What Does Leviticus 8:7 Mean?
And he put the coat on him, and girded him with the belt, and clothed him in the robe, and put the ephod on him, and girded him with the skillfully woven belt of the ephod, and bound it to him with it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith.THE KEY
The ephod’s name and the final act of fastening it onto Aaron grow from the same Hebrew root, joining the garment and its securing in one movement.
THE MEANING
You see a role take shape on a body through what is placed, worn, and fastened around it. Here, Aaron’s vestments are conferred one by one, and the final act binds the ephod to him.
THE ROOT
וַיֶּאְפֹּד
vayyeʾpod
GROWS FROM
א־פ־ד
to put on or gird with an ephod; to fasten it on
“bound it to him with it” in this verse is vayyeʾpod. English gives the garment its name as “ephod” and renders the final verb “bound”; Hebrew shares their root shape. The garment and the act of securing it belong to one lexical family: the final motion makes Aaron ephoded with the ephod.
ALSO GROWS
ʾēphōd: ephod, a priestly vestment
אֵפוֹד
This is the garment named just before the verse uses the related verb for fastening it on.
vayyeʾpod: he fastened or girded it on him
וַיֶּאְפֹּד
This is the verse’s closing action, formed from the same root as the ephod itself.
וַיַּחְגֹּר
vayyaḥgōr
GROWS FROM
ח־ג־ר
to gird or fasten a belt around the body
“girded him with the belt” in this verse is vayyaḥgōr. The verse uses this root twice as Aaron’s garments are secured around him. English can make “girded” sound like a small clothing detail; the root brings forward the repeated act of binding the layers in place.
ALSO GROWS
ḥagor: belt or girdle
חֲגוֹר
This noun names the belt used to fasten clothing around the body.
ḥagur: girded or belted
חָגוּר
This form describes the secured state that the repeated action produces.
וַיַּלְבֵּשׁ
vayyalbēš
GROWS FROM
ל־ב־שׁ
to put on, wear, or clothe
The coat and robe are each introduced through the same clothing verb. The root also forms words for garments, tying the act of being clothed to the actual covering worn on the body.
ALSO GROWS
levush: garment or clothing
לְבוּשׁ
This noun grows from the same root as the action of clothing Aaron.
malbush: clothing or attire
מַלְבּוּשׁ
This related word keeps the root’s connection between wearing and what is worn.
THE PATTERN
What is conferred becomes visible through clothing placed on the body and secured there.
I will exult greatly in the LORD; my living soul shall leap in my God; for he has clothed me in garments of deliverance, he has wrapped me in the robe of alignment, as a bridegroom dons a headdress, and as a bride binds on her jewels.But the father said to his servants, "Quickly, bring out the first robe and put it on him, and give a ring into his hand and sandals onto his feet."For as many of you as have been immersed into the Anointed One have put on the Anointed One.THE THREAD
You take the garments, and clothe Aaron in the tunic, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the skillfully woven sash of the ephod.This verse names the ephod within the same ordered sequence of garments given to Aaron. In Leviticus, the final verb for fastening him uses the ephod’s own root, so the garment named here becomes the action that secures it to his body.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us