the designed waistband of the high priest's ephod: a richly woven belt made in one piece with the vestment it holds in place.
This word names one thing only, and it never appears outside the instructions for the high priest's clothing. It is the band at the waist of the ephod, the sleeveless outer vestment worn over the priest's robe. Exodus 28:8 says the band was made of the same costly materials as the ephod itself, gold thread with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn on fine twisted linen, and that it was of one piece with the garment rather than added on afterward.
The name is built on the verb for designing and working something out (חָשַׁב), the same root behind the phrase Exodus uses for the work of a skilled designer. So the word sits nearer to "the designed piece" than to "belt." It points at the artistry of the weaving as much as at where the band sat on the body, which is why English versions reach for a phrase like "skillfully woven band" instead of one word.
The eight verses show the same band doing three jobs:
- it is woven into the ephod when the garment is first made (Exodus 28:8, Exodus 39:5),
- it fixes the height on the chest where the breastpiece must sit, tied to the ephod's gold rings with a blue cord (Exodus 28:27, Exodus 28:28, Exodus 39:20, Exodus 39:21),
- and it is what the priest is girded with when he is dressed for service (Exodus 29:5, Leviticus 8:7).
So it is decoration and hardware at once: the most finely worked strip on the whole vestment, and the fitting that keeps the ephod and the breastpiece from shifting as the priest moves.