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.