Keluaran 28:36

28:36 “You are to make a plate ¹  of pure gold and engrave on it the way a seal is engraved: ²  “Holiness to the Lord.” ³ 

Keluaran 39:6

39:6 They set the onyx stones in gold filigree settings, engraved as with the engravings of a seal ⁴  with the names of the sons of Israel. ⁵ 

[28:36]  ¹ tn The word צִּיץ (tsits) seems to mean “a shining thing” and so here a plate of metal. It originally meant “flower,” but they could not write on a flower. So it must have the sense of something worn openly, visible, and shining. The Rabbinic tradition says it was two fingers wide and stretched from ear to ear, but this is an attempt to give details that the Law does not give (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 818).

[28:36]  ² tn Heb “the engravings of a seal”; this phrase is an adverbial accusative of manner.

[28:36]  ³ sn The engraving was a perpetual reminder of the holiness that was due the Lord (Heb “Yahweh”), that all the clothing, the furnishings, and the activities were to come under that description. This corresponded to the symbolism for the whole nation of binding the law between the eyes. It was to be a perpetual reminder of commitment.

[39:6]  ⁴ tn Or “as seals are engraved.”

[39:6]  ⁵ 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.