And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set,.... Or "stones of fillings" , to be set in ouches, and fill them up, as stones set in rings do:for the ephod, and for the breastplate; the onyx stones were for the shoulder pieces of the ephod; and the other stones were for the breastplate of judgment, and both to be borne by the high priest, for a memorial of the children of Israel before the Lord, whose names were engraven on these stones: the rulers are mentioned last, as bringing their offerings: the reason of which may not be, because they were backward to it, for they might offer earlier, though recorded last; or if they offered last, it might be because they brought things that others could not; namely, the precious stones here mentioned, and other things in the next verse, the common people had not; though some of the Jewish writers tax them with dilatoriness, and observe a letter wanting in the word for "rulers", it generally has; omitted to denote, as they think, that they were slow and backward in offering; so Jarchi notes from R.
Nathan.