Exodus 28:23

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

You shall make on the breastplate two rings of gold, and shall put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַחֹ֔שֶׁן

chôshen

H2833

“the · breastplate”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 25× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 25:7

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused root probably meaning to contain or sparkle

TWOT: 772a

breastplate, breastpiece - sacred pouch of the high priest designed to hold the Urim and Thummim

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

14: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is הַחֹ֔שֶׁן breastplate H2833 — appearing just 25 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הַחֹ֔שֶׁן breastplate H2833 occurs in 21 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
6 nouns
3 adjectives
2 prepositions
1 particle

Verb forms

וְעָשִׂ֨יתָ֙ Qal · Sequential Perfect
וְנָתַתָּ֗ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

שְׁתֵּ֖י two H8147 ×3
עַל upon H5921 ×2
הַחֹ֔שֶׁן breastplate H2833 ×2
טַבְּע֣וֹת signet ring H2885 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 23 words from the Hebrew and 31 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Exodus 28:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 25:11–15 You shall overlay it with pure gold. Inside and outside shall you overlay it, and shall make a gold molding around it.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Exodus 28:23 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְעָשִׂ֨יתָ֙ עַל הַחֹ֔שֶׁן שְׁתֵּ֖י טַבְּע֣וֹת זָהָ֑ב וְנָתַתָּ֗ אֶת שְׁתֵּי֙ הַטַּבָּע֔וֹת עַל שְׁנֵ֖י קְצ֥וֹת הַחֹֽשֶׁן

You shall make on the breastplate two rings of gold, and shall put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 28:23 Septuagint · lemma form

And Aaron shall take the names of the children of Israel, on the oracle of judgment on his breast; a memorial before God for him as he goes into the sanctuary.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְתַעְבֵּד עַל חוּשְׁנָא תַּרְתֵּין עִזְקָן דִדְהַב וְתִתֵּן יָת תַּרְתֵּין עִזְקָתָא עַל תְּרֵין סִטְרֵי חוּשְׁנָא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְתַעֲבֵיד עַל חוּשְׁנָא תַּרְתֵּין עִזְקַן דִּדְהַב דְּכֵי וְתִתֵּן יַת תַּרְתֵּין עִזְקָתָא עַל תַּרְתֵּין סִטְרֵי חוּשְׁנָא

and shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of pure gold, and put the two rings upon the two sides of the breastplate.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Exodus 28:23 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Which are upmost toward the shoulder.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) Two rings on the two ends—i.e., on the two upper corners of the breastplate. The chains were to be passed through the two rings, which they were then to unite with the “ouches” of the ephod. (See Exo_28:13-14.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

23. put] i.e. fasten, as v. 14: so vv. 24, 25, 26, 27.

the two ends] i.e. the two upper corners.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And thou shalt put two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings,.... This expresses both how many chains were to be made, which is not before said, and the use of them, or where they were to be put, as well as the use of the rings:

which are on the ends of the breastplate; the two uppermost ends or corners of it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 23-28. These verses present no difficulty. They describe very minutely, and with some tautology, the mode in which the breast-plate was to be fastened to the ephod. It was to have four rings, two at its two upper corners (ver. 23), and two just behind its two lower corners (ver. 20); a gold twist or cord was to be passed through each of the two upper rings, and then attached to the" ouches" or settings of the shoulder stones (ver. 25; compare vers. 11-14). A blue lace or ribbon was to be passed through each of the two lower rings, and these laces were to be tied to two rings, sewn for the purpose on to the front of the ephod a little above the "curious girdle" (vers. 26, 27). By these four fastenings at its four corners, the breast-plate was securely attached to the ephod, and could not readily get loose from it.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

על החשן means [AND THOU SHALT MAKE] FOR THE BREAST-PLATE (not upon it), — in order to fix them on it. And it would not be correct to say that this means that they should originally be made upon it (על), for if this were so why should it again say in this verse, “And thou shall put the two rings [on the two extremities]”? Would they not already have been lying upon it if they had been made together with the breast-plate? It should rather have written at the beginning of the verse, “And thou shalt make at the ends of the breast-plate two rings of gold.” In the case of chains, also, you must explain it similarly.

על שני קצת החשן ON THE TWO EXTREMITIES OF THE BREAST-PLATE — on its two corners that are close by his neck, on the right and on the left, which come opposite the shoulder-pieces of the ephod.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 14 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is chôshen (“breastplate”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “breastplate” (chôshen) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Exodus 25:7, which shares the word «breastplate», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “two” (3× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וְעָשִׂ֨יתָ֙» is a Qal Sequential Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Geneva Bible (1599) and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
“two” occurs 3× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 14 words in this verse.