Catholic Commentary
The Ephod and Its Onyx Memorial Stones (Part 2)
14and two chains of pure gold; you shall make them like cords of braided work. You shall put the braided chains on the settings.
Exodus 28:14 specifies that two braided chains of pure gold must be attached to the golden settings holding the onyx stones on the priest's shoulder pieces, securing the memorial stones that bear the names of Israel's twelve tribes. The braided construction provides strength through interdependence, ensuring the stones remain firmly fastened to Aaron's ephod as he ministers before God.
The priest's braided gold chains bind him inseparably to the twelve tribes—he cannot approach God without carrying his people on his shoulders.
The braided quality also invites reflection. A braid requires at least three strands working together. Patristic and medieval commentators (Origen, Bede) frequently read the threefold braiding as an image of the theological virtues — faith, hope, and charity — or of the triple priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ. The gold (purity, divinity) wrought into a braid (communal, relational, interdependent) beautifully renders the mystery of the God-Man who is simultaneously transcendent and bound to us.
The Spiritual Sense — Intercession as a Structured Act
The braided chains also illuminate the nature of priestly intercession as something structured, deliberate, and durable. The priest does not approach God in an improvised, formless way; he is bound by specific forms — vestments, chains, stones, names — that orient his prayer toward the people and prevent it from becoming purely personal. Catholic liturgical tradition has always insisted, following this pattern, that the Mass is not the priest's private prayer but the prayer of the whole Church, the Body of Christ, offered through a specific and ordered rite.
Catholic tradition illuminates this verse with particular richness at the intersection of priesthood, intercession, and liturgical order. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the ordained priesthood exists "not for their own sake" but entirely in service of the common priesthood of the faithful (CCC 1547), a truth pre-figured visibly in Aaron's golden chains: the high priest is literally fastened to the people he represents.
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his commentary on Leviticus and his treatment of the Old Law in the Summa Theologiae (I-II, Q. 102), argues that the ceremonial precepts of the Mosaic Law were not arbitrary but each contained a ratio — a rational, spiritually meaningful purpose — that pointed beyond itself to Christ and the New Covenant. The chains of Exodus 28:14 fit Aquinas's schema precisely: they are beautiful, they are functional, and they are figurative. Their beauty reflects the dignity owed to God; their function ensures that the memorial of the people is never separated from their priest; their figure points to Christ, who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb 13:8), the eternal High Priest who intercedes for us without ceasing.
Origen, in his Homilies on Exodus, speaks of the priestly garments as the virtues of Christ made visible, and the braided gold chains as the interlocking of divine and human natures inseparably united in the one Person of the Word — a remarkable anticipation of Chalcedonian Christology.
The Second Vatican Council's Sacrosanctum Concilium (§7) similarly insists that in the liturgy Christ is present in the person of the priest, offering the same sacrifice. Aaron's braided chains become, in this light, an image of the persona Christi — the priest acts not alone but as one bound to both Head and Body of the Church.
For a Catholic today, the braided chains of Exodus 28:14 challenge a privatized understanding of prayer and worship. We often approach Mass or personal devotion as a purely individual transaction with God. But the golden chains remind us that the ordained priest at the altar carries the whole Church on his shoulders — and that we, the baptized, share in that priestly identity (1 Pet 2:9). We, too, are "chained" to one another in the Body of Christ; we cannot approach God as isolated individuals.
Practically, this passage invites Catholics to take intercessory prayer seriously as a structural act of charity, not merely a sentiment. To pray for others — family, enemies, the souls in purgatory — is to do what Aaron did: to fasten their names to your approach to God. Consider writing down the names of those for whom you pray and bringing that list to Mass, placing it on the altar of your own heart. The braid also speaks to the importance of consistency and strength in prayer: a single strand breaks; a braid holds. Let faith, hope, and charity be woven together in your intercession.
Commentary
Literal Sense — The Craft and Its Purpose
Verse 14 completes the unit begun in verses 9–13, where two onyx stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are mounted in golden settings on the ephod's shoulder pieces. Here the LORD specifies the means of securing those stones: two chains of pure gold (zahav tahor), fashioned in a style described in Hebrew as migbalōt — a braided or twisted rope-work technique. This is not incidental decorative detail. The instruction is precise: the chains must be braided, and they must be pure gold, the highest and most uncontaminated material available to the Israelite craftsman.
The braiding is significant in its own right. A single strand of gold wire, however precious, would be fragile; twisted or braided strands multiply strength through their interdependence, producing a cord that binds reliably under the weight of the liturgical moment. The deliberate vocabulary of "cords" (sharsherōt) echoes the language of binding and attachment throughout the Torah. The chains are not merely ornamental — they anchor the stones of memorial firmly to the priestly vestment so that Aaron cannot enter the Holy Place without visibly carrying the twelve tribes with him.
Narrative Flow Within Exodus 28
Within the broader unit of Exodus 28, this verse serves as a hinge. Verses 9–12 establish the meaning of the stones (memorial stones, names of the sons of Israel). Verses 13–14 establish the mechanics — the gold settings (mishbetzot zahav) and the braided chains — by which that memorial is literally attached to the priest's body. The reader moves from theology to craft, from what the stones mean to how they are secured. The passage insists that spiritual meaning and material craftsmanship are equally important in the worship God prescribes.
Typological Sense — The Priest Who Carries His People
The image of a priest bound by golden chains to the people he represents is among the most powerful priestly typologies in the Old Testament. Aaron cannot approach the altar without the weight of Israel's twelve tribes resting on his shoulders, fastened there by chains he cannot easily remove. The braided chains are not shackles — they are bonds of honor and solidarity. The priest carries his people; he cannot minister for himself alone.
The Church Fathers immediately recognized here a type of Christ the High Priest. As St. Cyril of Alexandria and other patristic writers observed, what Aaron bore on his shoulders in symbols of stone and gold, Christ bears in reality: the whole of humanity, placed upon his shoulders in the Incarnation. The golden chains — strong, pure, braided — suggest the unbreakable bonds by which Christ is joined to his people: the bonds of the Incarnation itself, of covenant love, of priestly intercession that never ceases (see Hebrews 7:25).