35. to minister] i.e. in order that he may minister.

that he die not] for not putting it on, and so infringing one of the laws of the sanctuary: cf. v. 43, Exodus 30:21, Leviticus 8:35; Leviticus 10:7.

Originally, it has been conjectured, the object of the bells was to protect the officiating priest from the spirits which were supposed to haunt the thresholds of sanctuaries. But here their object is that they might be heard when the high-priest entered, and left, the sanctuary,—in order (Di.) that the worshippers outside might know how long to follow him with their devotions (cf. Luke 1:10; Luke 1:21), or (Riehm, HWB. 878,2 646) to remind God (cf. Sir 45:9; ‘memorial,’ as above, vv. 12, 29) that he appeared before Him as the official representative of the people.

36–38 (cf. Exodus 39:30-31). The gold plate on the front of the high priest’s turban. The high priest’s turban was of fine white linen (v. 39); and there was to be a blue band tied round it, with a plate of gold attached to it in front, bearing the inscription, Holy to Yahweh.

Exodus 28:35Aaron was to put on this coat, to minister, i.e., to perform the duties of his holy office, "that his sound might be heard when he went into the holy place before Jehovah, and when he came out, and he might not die." These directions are referred to in Ecclus. 45:9, and explained as follows: "He compassed him with pomegranates and with many golden bells round about, that as he went there might be a sound, and a noise made, that might be heard in the temple, for a memorial to the children of his people." The probable meaning of these words is either that given by Hiskuni (in Drusius), ut sciant tempus cultus divini atque ita praeparent cor suum ad patrem suum, qui est in coelis, or that given by Oehler, viz., that the ringing of the bells might announce to the people in the court the entrance of the high priest and the rites he was performing, in order that they might accompany him with their thoughts and prayers. But this is hardly correct. For not only is the expression, "for a memorial to the children of Israel," evidently intended by the writer of Ecclesiasticus as a translation of the words ישׂראל לבני זכּרן in Exodus 28:12 (cf. Exodus 28:29), so that he has transferred to the bells of the mel what really applies to the precious stones on the ephod, which contained the names of the twelve sons of Israel, but he has misunderstood the words themselves; for Aaron was to bear the names of the sons of Israel before Jehovah in these precious stones for a reminder, i.e., to remind Jehovah of His people. Moreover, the words "and he shall not die" are not in harmony with this interpretation. Bhr, Oehler, and others, regard the words as referring to the whole of the high priest's robes, and understand them as meaning, that he would be threatened with death if he appeared before Jehovah without his robes, inasmuch as he was merely a private individual without this holy dress, and could not in that case represent the nation. This is so far justifiable, no doubt, although not favoured by the position of the words in the context, that the bells were inseparably connected with the robe, which was indispensable to the ephod with the choshen, and consequently the bells had no apparent significance except in connection with the whole of the robes. But even if we do adopt this explanation of the words, we cannot suppose that Aaron's not dying depended upon the prayers of the congregation which accompanied his going in and out before Jehovah; for in that case the intercession of the high priest would have lost its objective meaning altogether, and his life would have been actually given up in a certain sense to the caprice of the people. All that remains, therefore, is to take the words as they occur: Aaron was not to appear before the Lord without the sound of the bells upon his robe being heard, in order that he might not die; so that to understand the reason for his not saying, we must inquire what the ringing of the bells signified, or rather, what was the signification of Aaron's robe, with its border of pomegranates and ringing bells. The trivial explanation given by Abraham ben David, viz., that the ringing was to take the place of knocking at the door of Jehovah's palace, as an abrupt entrance into the presence of a great king was punished with death, is not more deserving of a serious refutation than Knobel's idea, for which there is no foundation, that the sounding of the bells was to represent a reverential greeting, and a very musical offering of praise (!).

The special significance of the mel cannot have resided in either its form or its colour; for the only feature connected with its form, that was at all peculiar to it, was its being woven in one piece, which set forth the idea of wholeness or spiritual integrity; and the dark-blue colour indicated nothing more than the heavenly origin and character of the office with which the robe was associated. It must be sought for, therefore, in the peculiar pendants, the meaning of which is to be gathered from the analogous instructions in Numbers 15:38-39, where every Israelite is directed to make a fringe in the border of his garment, of dark-blue purple thread, and when he looks at the fringe to remember the commandments of God and do them. In accordance with this, we are also to seek for allusions to the word and testimony of God in the pendant of pomegranates and bells attached to the fringe of the high priest's robe. The simile in Proverbs 25:11, where the word is compared to an apple, suggests the idea that the pomegranates, with their pleasant odour, their sweet and refreshing juice, and the richness of their delicious kernel, were symbols of the word and testimony of God as a sweet and pleasant spiritual food, that enlivens the soul and refreshes the heart (compare Psalm 19:8; Psalm 119:25, Psalm 119:43, Psalm 119:50, with Deuteronomy 8:3; Proverbs 9:8, Ecclus. 15:3), and that the bells were symbols of the sounding of this word, or the revelation and proclamation of the word. Through the robe, with this pendant attached, Aaron was represented as the recipient and medium of the word and testimony which came down from heaven; and this was the reason why he was not to appear before the Lord without that sound, lest he should forfeit his life. It was not because he would simply have appeared as a private person if he had gone without it, for he would always have the holy dress of a priest upon him, even when he was not clothed in the official decorations of the high priest; but because no mere priest was allowed to enter the immediate presence of the Lord. This privilege was restricted to the representative of the whole congregation, viz., the high priest; and even he could only do so when wearing the robe of the word of God, as the bearer of the divine testimony, upon which the covenant fellowship with the Lord was founded.

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