Ephod

In tre.iting of this term, which is apparently used in dillerent meanings, it will be convenient to consider hrst the pn.ssages in which there is least doubt about the siguilication of the word. 1. The ' ephod ' was a priestly garment made of white linen (nr), and attached to the body by a girdle (lun).

An ephod such as tliis was worn by Samuel as a temple-servant (1 S 2"), by the 85 priests belonging to the sancluai-y at Nob, who were slain by Doeg (1 S 22'"), and by David when he danced before the ark (2 S 6'" ; cf. 1 Ch 15-''''). The nature of this priestly garment is not furtlier described ; but it may be assumed to have been a simpler form of the more ornate garment of the same name described in P(Ex2S''-''- "'■ 29= 39, ' "«•, Lv 8') among the vestments ]ieculiar to the High Priest.

This more ornate ' ephod ' was, in a word, an ornamental kind of tciistcvat. It consisted of an oblong jiiece of richly variegated material (blue, purple, scarlet, and hue twined linen, interwoven with gold threail, the 'work of the designer'), bound round the body under the arms, and reaching down as far (apparentlj-) as the waist. The ephou was supported oy two ' shoulder-jiieces,' i.e.

two Haps or straps attached to it behind, and passing over the shoulders to the front, wheae they were again fastened to the ephod : on the top of each of these shoulder-pieces was an onyx-stone, engraven with the names of six of the tribes of I.srael. Round the body, the ephod was further held in its place by a band (nixn y^'n, i.e. prob. the ' ingenious work of the ephod ' *), of the same material as the ephod, and woven in one jiiece with it, Viy which it was 'girt' (Lv 8') round the waist.

Ihe ephod was worn over a blue frock, woven entiiely of blue, and put on by being drawn over the head, something in the manner of a cassock (but without arms), called the ' robe ('?'V9) of the ephod.' The skirt of this robe was adorned with a border of pome- granates in colours, with golden bells between them, the sound of which was to be heard whenever the High Priest was ministering in tlie Holy Place (Ex 28»''").

On the front of the ephod was fiustened the jewelled BREAST-PLATK, containing the pocket or pouch in which were put the Urim and Thumniim, or sacred lots (Ex 28i«- an., Lv 8»).t 2. There is, however, a second group of passages in which 'ephod ' has been supposed to denote, not a priestly garment, but some Kind of idol or image, a. In Jg 8^'- Gideon is said to have msAe an 'ephod' of the gold rings J: taken from the Ishmaelites and Midianites, which he ' set ' — or ' stood ' (is:!

, implying location somewhat more definitely than cif;\ ; see Gn ."JO" 43", and of the • According to others, ' the batut of the ephod,' 370 Iieing supposed to be transixised from V^O, Tlie verb S*J^ is, how- ever (in connexion with dreu), used only of binding on head- gear. t It is possible that the ephod was of Egyptian origin. At least V. Ancessi (Annaiee de ^ihilos. thrHief\ne, 1872, pp. 46, 47) gives illustrations from Lepsius, Denknmter, iii. plates '2:lia, d, iHb (cf.

'-2'iA), of dinne and royal personages having similarly a richly decorated garment round the body, supported by two shoulder-straps, fastened at tlie top by a gem. ana securvd round the waist by a girdle. I ' It' in v.37i refers naturally only to the 'gold' of 1 .*■■ ; th« crescents, etc., of v.^^ do not si-em to be included. Y26 EPHOD EPHOD ark, 1 S 5', 2 S 6")— in Ophrah. That this was an object of idolatrous worship seems plain from the comment of the later historian (v.")

, who states that ' all Israel wctU a wfionng after it,' and that ' it became a snare to Gideon and to his house. ' The amount of gold spent upon this ephod (1700 shekels = about 75 lbs. troy, which would be worth now some £3GU0) points also to something more than an ornamental vestment for a priest : indeed the ephod appears to be the chief object in the sanc- tuary.* b. In other passages also the ephod tigures as part of the regular equipment of a sanctuary.

In Jg ll"- IS"- "• '■ ", Micah provides for his private shrine in Ephraim a graven and molten im.age {pesel and ■massekhdh),\ and an ephod and terapliim ; and in Hos 3* the prophet speaks of a time when Israel should be left ' without king and prince, without sacrifice and pillar (mazzebah), and without ephod and teraphim.' The juxta- position of ephod and teraphim in these passages IS noticeable. The latter were idols (Gn 31", of. v.

"), apparently of human form (1 S 19"''), and were used in divination (Ezk 2P' <•"•, Zee 10- ; cf. Hab 2'^) : hence it is reasonable to conclude that the ephod was in some way associated with the teraphmi in divination. It does not, however, follow that it was any kind of image : rather, as the teraphim were idols, the ephod wUl have been something different, c. In 1 S 21« [Heb.'"]

the sword of Goliath was preserved at Nob as a trophy, wrapped in a mantle ' behind the ephod,' which therefore would seem to have been something having a fixed place by the wall, but standing free from it. d.

In the Books of Samuel, the ephod is several times mentioned as a means of ascertaining the will of J" ; the verb used in con- nexion with it, when thus employed, is — not ' put on,' but— 'bring near' (is'-jri IS 14" LXX,t 23' 30'-'): the priest (whose privilege it is to possess it) is said to ' carry ' or ' bear ' it {ttys 1 S 2* 14'- '« LXX,§— not 'wear'); and Abiathar brings it down with him ' in his hand ' to David in IJe'ila (1 S 23').

These passages seem to imply that the ' ephod ' was somethmg moved about or carried, rather than something worn as a garment, e. The derivative ■i^ck— the same word which is used in connexion wiui the high priest's ephod in the phrase (Ex 28 S^) ' the band of its attachment ' — IS used actually of some part of the metal plating of an idol in Is 30" ' the silver overlaying (iev) of thy graven images, and the gold attachment, or casing (.i^sx), of thy molten images.'

On the strength of these passages, WeUhausen (Ilist. 130 n.), summarizing the conclusions of Vatke (Bill. Theol. 1835, pp. 267, 269), writes, ' Outside the Priestly Code, ephod is the image, ephod bad the priestly garment ' — the term, when used in the latter sense, being thus distinguished by the addi- tion of ' linen ' (Stade, Kautzsch, Smena, Nowack, Benzinger).

The places in which ephod bad occura are 1 8 218 2218, J 8 »i« ; BO that, taken strictly, the passages in which ephod denotes, upon this view, an image would be J^ 8. 17(., 1 S 2'^ 143 21» 23* » 307 Hos 3 (to which 1 S 1418 LXX must naturally be added) ; though Vatke excludes 1 S 14S, and Smend, Kittel, and Budde (' per- haps ') exclude 1 S 228 (' to bear the ephod Oe/ore me 'X It may, however, be doubted whether, the connexion being so similar (esp. in the Sam.

passages,— though 1 8 2** is, no doubt, later than the rest), the term must not be undentood throughout in the same sense. • It is argued (e.g. by Berth, ttd toe.) that the money may have been used tor defraying the entire cost of establishing the sanctuary ; but the expression is distinctly ' made into an ephod ' ; and set (or Btood) is hardly applicable to a movable priestly garment. t In reality, it may be, only a peiel: see IS"", and cf. Moore, Judfjee, p. 375 f. I • Bring hither the ephod.

For he beu« the ephod at that lime before Israel.' § ReatI also by Klost. in 1 K 2* (' ephod ' for [llK ' ark ') The same verb is used in 1 8 2218 of the ' linen ' ephod. The explanation of the passages quoted it possible, but not certain. (1) The difficulty that the same term should be used to denote both a priestly vestment and an image is not insuperable.

The ' ephod ' was essentially a casing round the body ; and hence the same word might well have denoted the casing of precious metal, which (as was usual in ancient images) was spread over a wooden core (cf. Is 40'*) ; the derivative ••ncij appears actually to be used in this sense in Is 30-^ (quoted above) : and a term denoting properly the decorated casing of an image, might easily have come gradually to be used for the entire figure.

(2) It is true, Ki': (to carry or bear) is not elsewhere used of garments, but only of shields, weapons, burdens, etc. : if, however, at the time to whicli Jg 17 f. and 1 S refer, the ephod worn by the principal priest at a sanctuary was in any sense a prototype of the later high priest's ephod, and had a pouch containing the sacred lots (cf. 1 S 14^"-, esp. v.'" LXX [Urim and Thummim],— provided, at least, as seems a natural inference from what is stated on other similar occasions, and from v.

18 LXX i9-3«'-, the ephod may be presumed to have been used in Saiil's inquiry, — and 28°), it might be fairly described as ' carried ' or ' borne,' and mentioned (in Jg 17 f., Hos 3, for instance) aa a prominent and essential part of the priest's dress, without which the oracle could not be consulted. It is, however, strange that the same term m?} should be used also of the linen ephods of the priests at Nob.

(3) In 1 S 2P, as also in 14'-" LXX, 23'- ' 30', the term does seem to denote something different from what it does in 22' : in 21' the ' ephod ' is spoken of in terms implying that there was but one at a sanctuary (here Nod) ;+ and M- " (LXX) mention one as being, apparently kot' iiox/i", in the possession of the principal priest in Israel ; whereas 85 priests, belonging to the same sanctuary as the one named in 2P, are said in 22' to have borne linen ephods.

The single ephod may, of course, have been the more elaborate ephod of the high priest (though this would hardly suit well in 2P) ; but for those who doubt whether the high priest's dress had yet acquired the ornate character described in P, the way is open for the inference that it was an oracular image. On the whole, we can hardly be said to possess the data for deciding this controverted question with confidence.

There is, however, a decided probabUity that, at least in Jg 8'^, the term ' ephod ' is used of the gold casing of an oracular image. And if it has this nieanin;,' (in addition to that of a priestly linen waistcoit) in one passage, the presumption against its having the same second meaning in other passages is lessened, though, naturally, it is not proved that it has it actually. The opinion that l^SN denotes a plated image is adopted by Oes. (for Jg 8. 17 f., Hos 8) ; Studer, Coinm. on Jud.

(for Jg 8 only) ; Stade, GmcA. 4ti8 (for Jg 8. 17, 1 S 21i' : with reijard to the ephod in which the sacred lots were kept, he merely says, p. 471 oottom, that it is disputed whether it was an ima^'e, or the priestly vestment); cf. (for Jg 8) Ewald, AU.» 298 n. : generally for these and the other passages named (sometimes with the exception of 1 8 2«) by Vatke, l.e. (except 1 S 143), Wellh. I.e.; Reusa, Oetch. d. Ueit. Sctir. AT.

ti, {J 102, 139; • Smend, Nowack, and Benzinper explain the identity of name by the conjecture that originally the body of the image was dressed in an 'ephod 'of linen, wiiich was afterwards replaced by one of precious metal, while the ephod of linen became the priest's garment, and think consistently that 'bear the linen ephod ' in 1 S 22*8 is a survival from the time in which the expression was applied, as they consider it still is in 1 S 14^ 18 lAX, to carryinjj the oracular image.

LXX omits * linen ' in 1 8 2218 ; but this does not seem to be ri^'ht : as said above (No 3), the ephod of 22^8 appears (upon grounfls independent of the word ' linen ') to have denoted something different from the epho<l of 143- '» LXX, 236- 9 SO". t Whether this was the same ephod as that which was brougbl afterwards from Nob by Abiathar to David (238 e 307), is uncer tain; (or in 23i> both MT and LXX have 'on ephod' (not ' tlu ephod '). EPHOD EPHRAIM 721 Knenen, Bibb. Led.

82 ('probablv'): K»utzsch In Herzog's PHK', ivi. (1885), 229; Budde, Jiic/it. u. Sam. 116 1. ; KitMl, OmcA. U. ITln. ; Smend, AT Ufl.-Hetch. 41 ; Nowack, Arch. ii. n(. ; Bcnzinger, Arch. 382; c(. W. B. Smith, OWCa 241 ; O. A. Sn.ilh, rA<! J/y PropA. 23, 38; DiUm. AT Theol. 136, 163. See further Moore.

Judga, 232, 379, 381, who adopts the same view without hesitation for Jg 8, and seems to prefer it for some of ttie other passages, but allows that they do not ' impermtively ' require it, and that ' all that can with certainty be ^thered from them is that the ephod was a portable object which was employed or manipulat«u by the priest in consulting the oracle ' (p. 379). It has been opposed by Thenius on 1 S 211^ ; Bertheau. lixchUr^, 1G4 ; Nowack on Hos 3 (in his Comm.

of 18S0) ; Riehm, HWB, a.v. ; and especially by Konig, Uaupt- Tproblemt, 59-63 (who does not, however, appear to maintain more than that the view is not undoubtedly ' correct). The etymology of i^sx is too uncertain to throw light on the meaning of the word. The Heb. verb i5« (Ex 29, Lv 8') seems to be a denominative. Lagarde {Bildung der JVoin. 178 ; Mittheil. iv. 17) derived tdx from the root preserved in the Arab. wnfnda, to came as an envoy (to a ruler, etc.)

, supposing that e/(Aorf= ' approach ' was abbreviated for ' (garment of) approach («c. to God),' and comparing Syr. pedtka (which would be another derivative of the same root), a long robe (oft. in Pesh. for i^bk). But this etymology, though ingenious, cannot claim to be more than a con- jecture. In usage, the word was probably felt to denote something closely surrounding or enciLiing. S. R. Driver.