Exodus 29:5

Summary

Exodus 29:5 instructs the taking of a set of garments and the clothing of Aaron with them: the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself, and the breastpiece, followed by fastening the ephod to him with its woven band. The verse consists of four sequential actions built on the same verb form, describing the physical vesting procedure step by step.

Key words

• la.kach.Ta ("you will take", H3947G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing a chain of commanded actions begun earlier in the passage.
• hil.bash.Ta ("you will clothe", H3847) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect: the subject causes Aaron to be clothed, rather than Aaron clothing himself.
• me.'Il ("[the] robe of", H4598) — construct noun, syntactically bound to ha.'e.Fod ("the ephod"), forming the phrase "robe of the ephod" as one garment-unit distinct from the ephod itself.
• 'a.fad.Ta ("you will gird [the] ephod", H0640) — qal sequential perfect from the same root as 'e.Fod ("ephod", H0646), a denominative verb meaning literally to perform the action associated with the ephod, i.e., to bind it on.
• Che.shev ("[the] girdle of", H2805) — construct noun bound to "the ephod," naming the specific woven band used to fasten it.

What the text says

The verse is built entirely on sequential perfect verb forms (ve + qatal) — la.kach.Ta, hil.bash.Ta, and 'a.fad.Ta — a grammatical pattern that chains discrete future actions as continuations of prior instructions rather than as isolated commands. Each direct object is marked with 'et (H0853), an untranslatable particle showing that the following noun is the object of the verb, which allows the Hebrew to list four garments in sequence (tunic, robe of the ephod, ephod, breastpiece) without ambiguity about what is being taken or worn.

The phrase me.'Il ha.'e.Fod ("robe of the ephod") uses the construct state, syntactically linking two nouns so that the robe is identified specifically as belonging to or associated with the ephod, distinguishing it from the ephod garment named immediately afterward as a separate item (ha.'e.Fod). The final clause changes verbs: instead of la.kach ("to take") or hil.bash ("to clothe"), it uses 'a.fad.Ta, a verb derived from the same consonantal root as "ephod," describing the specific action of binding this garment with its Che.shev ("woven band/girdle").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text lists four distinct garment-items (tunic, robe of the ephod, ephod, breastpiece) plus a separate closing clause about binding the ephod with its band. The LXX text provided renders these as three items — χιτῶνα ("tunic"), ἐπωμίδα ("ephod/shoulder-piece"), λήιον ("breastpiece") — and does not preserve a separate term for "robe of the ephod" distinct from "the ephod" itself; nor does it include a separate clause for binding the ephod with its band. The Vulgate similarly compresses the list (linea, tunica, superhumerali, rationali) with only one term (superhumerali) covering what the Hebrew separates into "robe of the ephod" and "the ephod," while retaining the binding action as "constringes balteo" ("you will bind with a belt").