Exodus 28:42-43

The linen drawers, to be worn by the priests during their ministrations in the Tent of meeting or at the altar. A dictate of reverence and modesty. The layman was forbidden to go up by steps to the altar, lest he should expose his person upon it (Exodus 20:26): for the priests, who did go up upon the altar (see on Exodus 27:5), and were otherwise frequently engaged in or near the Tent of meeting, special garments were provided, in order to prevent the same unseemliness. Among the Romans the Flamen Dialis similarly (Gell. x. 15), -tunicam intimam nisi in locis tectis non exuit, ne sub caelo tanquam sub oculis Jovis nudus sit" (cited by Kn.).

breeches Only in this connexion (Exodus 39:28; Leviticus 6:10; Leviticus 16:4; and in Ezek."s regulations for the priesthood, Ezekiel 44:18 †): from the description, evidently what we should call either loincloths or drawers. LXX. περισκελῆ; Jos. (Ant.iii. 7. 1) διάζωμα περὶ τὰ αἰδοῖα.