Exodus 28:36

a plate Heb. ẓiẓ, 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.