Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Exodus · About this commentary
The Garments Made
Exodus 39:1-31
1 Of the blue, purple, and scarlet, they made finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron, as Yahweh commanded Moses. · WEB
The priestly clothing is executed piece by piece, and a single refrain is repeated after almost every item.
They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription, like the engravings of a signet: "HOLY TO YAHWEH" Exodus 39:30.
The ephod, the breastplate with its twelve engraved stones, the blue robe with its bells and pomegranates, the tunics, the turban, the sashes and the linen undergarments — all made as chapter twenty-eight described them.
What distinguishes this chapter is a phrase. As Yahweh commanded Moses occurs after item after item, seven times in this section alone and again and again through the next, until it becomes the rhythm of the account rather than a remark inside it.
The repetition does something a single statement could not. This is the same nation that had built a calf out of the same materials while the pattern for these garments was being given, and the report is written so that obedience is recorded at every seam.
Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting was finished. The children of Israel did according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses; so they did Exodus 39:32.
settled What this mark means