“You shall make tunics for Aaron’s sons. You shall make sashes for them. You shall make headbands for them, for glory and for beauty.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 40. Linen. In Ezechiel (44:17,) woollen garments are forbidden to be worn by priests. Many of the pagans required their priests to be clothed in white linen. All these prescriptions of God, which seem to us so minute, had a more sublime and mysterious meaning. For in the priestly robe … was the whole world, by the colours denoting the air, light, earth, and water: the two stones on his shoulders, signified the sun and moon, as the 12 did the signs of the zodiac, or the glory of the fathers; and thy majesty was written upon the diadem of his head. Wisd. 18:24. Thus the priest was a mediator between God and his people, and was to be solicitous for the welfare of all. Saint Thomas Aquinas 1. 2. q. 102. a. 5. Saint Augustine Saint Jerome and so forth