Swete, Introd. to O.T. in Greek, p. 536), say that the inscription was written in ‘sacred,’ or ‘holy,’ characters, by which they mean doubtless the older Hebrew characters, such as are found on old Heb. seals, as also on the Moabite stone, and in Phoen. inscriptions, before they had changed into the later ‘square’ characters.

36-38. A plate of pure gold — This was the most notable feature of the mitre, or turban, and is, therefore, mentioned here before the blue lace and headdress, although in Exodus 39:28; Exodus