Psalm 133 · a question people ask

"That came down on the edge of his robes" (133:2). What came down on his robes: the oil, or Aaron's beard?

In the text

The verse can be read either way, in the WEB and in Hebrew. The WEB's line is "that ran down on the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that came down on the edge of his robes" (Psalm 133:2), and that came down follows Aaron’s beard but can also go back to the precious oil. In Hebrew came down is the same verb as ran down (tap came down), and its form fits either noun: Brown-Driver-Briggs lists oil (shemen) as masculine, and beard (zaqan) as masculine and feminine. Edge is peh, a word Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "mouth", and among its senses "opening, orifice" (tap edge). Exodus uses it for the opening of "the robe of the ephod" (Exodus 28:31) for the head: "It shall have a hole for the head in the middle of it" (Exodus 28:32), and "The opening of the robe in the middle of it was like the opening of a coat of mail" (Exodus 39:23), where hole and opening are peh. But the psalm's word for robes is another word, middah (tap robes), and it doesn't say which edge it means. These notes set out the words, and don't choose whether the oil or the beard came down on the robes.

The verses

“It is like the precious oil on the head, that ran down on the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that came down on the edge of his robes,”
Psalm 133:2 · World English Bible
““You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. It shall have a hole for the head in the middle of it. It shall have a binding of woven work around its hole, as it were the hole of a coat of mail, that it not be torn.”
Exodus 28:31-32 · World English Bible
“The opening of the robe in the middle of it was like the opening of a coat of mail, with a binding around its opening, that it should not be torn.”
Exodus 39:23 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 133

Psalm 133: How good and how pleasant

Both of Psalm 133's pictures come down: the oil ran down Aaron's beard and came down on his robes, and Hermon's dew comes down on Zion, one Hebrew verb three times (133:2-3). Its precious oil is, in Hebrew, the good oil of "how good" (133:1-2), and its brothers living together share their Hebrew words with only one other verse: "If brothers dwell together" (Deuteronomy 25:5).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions