BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
Exodus 39: The Priestly Garments Completed
The craftsmen complete Aaron's holy garments and assemble the tabernacle furnishings; Moses inspects the finished work and blesses the people.
Scripture
1And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made finely wrought garments, for ministering in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron; as Jehovah commanded Moses.
2And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
3And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, the work of the skilful workman.
4They made shoulder-pieces for it, joined together; at the two ends was it joined together.
5And the skilfully woven band, that was upon it, wherewith to gird it on, was of the same piece and like the work thereof; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen; as Jehovah commanded Moses.
6And they wrought the onyx stones, inclosed in settings of gold, graven with the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the children of Israel.
7And he put them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, to be stones of memorial for the children of Israel; as Jehovah commanded Moses.
8And he made the breastplate, the work of the skilful workman, like the work of the ephod; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
9It was foursquare; they made the breastplate double: a span was the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof, being double.
10And they set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle was the first row;
11and the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond;
12and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
13and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jaspar: they were inclosed in inclosings of gold in their settings.
14And the stones were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names; like the engravings of a signet, every one according to his name, for the twelve tribes.
15And they made upon the breastplate chains like cords, of wreathen work of pure gold.
16And they made two settings of gold, and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.
17And they put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings at the ends of the breastplate.
18And the other two ends of the two wreathen chains they put on the two settings, and put them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, in the forepart thereof.
19And they made two rings of gold, and put them upon the two ends of the breastplate, upon the edge thereof, which was toward the side of the ephod inward.
20And they made two rings of gold, and put them on the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod underneath, in the forepart thereof, close by the coupling thereof, above the skilfully woven band of the ephod.
21And they did bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it might be upon the skilfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastplate might not be loosed from the ephod; as Jehovah commanded Moses.
22And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue;
23and the hole of the robe in the midst thereof, as the hole of a coat of mail, with a binding round about the hole of it, that it should not be rent.
24And they made upon the skirts of the robe pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined linen.
25And they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the skirts of the robe round about, between the pomegranates;
26a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, upon the skirts of the robe round about, to minister in; as Jehovah commanded Moses.
27And they made the coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron, and for his sons,
28and the mitre of fine linen, and the goodly head-tires of fine linen, and the linen breeches of fine twined linen,
29and the girdle of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, the work of the embroiderer; as Jehovah commanded Moses.
30And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like the engravings of a signet, HOLY TO JEHOVAH.
31And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it upon the mitre above; as Jehovah commanded Moses.
32Thus was finished all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting: and the children of Israel did according to all that Jehovah commanded Moses; so did they.
33And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the Tent, and all its furniture, its clasps, its boards, it bars, and its pillars, and it sockets;
34and the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of sealskins, and the veil of the screen;
35the ark of the testimony, and the staves thereof, and the mercy-seat;
36the table, all the vessels thereof, and the showbread;
37the pure candlestick, the lamps thereof, even the lamps to be set in order, and all the vessels thereof, and the oil for the light;
38and the golden altar, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the screen for the door of the Tent;
39the brazen altar, and its grating of brass, its staves, and all its vessels, the laver and its base;
40the hangings of the court, its pillars, and its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court, the cords thereof, and the pins thereof, and all the instruments of the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting;
41the finely wrought garments for ministering in the holy place, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office.
42According to all that Jehovah commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work.
43And Moses saw all the work, and, behold, they had done it; as Jehovah had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.
What this passage means
Exodus 39 is largely a repetition of the instructions given in Exodus 28 and 35, now narrated as fulfilled work. The chapter deliberately slows the reader down to walk through each garment—the ephod with its onyx stones of memorial, the square doubled breastplate bearing the twelve tribal names, the all-blue robe with alternating bells and pomegranates, the linen coats, and the pure gold plate engraved HOLY TO JEHOVAH. The repetition is itself the meaning: every detail is shown to be done exactly as Jehovah commanded Moses.
The middle verses (32–41) shift from garments to the assembled tabernacle: the tent, its coverings, the ark with its mercy-seat, the table with the showbread, the golden lampstand, the altars, the laver, and the courtyard hangings are all brought before Moses. The final verse reports that Moses inspected everything, found it done as commanded, and blessed the people—a priestly benediction that links obedience to divine presence.
Theologically, the chapter presents a unified picture in which clothing, furnishings, and materials together form a single sanctuary. The engraver's art, the dyer's thread, and the metalworker's gold are not decorative extras but integral to holiness. By recording that the workers acted 'as Jehovah commanded Moses,' the text frames the entire enterprise as covenantal obedience rather than human craftsmanship, and Moses' blessing at the end marks the moment when the work is declared acceptable.
Context
The provided material offers no surrounding chapters; the chapter stands alone as a completion narrative. The curated note identifies Exodus 39 as backfilled material outside the project's P0/P1 priority chapters. The chapter's relationship to its sources must therefore be read from its own text: it repeatedly refers back to an earlier divine command delivered through Moses, and its closing verses explicitly state that the Israelites 'did according to all that Jehovah commanded Moses.'
Key words in the original
- H6944 Hebrew qōdeš, 'sanctuary' or 'holy' in verse 1, used to describe both the place where service occurs and the garments made for it. The verse speaks of garments 'for ministering in the holy place' and 'the holy garments for Aaron,' linking the sacred space and the sacred clothing under the same root.
- H0646 Hebrew ʾēp̄ōḏ, 'ephod' in verse 2. The chapter traces the making of the ephod from its materials (gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twined linen) through to the onyx stones set on its shoulder-pieces as 'stones of memorial for the children of Israel' (v. 7).
- H6213 Hebrew ʿāśâ, 'made' / 'did,' the verb that frames the whole chapter. 'They made' the garments (v. 1), 'he made the ephod' (v. 2), 'thus was finished all the work' (v. 32), and 'so the children of Israel did all the work' (v. 42). The repeated verb turns the chapter into a recital of completed obedient acts.
Related verses
- Exodus 31:10 The phrase 'the finely wrought garments, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest' in Exodus 31:10 is matched in Exodus 39:1 and 41, showing that the priestly wardrobe was already part of the Sinai command to Bezalel before its execution was narrated.
- Exodus 28:6 Exodus 28:6 prescribes the materials for the ephod—gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twined linen—and Exodus 39:2–5 records the craftsmen producing the ephod in exactly those materials, presenting chapter 39 as the fulfillment of the chapter 28 specification.
- Leviticus 9:22 Exodus 39:43 reports that 'Moses blessed them' after inspecting the completed work. Leviticus 9:22 similarly records Aaron blessing the people after offering the inaugural sacrifices, linking the tabernacle's completion with a priestly benediction that the construction work has been accepted.
Common questions
Why does Exodus 39 repeat so much of Exodus 28?
The chapter recounts the construction of the priestly garments and tabernacle furnishings as fulfillment of the instructions already given in Exodus 28 and 35. The repeated refrain 'as Jehovah commanded Moses' shows that the materials, colors, and assembly all match the earlier command exactly, so the repetition is the text's way of demonstrating complete obedience.
What is the significance of the twelve stones on the breastplate?
Verses 8–14 describe a square doubled breastplate set with four rows of precious stones, each engraved with the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Verse 16 and following show that this breastplate was bound to the ephod so it could not be loosed, meaning the high priest carried the names of the tribes on his person whenever he ministered.
What does it mean that 'Moses blessed them' at the end of the chapter?
Verse 43 states that Moses inspected all the finished work, found that the Israelites had done exactly what Jehovah commanded, and then blessed them. The blessing functions as an official declaration that the labor was acceptable, marking the moment when the tabernacle and its furnishings were ready to be set apart for use.