(from פּעם to strike of knock, like the old High German cloccon, clochon, i.e., to smite) signifies a little bell, not a spherical ball.
Verse 35
Aaron was to put on this coat, to minister, i.e., to perform the duties of his holy office, “that his sound might be heard when he went into the holy place before Jehovah, and when he came out, and he might not die.” These directions are referred to in Ecclus. 45:9, and explained as follows: “He compassed him with pomegranates and with many golden bells round about, that as he went there might be a sound, and a noise made, that might be heard in the temple, for a memorial to the children of his people.” The probable meaning of these words is either that given by Hiskuni (in Drusius), ut sciant tempus cultus divini atque ita praeparent cor suum ad patrem suum, qui est in coelis, or that given by Oehler, viz., that the ringing of the bells might announce to the people in the court the entrance of the high priest and the rites he was performing, in order that they might accompany him with their thoughts and prayers. But this is hardly correct. For not only is the expression, “for a memorial to the children of Israel,” evidently intended by the writer of Ecclesiasticus as a translation of the words ישׂראל לבני זכּרן in Exo 28:12 (cf. Exo 28:29), so that he has transferred to the bells of the meïl what really applies to the precious stones on the ephod, which contained the names of the twelve sons of Israel, but he has misunderstood the words themselves; for Aaron was to bear the names of the sons of Israel before Jehovah in these precious stones for a reminder, i.e., to remind Jehovah of His people. Moreover, the words “and he shall not die” are not in harmony with this interpretation. Bähr, Oehler, and others, regard the words as referring to the whole of the high priest's robes, and understand them as meaning, that he would be threatened with death if he appeared before Jehovah without his robes, inasmuch as he was merely a private individual without this holy dress, and could not in that case represent the nation. This is so far justifiable, no doubt, although not favoured by the position of the words in the context, that the bells were inseparably connected with the robe, which was indispensable to the ephod with the choshen, and consequently the bells had no apparent significance except in connection with the whole of the robes. But even if we do adopt this explanation of the words, we cannot suppose that Aaron's not dying depended upon the prayers of
