BELL. Bells of gold (ant Sept. rOcoves) were attached to the lower part of the blue robe (the robe of the ephod) which formed part of the dress of the high-priest in his sacerdotal ministrations (Exod. xxviii. 33, 34 : comp. Ecclus. xlv. 9). They were there placed alternately with the pomegranate-shaped knobs, one of these being between every two of the hells. The number of these bells is not mentioned in Scripture ; but tra dition states that there were seventy-two (Gemara Sevach. to). We need not seek any other reason for this rather singular use of hells than that which is assigned : ' His sound shall be heard when he goeth into the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not' (Exod. xxviii. 35); by which we may understand that the sound of the bells manifested that he was properly arrayed in the robes of ceremony which he was required to wear when he entered the presence-chamber of the Great King ; and that as no minister can enter the presence of an earthly potentate abruptly and un announced, so he (whom no human being could introduce) was to have his entrance harbingered by the sound of the bells he wore. This sound, heard
outside, also notified to the people the time in which he was engaged in his sacred ministrations, and during which they remained in prayer (Luke i. 9, to). [It is probable, however, that these bells had a symbolical meaning, like all the other parts of the high-priest's dress. The pomegranate was the emblem of fulness and the bell of announcement; and the alternation of these on the well indicated the wearer's function as the preserver of the divine word in its fulness, and the announcer of it to the people. (See Bahr. Symb. d. Mos. Gultus, 126.)] It is remarkable that there is no appear ance of bells of any kind in the Egyptian monu ments.—J. K.