Exodus 28:15

Summary

The verse instructs the making of a choshen mishpat ("breastpiece of judgment", H2833/H4941), specifying that it should be crafted by a skilled artisan using the same technique as the ephod. It then lists the materials to be used: gold, violet, purple, scarlet, and twisted fine linen.

Key words

• choshen ("breastpiece", H2833) — masculine singular noun in construct state, linking it to mishpat ("judgment", H4941) to form the compound designation "breastpiece of judgment."
• ma'aseh choshev ("work of a skillful worker", H4639/H2803) — construct noun followed by a qal participle; the participle designates one who performs the action habitually, i.e., a trained craftsman, describing the technique required.
• ta'asennu ("you will make it", H6213) — qal imperfect second-person with pronominal suffix "it," expressing an ongoing or future command directed at the addressee, repeated later in the verse as ta'aseh with the separate object marker oto (H0853+H9033).
• mashzar ("twisted", H7806) — hophal passive participle, indicating linen that has undergone a causative process of twisting, i.e., produced by twisting rather than twisting itself.
• ve'argaman ("and purple", H0713) — masculine singular noun joined by the conjunction ve (H9002), part of the coordinated list of dyed materials.

What the text says

The verse opens with a sequential perfect verb, ve'asita ("and you will make", H6213), continuing a chain of prior instructions in the second-person singular, addressed to one crafts-responsible figure. The object is choshen mishpat, a construct phrase where choshen is defined by mishpat, giving the item its functional designation. The clause then specifies the manner of construction through two parallel construct phrases: ma'aseh choshev ("work of a skillful worker") and, introduced by the preposition ke ("like", H9004), ma'aseh 'efod ("work of the ephod"), establishing that the breastpiece's craftsmanship should match that of the ephod described earlier. The verb ta'asennu repeats the instruction with a pronominal suffix referring back to the breastpiece.

The second half of the verse lists the materials in sequence, joined by the conjunction ve: zahav ("gold", H2091), tekhelet ("violet stuff", H8504), 'argaman ("purple", H0713), tola'at shani ("scarlet stuff of scarlet", H8438B/H8144, a construct pair naming the dyed material), and shesh mashzar ("twisted fine linen", H8336B/H7806). The final clause repeats the imperative-like imperfect ta'aseh with the direct object marker 'oto ("it", H0853+H9033), closing the instruction by referring back to the breastpiece as a single crafted object.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew choshen mishpat ("breastpiece of judgment") as "λήιον τῶν κρίσεων" ("garment of judgments"), using a different term for the object and a plural for "judgments" where the Hebrew has a singular construct mishpat. The Vulgate uses "Rationale... judicii" ("rational [ornament] of judgment"), closer to the Hebrew's singular construct sense. The LXX also renders tola'at shani as simply "κοκκίνου" ("scarlet"), collapsing the Hebrew's two-word construct phrase into one term, while the Vulgate expands it as "coccoque bis tincto" ("scarlet twice-dyed"), adding a descriptive detail not present in the Hebrew wording itself.