Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 28:29
And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy [place], for a memorial before the LORD continually.
29. Aaron (i.e. the high priest), bearing the names of the tribes of Israel both ( v. 12) on his shoulders (which support the weight and symbol of office, Isa 9:6; Isa 22:22), and on his heart (implying that they have a constant place in his thoughts, Deu 6:6), will thus enter the Holy place as Israel’s official representative, ever mindful of the nation’s interests, and ever bringing the remembrance of it before God;
the pouch of judgement ] see on v. 15. So v. 30.
for a memorial ] to call them to remembrance before God: so v. 12; cf. Exo 30:16, Num 10:10; Num 31:54.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Exo 28:29
Aaron shall bear the names.
I. The person typified by aaron.
1. Christ (Heb 5:4-5).
2. His Divine call to the priesthood (Heb 5:10).
3. The destruction of His enemies (1Jn 3:8).
4. The leader of His people (Joh 10:3).
5. The averter of Gods vengeance (1Ti 2:5).
II. The persons represented by the term Israel. Ancient Israel, as an elect nation, was a typical people, representing the collective body of Christs Church. For which compare Deu 7:6-8 with Rom 8:28-30.
1. All true believers are called Israel (Gal 6:16).
2. They are circumcised, as was Israel (Rom 2:28-29).
3. They are a peculiar people, as was Israel (Tit 2:14).
III. What is meant by Aarons bearing them on his heart.
1. Christs affection for us (1Jn 3:16).
2. His great pity towards us (Isa 63:9).
3. His interest in us (Joh 17:9-10; Joh 17:24).
IV. What we are to understand by Aarons going into the holy place. Eternal exclusion from Gods glory would have been our unchanging portion, had not the blessed Saviour opened a way for our admission. See it literally explained in Lev 16:1-34.
1. It shows Christs entrance into heaven for us (Heb 9:24).
2. To present His perfect offering for us (Heb 9:12).
3. His continual intercession (Heb 7:25).
V. Here i shall explain this continual memorial, ever before the lord: It may signify–
1. The constant efficacy of His blood.
2. The perfection of His everlasting righteousness.
3. The daily outpouring of His Spirit.
4. The gracious preservation of His people in holiness.
5. It represents the place which Christs Church occupies in His heart, in glory.
6. And ensures our everlasting enjoyment after this time-state is passed away. (T. B. Baker.)
The connection between priest and people
That the connection between the priest and the people might be made more plain, God not only placed on his breast the memorials of the twelve tribes, but also engraved their names on his shoulders. Thus the people would understand that this one man was not separated from the others for the sake of private advantage, but that in his one person they were all a kingdom of priests (see 1Pe 2:5; Isa 66:21; Rev 1:6). Hence arises our confidence of ascending to heaven because Christ raises us up with Him; we sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; however weak we may be in ourselves, herein is all our strength that we are His burden. (J. Calvin.)
Shoulder and heart ministry
History shall not be forgotten, deliverances shall be held in perpetual remembrance; marvels of the Lord wrought yesterday shall be as the marvels wrought in the present hour. Then there shall be a tenderer representation–the names shall be upon the heart. There shall be a ministry of love, a pleading of sympathy, an identification of the spirit of the man with all the difficulties and distresses of the people. Shoulder work: representing publicity, courage, strength, leadership–shoulders to which men may look as to strong towers; and then the delicate heart-work; the sweet sympathy, the paternal or fraternal interest in all that concerns the development, and culture, and completion of poor, shattered, struggling human life. It is nothing to bear upon the shoulder–that is a kind of burden-carrying, and there is a kind of applause immediately following the completion of any athletic task–but who can tell the heart-work of the true mediator or minister of the new covenant? A man who enters into this work with his whole soul must live a life of singular tension and agony, otherwise he is but a shatterer of words; only his shoulder engaged in the function; his heart is at liberty to run after any vanity and court the applause of any foolish idolatry. We must look at ideals; we must fasten our attention upon the thing as God meant it to be, and taking the Divine meaning of the priesthood in the olden time and of the ministry of to-day, we have amongst us men who care for us, men with strong shoulders, tower-like men; sturdy, visible, valiant, dauntless men; men who can speak in the darkness and make their voices heard in the storm; men who know not the cloud of fear and who heed not the tempest of opposition. But we need in the same men other qualities, tenderer elements, more gracious and insinuating forces that find their way into our inmost experience, into our hearts aching and sore necessity–men who are taught of Heaven to speak a word in season to him that is weary; men who have the gift of consolation, who can lower the voice into a tender and helpful whisper, and who can bring all Gods gospel to bear in gracious and healing application upon the wound which makes the heart sore. This is the ideal. That we do not rise to it may be a rebuke to ourselves, but it is no just criticism upon the Divine purpose. It is an ideal we should do much to sustain. We cannot tell what we owe to the men who teach us great doctrines, who pray off many a burden that strains our strength; who speak to us, even between the lines of their eloquence, things that help us to bear lifes misery with a more cheerful courage. We do not know what is being done by ministry of a truly Christian type, whether in the pulpit, or in the school, or in the family, or in the market-place. No man can measure the full issue and outgoing of influence connected with the profound agonistic service on behalf of truth and humanity. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Partly to admonish the high priest of that dear affection he should have to his people, and with what ardency he should pray for them, and principally to represent the tender compassions of Christ, the great High Priest, towards his people, and how mindful he is of them, and of all their concerns, even when he is in the holy of holies, that is, in heaven, where he remembers them still, and incessantly intercedes for them.
Unto the holy place, i.e. into the most holy place; the positive degree being put for the superlative.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart,…. Their names being engraven on the stones, and the stones put into the breastplate of judgment, and this breastplate hanging down upon the breast and heart of Aaron, he was a representative of the twelve tribes of Israel, as Christ his antitype is the representative of the whole Israel of God; and who lie near the heart of Christ, are set as a seal upon it, are engraven on the palms of his hands, and carried in his bosom, and whom he always presents to his divine Father, and are accepted in him: he represented them in eternity, and in time; in his sufferings and death, in his burial and resurrection from the dead, when they were crucified, buried, and raised with him; and he represents them now in heaven, where they sit together in heavenly places in him, as it here follows in the type:
when he goeth in unto the holy place; to trim the lamps and offer incense, and especially when he went into the most holy place once a year:
for a memorial before the Lord continually; for a memorial to himself, to pray for them when he appeared before the Lord, to put the Lord in remembrance of his covenant with them, and promises to them,
[See comments on Ex 28:12] [See comments on Isa 43:26], the Targum of Jonathan is, “for a good memorial”: not a memorial for evil, but for good.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In this way Aaron was to bear upon his breast the names of the sons of Israel engraved upon this breastplate, as a memorial before Jehovah, whenever he went into the sanctuary.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(29) Aaron shall bear the names . . . upon his heart.Comp. Exo. 28:12. The high priest was to be wholly identified with the people; to be one with them in affection no less than in action; to bear their names on his shoulders, as supporting them and wrestling for them, while he also bore their names on his heart, as loving them and feeling for them. Thus he was continually to present before God a two-fold memorial of His people, and to make a sort of double appeal, on the one hand, to Gods power, and, on the other hand, to His mercy and loving-kindness.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. For a memorial Comp . Exo 28:12, note .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 28:29. And Aaron shall bear the names, &c. See note on Exo 28:9. Note; 1. Though the holy place of heaven is not yet accessible, yet, our High-Priest bearing our names there, it is our privilege even now to sit with him by faith in heavenly places. 2. The spiritual graces adorning particular saints make them like these stones; all are jewels, though each shines with some different and peculiar lustre.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 99
AARONS BREAST-PLATE
Exo 28:29-30. And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breast-plate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually. And thou shalt put in the breast-plate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aarons heart, when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually.
LITTLE do men in general imagine what treasures of knowledge are contained in the Old Testament. There is not any thing revealed concerning Christ in the New Testament, which was not prefigured in the Mosaic ritual. As every thing relating to his life and death may be clearly seen in the prophets, so every thing relating to his office and character may be learned from the ceremonial law. Even the ornaments of the high-priest were intended to shadow forth some of the most important offices which our blessed Lord sustains. That particular ornament which we propose to notice at present, is the breastplate of judgment: respecting which we shall point out,
I.
Its primary use
It will be proper, before we speak of its use, to shew what the breast-plate was
[The priest wore an ephod, (a kind of short coat without sleeves,) made of fine linen, richly embroidered. The breastplate was a piece of fine linen, which, when doubled, was a span square. Upon that were placed twelve precious stones, each of them having the name of one of the tribes (according to their seniority) engraven upon it. This was worn upon the breast, over the ephod: and the high-priest was to wear it whenever he went into the presence of God: and it was called the breast-plate of judgment, because God, by means of it, communicated his mind and judgment to him respecting the children of Israel.
Within this breast-plate were placed the Urim and the Thummim. What these were, we are not informed. Many have thought, that they were not distinct from the stones: and that the terms Urim and Thummim merely designated the use to which those stones were applied. But the language of the text, especially when confirmed by Levit. 8:8, leaves no doubt, but that the Urim and Thummim were distinct from the breastplate, and were put into it after it was made. It is no objection to say, that the one is sometimes mentioned without the other, or, that we know not who made the Urim and Thummim, or what they were. It is sufficient for us to know, that they were added to the breast-plate, and that they were appointed for a very important purpose.]
The particular use of the breast-plate shall now be distinctly declared
[The breast-plate thus formed, was to be worn by the high-priest, whenever he performed the duties of his office. It was suspended from his shoulders by two golden chains, fixed to two onyx-stones; on which, as well as on the twelve stones, were engraven all the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, six on each stone; and both the one and the other were for a memorial before the Lord continually [Note: 2.]. We must understand this as spoken after the manner of men. We are not to suppose that God needs to be reminded of his people; but the sight of their names, whenever the high-priest came into his presence, was (so to speak) to remind him, that he had a people who were to be the objects of his peculiar care.
The Urim and Thummim were for a different purpose. They were, in some way or other, to communicate answers to the high-priest, whenever he consulted God upon any matter relating to the civil or religious concerns of the nation. To inquire how the answers were given, whether by a secret suggestion to the mind of the high-priest, or by an audible voice, or in any other way, is vain: we should be contented to be ignorant about those things whereon God has not seen fit to inform us. That the Urim and the Thummim were consulted, and not only by the high-priest, but by others without him; and that specific answers were obtained from God; is certain. Joshua [Note: Num 27:21.], and those who succeeded him in the government of Israel [Note: Jdg 1:1.], sought instruction from God through the medium of these. The eleven tribes had the mind of God repeatedly made known to them in the same way, when they desired to be informed, whether they were to wage war against the offending tribe of Benjamin [Note: Jdg 20:18; Jdg 20:23; Jdg 20:27-28.]. David in various straits took counsel of God in this way, and had such information conveyed to him as was impossible for any but the omniscient God to impart [Note: 1Sa 23:9-12; 1Sa 30:7; 1 Samuel 8.]. Saul asked counsel in the same way; but could not obtain an answer, because he had provoked God to cast him off [Note: 1Sa 28:6.]. At the time of the Babylonish captivity the Urim and the Thummim were lost, and were never afterwards recovered [Note: Ezr 2:63; Neh 7:65.] ; till Christ, whom they typified, came to instruct us in all things that can at all conduce to our real welfare.
The very names, Urim and Thummim, serve in a great measure to designate their particular use. Their import is, Lights and Perfections: and they were for the express purpose of conveying light to those who consulted them, even such light as would perfectly and infallibly direct their way.
Thus, as the breast-plate of judgment consisted of two different parts, so it was intended for two different uses; the stones in it were for a memorial before God; and the Urim and Thummim that were in it, were for the obtaining of instruction from God.]
But we shall have a very inadequate notion of the breast-plate, unless we understand,
II.
Its typical intent
Few are so ignorant as to need to be informed, that Christ is our great High-Priest. Now the breast-plate, of which we have been speaking, was designed to represent,
1.
What Christ is doing for us
[Christ, in the execution of his priestly office, was to enter into the holy place, there to appear in the presence of God for us. Accordingly, after his resurrection, he ascended to heaven, that he might there complete the work he had begun on earth. On his heart are engraven the names of all his people: on his shoulders he also bears them all: not one of them is forgotten by him: he presents them all before his Father, and is their memorial before God continually. God cannot even look upon his Son without being reminded, that there is in this lower world a people who need his incessant care. He sees at one view all their states, and all their circumstances. He sees how dear they are to his Son, who bears them ever on his heart; who sympathizes with them in their afflictions, and desires to have them extricated from all their difficulties. Were he disposed to be unmindful of them, he could not cast them out of his thoughts, or be deaf to the intercessions of our great High-Priest.
Here then is the security of all the children of Israel: they have a great High-Priest, who is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, who has undertaken their cause, and is their Advocate with the Father, and who is therefore able to save them to the uttermost, because he ever liveth to make intercession for them.]
2.
What Christ will do in us
[In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There is no case wherein we may not consult him; nor any, wherein he will not vouchsafe to direct our steps. How he will answer us, we will not presume to say: he has ten thousand ways of making known his will, and of over-ruling our purposes, without at all infringing the liberty of our will, or altering the general dispensations of his providence. It is sufficient for us to know, that the meek he will guide in judgment, the meek he will teach his way; and that whatsoever we ask of him he will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. From the consideration of his being our great and compassionate High-Priest, we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in the time of need [Note: Heb 4:14-16.] ; and we are sure, that, if we come unto God through him, we may ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. We need not say, This is so great a matter, that it would be presumptuous in me to ask it; nor, This is so small, that it would be unworthy of his attention: for, whether it be great or small, he would spread it before his heavenly Father, and obtain for us an answer of peace: his light should dispel our darkness, and his perfections dissipate our fears: the weakest should not be left to faint [Note: Isa 40:29-31.], nor the most ignorant to err [Note: Isa 35:8.].]
In this subject we may find abundant matter,
1.
For reproof
[When we come into difficult circumstances, we are too apt to imagine, like the Church of old, that God hath forsaken and forgotten us. But if God reproved them by declaring, that a nursing mother could sooner forget her sucking child than he could forget them, since they were engraven on the palms of his hands [Note: Isa 49:14-16.], how much more are we reproved by this typical representation of Christ, on whose shoulders we are supported, and on whose heart we are engraved! O let such unbelieving fears be put away! Let us know in whom we have believed, that He is able to keep that which we have committed to him. Let us remember, that, whilst he retains his priestly office, and his Father retains his regard for him, he will not suffer one of his little ones to perish.]
2.
For encouragement
[Our trials may be numerous, and our difficulties urgent: but our High-Priest is ever at hand, to inquire of God for us. Nor does he need to be informed by us, what to ask; for he knoweth what is in man, and sees at the same time all the devices of our enemy. If only we lift up our hearts to him, his effectual aid shall be instantly obtained; for he is with us, to know our desires; and with God, to interest him in our favour. Let us then be encouraged to cast our care on him: and let us make him, what God has intended he should be to us, our wisdom, and righteousness, our sanctification, and redemption [Note: 1Co 1:30.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Exodus
THE NAMES ON AARON’S BREASTPLATE
Exo 28:12
Every part of the elaborately prescribed dress of the high priest was significant. But the significance of the whole was concentrated in the inscription upon his mitre, ‘Holiness to the Lord,’ and in those others upon his breastplate and his shoulder.
The breastplate was composed of folded cloth, in which were lodged twelve precious stones, in four rows of three, each stone containing the name of one of the tribes. It was held in position by the ephod, which consisted of another piece of cloth, with a back and front part, which were united into one on the shoulders. On each shoulder it was clasped by an onyx stone bearing the names of six of the tribes. Thus twice, on the shoulders, the seat of power, and on the heart, the organ of thought and of love, Aaron, entering into the presence of the Most High, bore ‘the names of the tribes for a memorial continually.’
Now, I think we shall not be indulging in the very dangerous amusement of unduly spiritualising the externalities of that old law if we see here, in these two things, some very important lessons.
I. The first one that I would suggest to you is-here we have the expression of the great truth of representation of the people by the priest.
The names of the tribes laid upon Aaron’s heart and on his shoulders indicated the significance of his office-that he represented Israel before God, as truly as he represented God to Israel. For the moment the personality of the official was altogether melted away and absorbed in the sanctity of his function, and he stood before God as the individualised nation. Aaron was Israel, and Israel was Aaron, for the purposes of worship. And that was indicated by the fact that here, on the shoulders from which, according to an obvious symbol, all acts of power emanate, and on the heart from which, according to most natural metaphor, all the outgoings of the personal life proceed, were written the names of the tribes. That meant, ‘This man standing here is the Israel of God, the concentrated nation.’
The same thought works the other way. The nation is the diffused priest, and all its individual components are consecrated to God. All this was external ceremonial, with no real spiritual fact at the back of it. But it pointed onwards to something that is not ceremonial. It pointed to this, that the true priest must, in like manner, gather up into himself, and in a very profound sense be, the people for whom he is the priest; and that they, in their turn, by the action of their own minds and hearts and wills, must consent to and recognise that representative relation, which comes to the solemn height of identification in Christ’s relation to His people. ‘I am the Vine, ye are the branches,’ says He, and also, ‘That they all may be one in us as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.’ So Paul says, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ ‘The life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,’
So Christ gathers us all, if we will let Him, into Himself; and our lives may be hid with Him-in a fashion that is more than mere external and formal representation, or as people have a member of Parliament to represent them in the councils of the nation-even in a true union with Him in whom is the life of all of us, if we live in any real sense. Aaron bore the names of the tribes on shoulder and heart, and Israel was Aaron, and Aaron was Israel.
II. Further, we see here, in these eloquent symbols, the true significance of intercession.
Now, that is a word and a thought which has been wofully limited and made shallow and superficial by the unfortunate confining of the expression, in our ordinary language, to a mere action by speech. Intercession is supposed to be verbal asking for some good to be bestowed on, or some evil to be averted from, some one in whom we are interested. But the Old Testament notion of the priest’s intercession, and the New Testament use of the word which we so render, go far beyond any verbal utterances, and reach to the very heart of things. Intercession, in the true sense of the word, means the doing of any act whatsoever before God for His people by Jesus Christ. Whensoever, as in the presence of God, He brings to God anything which is His, that is intercession. He undertakes for them, not by words only, though His mighty word is, ‘I will that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am,’ but by acts which are more than even the words of the Incarnate Word.
If we take these two inscriptions upon which I am now commenting, we shall get, I think, what covers the whole ground of the intercession on which Christians are to repose their souls. For, with regard to the one of them, we read that the high priest’s breastplate was named ‘the breastplate of judgment’; and what that means is explained by the last words of the verse following that from which my text is taken: ‘Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord.’ Judgment means a judicial sentence; in this case a judicial sentence of acquittal. And that Aaron stood before God in the Holy Place, ministering with this breastplate upon his heart, is explained by the writer of these regulations to mean that he carried there the visible manifestation of Israel’s acquittal, based upon his own sacrificial function. Now, put that into plain English, and it is just this-Jesus Christ’s sacrifice ensures, for all those whose names are written on these gems on His heart, their acquittal in the judgment of Heaven. Or, in other words, the first step in the intercession of our great High Priest is the presenting before God for ever and ever that great fact that He, the Sinless, has died for the love of sinful men, and thereby has secured that the judgment of Heaven on them shall now be ‘no condemnation.’ Brethren, there is the root of all our hope in Christ, and of all that Christ is to individuals and to society-the assurance that the breastplate of judgment is on His heart, as a sign that all who trust Him are acquitted by the tribunal of Heaven.
The other side of this great continual act of intercession is set forth by the other symbol-the names written on the shoulders, the seat of power. There is a beautiful parallel, which yet at first sight does not seem to be one, to the thought that lies here, in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where, addressing the restored and perfected Israel, he says, speaking in the person of Jehovah: ‘I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.’ That has precisely the same meaning that I take to be conveyed by this symbol in the text. The names of the tribes are written on His shoulders; and not until that arm is wearied or palsied, not till that strong hand forgets its cunning, will our defence fail. If our names are thus written on the seat of power, that means that all the divine authority and omnipotence which Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of the Father, wields in His state of royal glory, are exercised on behalf of, or at all events on the side of, those whose names He thus bears upon His shoulders. That is the guarantee for each of us that our hands shall be made strong, according to the ancient prophetic blessing, ‘by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.’ Just as a father or a mother will take their child’s little tremulous hand in theirs and hold it, that it may be strengthened for some small task beyond its unbacked, uninvigorated power; so Jesus Christ will give us strength within, and also will order the march of His Providence and send the gift of His Spirit, for the succour and the strengthening of all whose names are written on His ephod. He has gone within the veil. He has left us heavy tasks, but our names are on His shoulders, and we ‘can do all things in Christ who strengthened us.’
III. Still further, this symbol suggests to us the depth and reality of Christ’s sympathy.
The heart is, in our language, the seat of love. It is not so in the Old Testament. Affection is generally allocated to another part of the frame; but here the heart stands for the organ of care, of thought, of interest. For, according to the Old Testament view of the relation between man’s body and man’s soul, the very seat and centre of the individual life is in the heart. I suppose that was because it was known that, somehow or other, the blood came thence. Be that as it may, the thought is clear throughout all the Old Testament that the heart is the man, and the man is the heart. And so, if Jesus bears our names upon His heart, that does not express merely representation nor merely intercession, but it expresses also personal regard, individualising knowledge. For Aaron wore not one great jewel with ‘Israel’ written on it, but twelve little ones, with ‘Dan,’ ‘Benjamin,’ and ‘Ephraim,’ and all the rest of them, each on his own gem.
So we can say, ‘Such a High Priest became us, who could have compassion upon the ignorant, and upon them that are out of the way’; and we can fall back on that old-fashioned but inexhaustible source of consolation and strength: ‘In all their affliction He was afflicted’; and though the noise of the tempests which toss us can scarcely be supposed to penetrate into the veiled place where He dwells on high, yet we may be sure-and take all the peace and consolation and encouragement out of it that it is meant to give us-that ‘we have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities,’ but that Himself, having known miseries, ‘is able to succour them that are tempted.’ Our names are on Christ’s heart.
IV. Then, lastly, we have here a suggestion of how precious to Aaron Israel is.
Jewels were chosen to symbolise the tribes. Bits of tin, potsherds, or anything else that one could have scratched letters upon, would have done quite as well. But ‘the precious things of the everlasting mountains’ were chosen to bear the dear names. ‘The Lord’s portion is His people’; and precious in the eyes of Christ are the souls for whom He has given so much. They are not only precious, but lustrous, flashing back the light in various colours indeed, according to their various laws of crystallisation, but all receptive of it and all reflective of it. I said that the names on the breastplate of judgment expressed the acquittal and acceptance of Israel. But does Christ’s work for us stop with simple acquittal? Oh no! ‘Whom He justified them He also glorified,’ And if our souls are ‘bound in the bundle of life,’ and our names are written on the heart of the Christ, be sure that mere forgiveness and acquittal is the least of the blessings which He intends to give, and that He will not be satisfied until in all our nature we receive and flash back the light of His own glory.
It is very significant in this aspect that the names of the twelve tribes are described as being written on the precious stones which make the walls of the New Jerusalem. Thus borne on Christ’s heart whilst He is within the veil and we are in the outer courts, we may hope to be carried by His sustaining and perfecting hand into the glories, and be made participant of the glories. Let us see to it that we write His name on our hearts, on their cares, their thought, their love, and on our hands, on their toiling and their possessing; and then, God helping us, and Christ dwelling in us, we shall come to the blessed state of those who serve Him, and bear His name flaming conspicuous for ever on their foreheads.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
upon his heart. The place of love. See notes on verses: Exo 28:9, Exo 28:10, Exo 28:21, and note the repetition of the word heart for emphasis.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
heart
The place of affection. Cf. Exo 28:12.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
in the: Exo 28:15, Exo 28:30
upon: Exo 28:12, Jer 30:21, Rom 10:1
a: Son 8:6, Isa 49:15, Isa 49:16
Reciprocal: Exo 28:4 – broidered Exo 39:7 – a memorial Num 10:10 – a memorial Neh 2:20 – memorial Psa 105:26 – Aaron Zec 6:14 – a memorial Heb 9:24 – appear
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
28:29 And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy [place], for a memorial before the LORD continually.
(m) Aaron will not enter into the holy place in his own name, but in the name of all the children of Israel.