“The ephod,” says Josephus, “is a cubit in width, and leaves the middle of the chest open.”[66] These words have been a great perplexity to the learned, but are easily explained when we look at the Egyptian vestment, which is not more than a cubit in width, and leaves open the middle of the chest in the space between the two shoulder-bands and the upper edge of the corselet. “It is there,” adds Josephus, “that the pectoral is placed.” This was a span square, of the same fabric as the ephod, enriched with precious stones, and called εσσήνης, (essenes), which signifies also λόγιον, _oracle_. This exactly filled up the space left bare by the ephod. It would be difficult to give a more accurate description of the Egyptian vestment. In the eighth verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of Exodus we read: “_And the belt of the ephod, which passes over it, shall be of the same stuff._” In the Egyptian paintings the lower edge of the ephod is encircled by a girdle usually made of the same material as the corselet itself. The resemblance in every particular between the Hebrew and the Egyptian ephod is, in fact, perfect. We must now proceed more fully to consider the pectoral, the importance of which renders it worthy of very careful study. “And thou shalt make the rational of judgment,”[67] the Lord God commands Moses, “with embroidered work of divers colors, according to the workmanship of the ephod, of gold, violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen. It shall be four-square and doubled: it shall be the measure of a span both in length and breadth. And thou shalt set in it four rows of stones: in the first row shall be a sardius stone, a topaz, and an emerald; in the second a carbuncle, a sapphire, and a jasper; in the third a ligurius, an agate, and an amethyst; in the fourth a chrysolite, an onyx, and a beryl. They shall be set in gold by their rows. And they shall have the names of the children of Israel: with twelve names shall they be engraved, each stone with the name of one according to the twelve tribes.… And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the rational of judgment upon his breast, when he shall enter into the sanctuary, a memorial before the Lord for ever.” This passage has been compared by commentators with the following from Elian: “Among the Egyptians, from the remotest ages, the priests were also the judges; the senior being chief, and judge over all the rest. It was required of him that he should be the most just and upright of men. He wore suspended from his neck an image made of sapphire, and which was called TRUTH.”[68] And Diodorus Siculus, respecting the same symbol, writes as follows: “The chief of the judges of Egypt wore round his neck, suspended from a chain of gold, a symbol made of precious stones, and called _Truth_. Until the judge had put on this image no discussion began.”[69]