Құдайдың үкімі үшін кигізілетін көкірекше (Hoshen)

Jewish ritual object worn by the High Priest

The priestly breastplate or breastpiece of judgment ( ḥōšen) was a sacred breastplate worn by the High Priest of the Israelites, according to the Book of Exodus. In the biblical account, the breastplate is termed the breastplate of judgment ( ḥōšen mišpāṭ – Exodus 28:15 (HE)), because the Urim and Thummim ( hāʾūrīm wəhattummīm) were placed upon it (Exodus 28:30 (HE)). These elements of the breastplate are said in the Exodus verse to carry the judgement ( mišpāṭ) of God concerning the Israelites at all times.

According to the description in Exodus, this breastplate was attached to the tunic like garment known as an ephod by gold chains/cords tied to the gold rings on the ephod's shoulder straps, and by blue ribbon tied to the gold rings at the belt of the ephod. The biblical description states that the breastplate was also to be made from the same material as the Ephod—embroidery of 3 colors of dyed wool and linen—and was to be 1/3 of a cubit squared, two layers thick, and with four rows of three engraved gems embedded in gold settings upon it, one setting for each stone. According to the Talmud, the wearing of the Hoshen atoned for the sin of errors in judgment on the part of the Children of Israel.

The twelve jewels in the breastplate were each, according to the Biblical description, to be made from specific minerals, none of them the same as another, and each of them representative of a specific tribe, whose name was to be inscribed on the stone. According to a rabbinic tradition, the names of the twelve tribes were engraved upon the stones with what is called in Hebrew: שמיר = shamir, which, according to Rashi, was a small, rare creature which could cut through the toughest surfaces, but according to Rabbi David Kimhi and Rabbi Jonah ibn Janah, was a stone stronger than iron (possibly Naxian stone). The word has its equivalent in the Greek, σμήρις (smeris). There are different views in classical rabbinical literature as to the order of the names; the Jerusalem Targum, for example, argued that the names appeared in the order according to which they were born. Maimonides describes the jewel stones arranged in four rows, saying that on the first stone belonging to Reuben were also engraved the names of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, while on the last stone belonging to Benjamin were also engraved the words "the tribes of God"; kabbalistic writers such as Hezekiah ben Manoah and Bahya ben Asher argued that only six letters from each name were present on each stone, together with a few letters from the names of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, or from the phrase "[these are] the tribes of Jeshurun", so that there were 72 letters in total (72 being a very significant number in Kabbalistic thought). Other researchers, such as Paul Phelps, believe that the order of gemstones that are displayed on the chestpiece correlates to the order that Ezekiel viewed the gates of Zion, as each gate represents one of the twelve tribes, with the gates themselves being studded with gemstones. There was also a different order for the names inscribed on the two "onyx" stones, carried on the High Priest's shoulders. One opinion suggests that the names of the twelve tribes were arranged in groups after their mothers: Leah's six sons aligned one after the other on one stone, with Judah heading this list, followed by Rachel's sons with the names of the concubines' sons interposed between the two sons of Rachel. Unfortunately, the meanings of the Hebrew names for the minerals, given by the masoretic text, are not clear, a more naturalistic approach suggests that the jewels must have had comparatively low hardness in order to be engraved upon, and therefore this gives an additional clue to the identity of the minerals. With due respect to the Septuagint, Odem might also refer to carnelian, which was flesh coloured, or to jasper, which was usually a deep blood red, was valued as a charm against bleeding, and was common in the surrounding nations of Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria.|group=Note Symmachus, an ancient Jewish translator whose Greek translation of the Pentateuch appeared in Origen's Hexapla, has also written κεραύνιος, literally meaning ‘of a thunderbolt’, and a more direct translation of the stone known in Hebrew as bareḳet relating to baraḳ ‘lightning’ in Exodus 28:17. Jerome, however, understood the Greek word to mean "onyx".

Nofekh (נֹפֶךְ = in the masoretic text) / Anthrax (in the Septuagint) – while Anthrax simply means coal (presumably here referring to the colour of burning coal), the Vulgate here has Carbunculus, referring to the carbuncle, which was red. the LXX, and the Jerusalem Targum, the latter saying that it is כדכדנא, explained by Saadia Gaon as meaning karkand, a red variety of precious stone. Nofekh appears to be a loan word; it may derive from the Egyptian term mfkꜣt, referring to malachite or turquoise, both of which are a greenish blue; By all accounts, his description fits the lapis lazuli. Yahalom (יָהֲלֹם = in the masoretic text) / Iaspis ἴασπις (in the Septuagint) – in some other places the Septuagint instead has Beryllios where the masoretic reads Yahalom. a word which is sometimes transliterated into Arabic as it is pronounced in Aramaic, mainly by Arabic speaking Christians. Bar Ali, a 9th century Arab author, brings down two opinions about this stone, the naq'atha, saying, by one opinion, that it is "honey coloured", and by the other opinion that it is "turquoise, a blue coloured stone". In some versions of the Peshitta, the Aramaic word rendered for the same stone is shabzez, translated as "diamond". This may account for today's understanding of this word, although in ancient times yahalom may have meant something else. Of the well known honey coloured gemstones, we find citrine and hessonite garnet (both from Sri Lanka), while in Africa (Tanzania) we find imperial zircon, a honey coloured stone with extreme brilliance. Spanish Jewish scholar Abraham ibn Ezra says the yahalom was a white stone.

Lešem (לֶשֶׁם = in the masoretic text) / Ligurios (in the Septuagint) – the names here seem to refer to places: Leshem and Liguria, respectively. as does Dioscorides and Aëtius. In Greek antiquity, this stone was believed to have been the solidified urine of lynxes, and its name a mere corruption of lykos ouron, Pliny (who did not believe the stone existed) described the ligurios as having certain electrical properties, which a number of scholars have taken to imply that it referred to amber. Modern scholars are inclined to think that the stone must have been similar to the pale colour of natural gold (as opposed to the colour known as gold); Modern English translations use either amber or jacinth. Ševo (שְׁבוֹ = in the masoretic text) / Achates (in the Septuagint) – achates definitely refers to agate, and ševo may be cognate with the Assyrian term subu, meaning agate. The Midrash Rabba (Numbers 2:7) appears to argue for the jewel in question having been a grey variety. There is little certainty among scholars in regard to which of these is the most likely to be the jewel in question. a variety of chalcedonic quartz that has a chatoyant lustre resembling the eye of a cat when cut. Yāšǝfêh (יָשְׁפֵה = in the masoretic text) / Iaspis (in the Septuagint and Josephus). Although yāšǝfêh and iaspis are cognate to jasper, they do not quite have the same meaning; while jasper is usually red, the mineral which the Greeks called iaspis was generally a richly green one (the most prized form of jasper), and scholars think this is most likely to be the colour referred to by yāšǝfêh; one opinion states that the gemstone was the same as kadkhod, a stone described by Bar Ali as being al karkahan = الكركھن (the Baghdadi onyx), "a kind of gemstone from which they cut [smaller] stones for setting in ouches". Rabbi Saadia Gaon, however, in his Judeo Arabic translation of Isaiah, translates kadkhod as karkand, a red variety of precious stone. Josephus, quoting from one version of the Septuagint, says that it was a beryl. Numbers Rabba 2:7 says that the stone was varicolored, meaning, all of the colors combined were to be found in the yāšǝfêh.