Hebrew Gemstones in The Old Testament

CONTENTS
ARTICLES
Hebrew Gemstones in the Old Testament:
A Lexical, Geological, and Archaeological Analysis 1
James E. Harrell, James K. Hofmeier, and Kenton F. Williams
The First-Century Inscription of Quintus Sulpicius Maximus:
An Initial Catalog of Lexical Parallels with the New Testament 53
Brian J. Wright
Healing at the Pool of Bethesda: A Challenge to Asclepius? 65
Robin Thompson
BOOK REVIEWS
Timothy Beal, ed , The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Arts 85
Reviewed by Gerald A. Klingbeil
Heinz-Josef Fabry and Ulrich Dahmen, eds , Theologisches Wörterbuch zu den
Qumrantexten, volume 3 87
Reviewed by Gerald A. Klingbeil
Esther Eshel and Yigal Levin, eds , ‘See, I Will Bring a Scroll Recounting What Befell Me’
(Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud,
Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Hanan Eshel 89
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins
Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, Goliath’s Legacy: Philistines and Hebrews in Biblical Times 91
Reviewed by David B. Schreiner
Catherine L McDowell, The Image of God in the Garden of Eden:
The Creation of Humankind in Genesis 2:5–3:24 in Light of
mīs pî pīt pî and wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt 93
Reviewed by Nathan Chambers
Ryan S Peterson, The Imago Dei as Human Identity: A Theological Interpretation 95
Reviewed by Matthew McAfee
Francesco Cocco, The Torah as a Place of Refuge:
Biblical Criminal Law and the Book of Numbers 98
Reviewed by John W. Herbst
Manfred Oeming and Konrad Schmid, Job’s Journey: Stations of Sufering 99
Reviewed by John A. Cook
Stefan H Wälchli, Gottes Zorn in den Psalmen. Eine Studie zur Rede vom Zorn Gottes
in den Psalmen im Kontext des Alten Testamentes und des Alten Orients 100
Reviewed by Martin G. Klingbeil
Eugene H Merrill, A Commentary on 1 and 2 Chronicles 102
Reviewed by Carol M. Kaminski
Michael Segal, Dreams, Riddles, and Visions:
Textual, Contextual, and Intertextual Approaches to the Book of Daniel 103
Reviewed by Joe M. Sprinkle
J J M Roberts, First Isaiah 105
Reviewed by Gary V. Smith
Chad L Eggleston, “See and Read All These Words”:
The Concept of the Written in the Book of Jeremiah 107
Reviewed by Kenneth Bergland
Christopher R Seitz, Joel 109
Reviewed by Ryan N. Roberts
David A Lambert, How Repentance Became Biblical:
Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture 110
Reviewed by Larisa Levicheva
Alan J Avery-Peck, Craig A Evans, and Jacob Neusner, eds , Earliest Christianity
within the Boundaries of Judaism: Essays in Honor of Bruce Chilton 112
Reviewed by Brian J. Wright
Devorah Dimant, History, Ideology and Bible Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Collected Studies 114
Reviewed by Craig A. Evans
Pieter W van der Horst, Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity 116
Reviewed by James M. Howard
Brice C Jones, New Testament Texts on Greek Amulets from Late Antiquity 118
Reviewed by Charles L. Quarles
Yii-Jan Lin, The Erotic Life of Manuscripts:
New Testament Textual Criticism and the Biological Sciences 119
Reviewed by Peter J. Gurry
Richard B Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels 121
Reviewed by Timothy Wiarda
John P Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, vol 5:
Probing the Authenticity of the Parables 123
Reviewed by Eckhard J. Schnabel
Jens Gillner, Gericht bei Lukas 125
Reviewed by Peter H. Davids
Michal Beth Dinkler, Silent Statements:
Narrative Representations of Speech and Silence in the Gospel of Luke 126
Reviewed by Nicholas G. Piotrowski
Kevin W McFadden, Judgment according to Works in Romans:
The Meaning and Function of Divine Judgment in Paul’s Most Important Letter 128
Reviewed by James M. Howard
Richard N Longenecker, The Epistle to the Romans 129
Reviewed by Michael F. Bird
Bradley Arnold, Christ as the Telos of Life:
Moral Philosophy, Athletic Imagery, and the Aim of Philippians 132
Reviewed by Brian C. Dennert
Mark A Seifrid, The Second Letter to the Corinthians 133
Reviewed by Don Garlington
Douglas A Campbell, Framing Paul: An Epistolary Biography 136
Reviewed by Don Garlington
Robert Brian Lewis, Paul’s ‘Spirit of Adoption’ in its Roman Imperial Context 139
Reviewed by Shawn J. Wilhite
R Gregory Jenks, Paul and His Mortality: Imitating Christ in the Face of Death 140
Reviewed by Wesley Thomas Davey
Joshua W Jipp, Christ Is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology 142
Reviewed by Joel Willitts
Derek R Brown, The God of This Age:
Satan in the Churches and Letters of the Apostle Paul 145
Reviewed by Peter H. Davidsy
David L Balch, Contested Ethnicities and Images: Studies in Acts and Art 146
Reviewed by Mark L. Strauss
Michael Sommer, Der Tag der Plagen: Studien zur Verbindung der
Rezeption von Ex 7–11 in der Posaunen- und Schalenvisionen
der Johannesofenbarung und der Tag des Herrn-Tradition 148
Reviewed by Peter H. Davids
Jeremiah J Johnston, The Resurrection of Jesus in the Gospel of Peter:
A Tradition-Historical Study of the Akhmîm Gospel Fragment 149
Reviewed by Timothy Wiarda
D A Carson, ed , The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures 150
Reviewed by Eckhard J. Schnabel
BOOKS RECEIVED 153

Bulletin for Biblical Research 27 1 (2017) 1–52
Hebrew Gemstones in the Old Testament:

A Lexical, Geological,
and Archaeological Analysis
james e harrell, james k hofmeier, and kenton f williams

university of trinity international trinity international
toledo university universtiy
The Hebrew text of the OT names 27 rocks, minerals, and other materials that
have been identified as gemstones in translations. These are mentioned most
notably in the descriptions of the high priest’s breastplate (Exod 28:17–20 and
39:10–13 [36:17–20 LXX]) and the prince of Tyre’s canopy (Ezek 28:13), but they
are also found in dozens of other passages. This study attempts to identify these
materials following a multidisciplinary approach that includes linguistic analysis
(examining etymologies and descriptions of the stones), archaeological evidence
(looking at the gemstones actually used in the Near East during the Late Bronze
and Iron Ages as well as the ancient mines that may have supplied them), and
geological evidence (combining mineralogical and petrological data with knowl-
edge of known gemstone deposits in the region). One or two possible identities are
proposed for each the 27 materials, most of which are true gemstones.
Key Words: gemstones, high priest’s breastplate, Exodus 28, prince of Tyre’s can-
opy, turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian, jasper.
Introduction
Gemstones were used in the ancient Near East for various types of jewelry
and seals They are also found in the OT, and it is evident from scanning
numerous English versions that there is little agreement on the translation
of many of the gems, 12 of which appear on the High Priest’s breastplate in
the book of Exodus
Table 1 (pp 46–47) demonstrates the range of translations in Bibles, but
there are many other translations of the ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
names for biblical gemstones in the scholarly literature 1 Many of these are
Authors’ note: We gratefully acknowledge the vital role played by Oliver Hersey, a Trinity
Ph D student, who helped prepare the manuscript in formatting inal edition, and especially
for bringing the foreign-language material into Unicode compliance
1 E Clapton, The Precious Stones of the Bible: Descriptive and Symbolical, Being a Treatise on
the Breast Plate of the High Priest, and the Foundation of the New Jerusalem with a Brief History of
Each Tribe and Each Apostle, 2nd ed (London: Simpkin, 1899); W M F Petrie, “Precious Stones”
Offprint from:
Bulletin for Biblical Research 27.1
© Copyright 2017 Institute for Biblical Research.
All rights reserved.
2 Bulletin for Biblical Research 27.1
simply inaccurate because they are based on false premises regarding gem
properties or the correspondence of passages between the Hebrew and
early Greek Bibles, or they are identiied with gems of the Greco-Roman
period that were not known in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages
This study will attempt to identify the gemstones in the Hebrew Bible,
with special attention given to the 12 in the priestly breastpiece, along with
other stones and materials mentioned in the Tanakh that are sometimes
misidentiied as gems in translations (table 2, p 49) We employ a multidis-
ciplinary approach that includes linguistic analysis (examining etymologies
and descriptions of the stones, if any) and archaeological evidence (looking
at the gemstones actually used in the Near East during the Late Bronze and
Iron Ages, ca 1550–1200 and 1200–550 BC, respectively [table 3, pp 50–52],
as well as the known ancient mines that may have supplied them) and geo-
logical evidence (combining mineralogical data and knowledge of known
gemstone deposits in the region) J A Harrell has made a similar study of
the Greek gemstone names in the Septuagint Bible (LXX), 2 so this work is a
logical progression of that earlier investigation
The term gemstone is broadly deined for the purposes of this study
to include all natural materials used for jewelry and seals, both inorganic
(rocks and minerals) and organic (plants and animals) Although today
precious stone is a common synonym for gemstone, this expression, which
in Dictionary of the Bible, ed J Hastings (New York: Scribner’s, 1902), 619–21; G F Kunz, The
Curious Lore of Precious Stones (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1913), 275–306; C W Cooper, The Pre-
cious Stones of the Bible with an Account of the Breastplate of the High Priest, the Ephod and Urim, and
Thummin (London: Allenson, 1924); P L Garber and R W Funk, “Jewels and Precious Stones,”
in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, ed G A Buttrick (Nashville:
Abingdon, 1962), 898–905; J S Harris, “An Introduction to the Study of Personal Ornaments of
Precious, Semi-precious and Imitation Stones Used Throughout Biblical History,” The Annual
of Leeds University Oriental Society 4 (1962–63): 49–83; J Patrick and G R Driver, “Jewels and
Precious Stones,” in Dictionary of the Bible, ed J Hastings, F C Grant and H H Rowley (New
York: Scribner’s, 1963), 496–500; J S Harris, “The Stones of the High Priest’s Breastplate,” The
Annual of Leeds University Oriental Society 5 (1963–65): 40–62; E L Gilmore, “Which Were the
Original Twelve Gemstones of the First Biblical Breastplate?” The Lapidary Journal 22 (1968):
1130–34; A Swersky, “The High Priest’s Breastplate,” Ariel: Quarterly Review of Arts and Letters
in Israel 54 (1983): 107–20; E Raymond, The Gem Stones in the Breastplate (Muskogee: Artisan
Sales, 1987); R V Wright and R L Chadbourne, Crystals, Gems and Minerals of the Bible: The Lore
and Mystery of the Minerals and Jewels of Scripture from Adamant to Zircon (New Canaan: Keats,
1988); W Zwickel, “Die edelsteine im brustschild des hohenpriesters und beim himmlischen
Jerusalem,” in Edelsteine in der Bibel, ed W Zwickel (Mainz am Rhein: Philippe von Zabern,
2002), 50–70; V Gontero, “Un Syncrétisme Pagano-Chrétien: La Glose du Pectoral d’Aaron
dans le Lapidaire Chrétien,” Revue de l’Histoire des Religions 4 (2006): 417–37; E G Hirsch,
“Gems,” in The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901–06) Online: http://
www jewishencyclopedia com/articles/6574-gems; The Temple Institute, “The Breastplate of
the High Priest” (Jerusalem: Temple Institute) Online: http://www templeinstitute org/beged/
priestly_garments-7 htm
For deinitions of petrological, mineralogical and gemological terms in this table 1, see
standard reference works such as J A Jackson, Glossary of Geology, 4th ed (Alexandria: Amer-
ican Geological Institute, 1997) or its abridged edition, R L Bates and J A Jackson, Dictionary
of Geological Terms, 3rd ed (New York: Anchor, 1984)
2 J A Harrell, “Old Testament Gemstones: A Philological, Geological, and Archaeolog-
ical Assessment of Septuagint,” Bulletin of Biblical Research 21/2 (2011): 141–71
Harrell, Hofmeier, and Williams: Hebrew Gemstones 3
appears in numerous biblical passages, probably at times included other

kinds of valued stone such as those employed in architectural and sculp-
tural applications
The High Priest’s Breastplate

The names of the 12 tribes of Israel were to be etched in 12 gemstones that
were embedded into the golden priestly breastplate, “so Aaron shall bear
the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment (‫שׁפָּט‬ ֶ ֹ ‫ח‬,
ְ ‫שׁן ִמ‬
ḥōšen mišpāṭ) on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them
to regular remembrance before the Lord” (Exod 28:29) This adornment
contains the largest collocation of gems in the OT, and in some cases they are
mentioned elsewhere in the Bible Translators of and commentators on the
OT have struggled for more than two millennia to understand what gem-
stones were intended by the Hebrew terms In most cases, no description
of the gemstones is ofered in the text, contributing to the ambiguity and
uncertainty surrounding the identiication of the stones As John Durham
admitted nearly 30 years ago: “we cannot with any accuracy translate the
Hebrew terms for the stones used in the breastpiece; thus we cannot estab-
lish the color patterns, and indeed we can only guess that each stone was a
diferent color since each has a diferent name ” 3 It would be more correct,
however, to say that the fact that there are 12 named stones means they each
had a diferent “appearance” rather than color Some surely exhibit difer-
ent colors whereas others may have the same color but difer in shade and
diaphaneity Still others may have been distinguishable by their multicol-
ored patterns Cornelis Houtman more recently has ofered another reason
for translation uncertainty: “in antiquity there was no one ixed nomencla-
ture A particular term did not always refer to the same thing Classiica-
tion of precious stones was not done on the basis of sophisticated scientiic
analysis ” 4 We acknowledge that challenges remain in identifying the He-
brew terms, but we maintain that more positive outcomes are possible with
the multidisciplinary analysis utilized in this study
Another problem facing the translator is that in some instances the
terms assigned to various metals, stones, and other commodities in the an-
cient world stemmed from the name given in the language from the land
where the material originated, and thus they came as loanwords into the
language of the recipients of the trade This means that the etymologies of
some terms may not be from the basic languages of the ancient Near East
As we shall see below, this is true of gems such as turquoise and lapis lazuli
that had few sources and likely retained the names given to them by the
earliest miners Then too, the name of a commodity could relect the geo-
graphical region from which it originated
Two examples of this phenomenon introduced here will suice to il-
lustrate the point The English word ebony likely derives from the African
word for the wood that came from the sub-Saharan region where ebony
3 J I Durham, Exodus, WBC 3 (Waco, TX: Word, 1987), 387

4 C Houtman, Exodus, 20–40, HCOT 3 (Leuven: Peeters, 2000), 498
trees grow 5 In Egyptian, the word is hbny, and it shares the same lexeme in
Ugaritic (hbn), Hebrew (hôbnîm, Ezek 27:15), Greek (εβενο), Latin (ebenus),
Arabic (’bnus) and as ebony in English 6 In other words, in every language in
which ebony is found the term relects the original African name Another
well-known commodity whose name relects the term from the place of ori-
gin is cofee, which seemingly came from the Ethiopian Kingdom of Kafa
where the irst cofee beans were utilized 7 The point is that trade items
that go to distant locations where the item is not found will often retain the
name from the point of origin
Because of the quandary scholars face trying to establish the classiica-
tions of Hebrew gems, they often have looked to the Greek (LXX) or Latin
(Vulgate) translations for guidance The LXX was translated during the 3rd
through 1st centuries BC by Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, from an
earlier and now largely lost version of the Hebrew Bible 8 The Vulgate, in
turn, was translated by Saint Jerome during the late 4th century AD, using
both the LXX and Hebrew Bible in his rendition of the OT 9 The Masoretic
Text (MT), was compiled by Jewish scholars between the 6th and 11th cen-
turies AD 10 from an earlier text that was probably not signiicantly diferent
from the text on which the LXX is based 11 Emanuel Tov argues that the
LXX in some cases used earlier Hebrew manuscripts than those from which
the MT is derived 12 Thus, some maintain that the LXX may represent an
older Vorlage of the Hebrew text tradition, which was written, edited, and
compiled beginning at the end of the Late Bronze or Iron I periods and con-
tinuing into the postexilic or Persian period 13
Many earlier scholars mistakenly assumed that there is a one-to-one
correspondence between the breastplate gemstones in the MT and LXX, and
so tried to use translations of the Greek gemstone names in the LXX to iden-
tify those in the MT The law in this approach, however, is that for a given
gemstone named in several LXX passages, the Hebrew names in the corre-
5 F N Hepper, “On the Transference of Ancient Plant Names,” PEQ 109 (1977): 129–30
6 WÄS 2:487; T O Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” JAOS 73
(1953): 149; Y Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North-West Semitic (Atlanta:
Society of Biblical Literature, 1999), 243; HALOT 237
7 G W B Huntingford, The Galla of Ethiopia; the Kingdoms of Kafa and Janjero (London:
International African Institute, 1955), 103–144
8 A Rahlfs and R Hanhart, Septuaginta: Id est Vetus Testamentum Graece iuxta LXX In-
terpretes (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006)
9 D C Parker, “Vulgate,” ABD 5:860–62
10 J E Sanderson, “Ancient Texts and Versions of the Old Testament,” in New Interpreter’s
Bible, vol 1 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), 296–98
11 N Petersen, “An Analysis of Two Early LXX Manuscripts from Qumran: 4QLXXNum
and 4QLXXLeva in the Light of Previous Studies,” BBR 19 (2009): 481–510; P J Gentry, “The
text of the Old Testament,” JETS 52 (2009): 19–45
12 E Tov, “The Septuagint as a Source for the Literary Analysis of Hebrew Scripture,”
in Exploring the Origins of the Bible, ed C Evans and E Tov (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 56
13 W Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2003), 8; R K Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1969), 201–10; R T Beckwith, “The Canon of the Old Testament,” in The Origin of the Bible (Carol
Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1992), 51–64; K Kitchen, On The Reliability of the Old Testament (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 497–500
sponding MT passages are commonly not the same For example, the Greek
σμάραγδος, smaragdos, in the LXX’s Exod 28:9, 35:27, and 36:17 (39:10 in MT)
is variously referred to, respectively, as ‫שֹׁהַם‬, šōham, ‫ָשׁפֵה‬
ְ ‫י‬, yāšĕpê, and ‫ֶקת‬
ֶ ‫ ָּר‬,
bāreqeṯ in the same MT passages Similarly for the LXX’s ἄνθραξ, anthrax, the
corresponding Hebrew words in the MT are ‫שֹׁהַם‬, šōham, in Gen 2:12, ‫שׁישׁ‬ ִ ‫ַּ ְר‬,
ְ pûḵ, in Isa 54:11 This lack of correspondence also
taršîš, in Ezek 10:9, and ‫פּּך‬,
applies to materials that are not part of the breastplate, some of which have
been mistranslated as gemstones For example, the incense ‫ּדֹלַח‬, ְ bĕdōlaḥ, in
the MT’s Gen 2:12 and Num 11:7 is translated in the same passages of the
LXX as the gemstone ἄνθραξ and the food μαννα, manna, respectively Such
disagreements demonstrate that either the LXX and MT are based on difer-
ent Hebrew Vorlagen or, more likely, that the LXX translators often did not
know the Greek equivalents of the Hebrew gemstone names and so instead
used the names of contemporary gemstones with which they were familiar
Still other translators have been misled by later rabbinical sources such
as the Talmud’s Midrash Rabbah, which describes the colors and patterns of
lags carried by the 12 tribes of Israel and equates these to the appearance
of gemstones on the breastplate 14 This text dates to the 5th century AD
and later 15 and therefore cannot be taken as anything more than imagi-
native speculation A inal problem is that Bible translators have proposed
a plethora of competing and contradictory names for the breastplate gem-
stones (table 1) with many of the suggested gems unknown in ancient Israel
(and much of the rest of the Near East) prior to the Hellenistic period and so
would not have been used for the breastplate: for example, beryl, chrysolite,
diamond, emerald, garnet, hyacinth, jacinth, jade, moonstone, opal, peri-
dot, ruby, sapphire, topaz, and zircon
Exodus 28:9–29 contains the divine instructions for making the ex-
quisite bejeweled pectoral for the High Priest: 12 diferent gemstones in
four rows of three (see table 1), while Exod 39:6–21 reports on the execution
of those instructions Source critics have naturally tied these passages to
the Priestly tradition (the P source), typically dated to the 5th century BC 16
There have been those, on the other hand, who have held that the priestly
traditions are much older, 17 especially with the realization that many of
the cultic practices described in the Pentateuch are documented in the Late
Bronze Age in Western Asia 18
14 Swersky, “The High Priest’s Breastplate,” 108–9

15 P Mandel, “Midrash Rabbah,” in The Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion, ed R J Z
Werblowsky and G Wigoder (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 464
16 J P Hyatt, Commentary on Exodus, rev ed , NCB (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 20,
279; B S Childs, The Book of Exodus (Louisville: Westminster, 1974), 529
17 Y Kaufman, The Religion of Israel (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), 175–
200; A Hurvitz, “A Linguistic Study of the Relationship between the Priestly Source and the
Book of Ezekiel: A New Approach to an Old Problem,” Cahiers de la Revue Biblique, Vol 20 (Paris:
Gabalda, 1982); idem, “The Language of the Priestly Source and Its Historical Setting: The Case
for an Early Date,” in Proceedings of the Eighth World Congress of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem: World
Union of Jewish Studies, 1981), 83–94
18 M Greenberg, “Social and Cultic Institutions in the Priestly Source against Their
Near Eastern Background,” in Proceedings of the Eighth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Biblical
Pectorals with inlaid gemstones are well known in Pharaonic Egypt,

but these are for personal adornment and, although they included a variety
of religious motifs and portrayals of deities, did not have a religious or cultic
function Many elegant examples were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun
(14th century BC), and some were discovered in the royal tombs at Tanis
from the 11th to 9th centuries BC 19 Similar pectorals from the irst half of
the second millennium BC have been found in Byblos, Egypt’s long-stand-
ing northern Levantine trade partner 20
It must be recalled as we examine the various terms and seek to iden-
tify them (and in some instances conirm existing classiications), that the
gemstones of the breastpiece (and the two stones used as clasps, the ephod,
to hold the chain from which the breastplate was suspended) had to be the
type of stones that could be inscribed with the tribal names, “as a jeweler
engraves signets so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the
sons of Israel” (Exod 28:11) and “they [the 12 stones] like signets, each en-
graved with its name” (Exod 28:21) This detail suggests that the gemstones
probably corresponded with stones used in the Near East for cylinder and
stamp seals, but still other stones used mainly for jewelry would also have
been suitable because these can also be inscribed
The Prince of Tyre’s Canopy

Nine of the breastplate gemstones reappear in Ezek 28:13 as jewels belong-
ing to the ruler of Tyre Ezek 28:1–19 is believed to be a single redactional
unit made of two diferent oracles concerning the prince of Tyre, possibly
Ethbaal II 21 The passage that lists the gemstones is in the second pericope
and it is a lament (qînâ) over the demise of the Tyrian ruler, vv 11–19 The
key passage reads:
You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty
You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your
covering [a list of nine stones follows] and crafted in gold were
your settings and your engravings (Ezek 28:12–13)
The precise meaning of “your covering” (ָ‫ָתך‬ ְ mĕsuḵāteḵā) is problematic,
ֶ ‫מ ֻסכ‬,
but it was somehow ornamented with gems set in gold The basic meaning
Studies, and Hebrew Language (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1981), 95–126; R S
Hess, “Multiple-Month Ritual Calendars in the West Semitic World: Emar 446 and Leviticus
23,” in the Future of Biblical Archaeology, ed J K Hofmeier and A R Millard (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2004), 233–53; idem, Israelite Religions (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 171–207
19 C Aldred, Jewels of the Pharaohs: Egyptian Jewelry of the Dynastic Period (London: Thames
& Hudson, 1978), igs 62 and 82 (Tutankhamun), and 106 (Tanis); C Andrews, Ancient Egyptian
Jewelry (New York: Abrams, 1997), igs 20, 46–47, 58, 116–19, 176 and 178 (Tutankhamun), and
57, 99 and 179 (Tanis) Also from Tanis, see Z Hawass, Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the
Great Pharaohs (Washington: National Geographic, n d ), 170, 181, 182
20 These are now in the Beirut Museum; see A Visit to the Museum: The Short Guide of the
National Museum of Beirut, Lebanon (Beirut: Ministry of Culture, Directorate General of Antiqui-
ties and National Heritage Foundation, 2008)
21 L Allen, Ezekiel 20–48, WBC 29 (Dallas: Word, 1990), 92–93
of ‫ ֻסָּה‬, sukkâ, is hut or tabernacle (booth) 22 In Amos 9:11 the “booth” of

David is mentioned God announces: “In that day I will raise up the booth
of David that is fallen and repair its breaches ” This unique statement seems
to point to the restoration of David’s dynasty or a return to the glory days
of the united monarchy 23 The royal booth may be the kind of canopy that
stands over a ruler while sitting on a throne, like the one found in the gate
area at Tell Dan 24 Perhaps such a booth, which symbolized the ruler of
Tyre’s reign, was decorated beautifully with jewels beitting a powerful
potentate
Regardless of what mĕsuḵāteḵā means, our interest lies with the gems
that are listed as follows: (1) ‫א ֶֹדם‬, ʾōḏem, (2) ‫פּ ְט ָדה‬,ִ piṭḏâ, (3) ‫יָהֲלֹם‬, yāhălōm,
(4) ‫שׁישׁ‬ ִ ‫ַּ ְר‬, taršîš, (5) ‫שֹׁהַם‬, šōham, (6) ‫ָשׁפֵה‬ ְ ‫נֹפ‬,
ְ ‫י‬, yāšĕpê, (7) ‫ס ִַפּיר‬, sappîr, (8) ‫ֶך‬
nōpeḵ, and (9) ‫ֶקת‬ ֶ ‫ ָּר‬, bāreqeṯ (compare with the sequence in table 1) All 9
are included among the 12 on the priestly breastpiece The fact that 3 of the
latter’s gems are absent in Ezekiel’s list suggests that the prophet likely bor-
rowed the gem list from the Exodus passage and not the other way around
John Wevers thought that “the list of nine stones is a much later inser-
tion (into Ezek 28) taken from the list of Exod 28:17–20 ” 25 The list of gems
in Ezek 28:13, Daniel Block suggests, was “inspired by” the priestly chest-
piece 26 The diference in sequence, it has been suggested, may be attrib-
uted to Ezekiel’s desire to have a diferent color sequence 27 Interestingly,
Ezek 28 in the LXX actually records all 12 stones, which led Moshe Green-
berg to posit that the omission of the 3 stones in the MT was a scribal error
in transmission 28 We theorize that Ezek 28’s gem list derives from Exod 28
and 39, and with Greenberg posit that the absence of the three gems in the
MT of Ezekiel is due to scribal omission Presently there is no way of know-
ing whether this omission was intentional or accidental
Gemstones Available in Ancient Israel

Table 3 lists the rocks, minerals, and organic materials used for cylinder and
stamp seals as well as jewelry (for example, beads, pendants, amulets, and
inlays) 29 in the Levant during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages This table also
22 HALOT 753; H L Bosman, “‫ֹֻּּת‬,” NIDOTTE 3:251–52

23 F Anderson and D N Freedman, Amos, AB 24A (New York: Doubleday, 1989), 914
24 A Biran, “Dan,” in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land,
ed E Stern, vol 1 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 330
25 J W Wevers, Ezekiel, NCB (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969), 157
26 D I Block, The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 25–48, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1998), 106
27 G A Cooke, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Ezekiel (Edinburgh:
T&T Clark, 1936–37), 316–17
28 M Greenberg, Ezekiel 21–37, AB 22A (New York: Doubleday, 1997), 582
29 Cylinder seals: B Parker, “Cylinder Seals from Palestine,” Iraq 11 (1949): 1–43; L Wool-
ley, Alalakh: An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay, 1937–1949 (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1955), 258–68; B Buchanan, Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ash-
molean Museum: Cylinder Seals, vol 1 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1966), 179–204; J Boardman, Intaglios
and Rings: Greek, Etruscan and Eastern, From a Private Collection (London: Thames & Hudson,
1975), 46–47; R Hestrin and M Dayagi-Mendels, Inscribed Seals: First Temple Period, Hebrew,
lists the stones employed in the two adjacent regions that may have inlu-
enced the choice of gemstones used in the Levant: Mesopotamia and Egypt 30
Ammonite, Moabite, Phoenician and Aramaic (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1979); B Teissier, Ancient
Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1984); Israel Museum, Treasures of the Holy Land: Ancient Art from the Israel Museum (New York:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986), 179–81; D Collon, First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the
Ancient Near East (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 69–73 and 83–85; H Hammade,
revised by L Hitchcock, Cylinder Seals from the Collections of the Aleppo Museum, Syrian Arab
Republic, vol 1: Seals of Unknown Provenance (Oxford: BAR International, 1987); B Buchanan and
P R S Moorey, Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum, vol 3: The Iron
Age Stamp Seals (c. 1200–350 BC) (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988), 14–52 and 70–77; J Boardman, “The
Lyre Player Group of Seals—an Encore,” Archäologischer Anzeiger (1990): 1–17; O Keel, “La glyp-
tique de Tell Keisan (1971–1976),” in Studien zu den Stempelsiegeln aus Palästina/Israel, vol 3: Die
frühe Eisenzeit: Ein Workshop, ed O Keel, M Shuval and C Uehlinger (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1990), 163–260; idem, “Früheisenzeitliche glyptik in Palästina/Israel,” in Studien
zu den Stempelsiegeln aus Palästina/Israel, vol 3: Die frühe Eisenzeit: Ein Workshop, ed O Keel,
M Shuval and C Uehlinger (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990), 331–421; M Shu-
val, “A Catalogue of Early Iron Stamp Seals from Israel,” in Studien zu den Stempelsiegeln aus
Palästina/Israel, vol 3: Die frühe Eisenzeit: Ein Workshop, ed O Keel, M Shuval and C Uehlinger
(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1990), 67–161; P Amiet, Corpus des Cylindres de Ras
Shamra-Ougarit, vol 2: Sceaux-Cylindres en Hématite et Pierres Diverses (Paris: Éditions Recherche
sur les Civilisations, 1992), 33–49; H Hammade, Cylinder Seals from the Collections of the Aleppo
Museum, Syrian Arab Republic, vol 2: Seals of Known Provenance (Oxford: BAR International,
1994); table 1 in M Sax, “The Seal Materials, Their Chronology and Sources,” in Catalogue of the
Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Peri-
ods, ed D Collon, vol 1, part 5 (London: British Museum Press, 2001), 18–34; R G Lehmann,
“Beschriftete siegelsteine aus der südlichen Levante und ihre materialien,” in Edelsteine in der
Bibel, ed W Zwickel (Mainz am Rhein: von Zabern, 2002), 12–22; C Wagner and J Boardman,
A Collection of Classical and Eastern Intaglios, Rings and Cameos (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2003),
99–102 and 131–32; J Boardman, Classical Phoenician Scarabs—A Catalogue and Study (Oxford:
Archaeopress, 2003), 3 and 6; B Brandle, “Scarabs, Seals, an Amulet and a Pendant (Chapter
3),” in Bronze and Iron Age Tombs at Tell Beit Mirsim, ed S Ben-Arieh (Jerusalem: Israel Antiqui-
ties Authority, 2004), 123–88; S Amorai-Stark, A Rosenfeld and T M Minster, “Seals of the
11th–9th Century BCE from Israel Made of Oil Shale,” Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Liber
Annuus 55 (2005): 419–34
Jewelry: L Woolley, Alalakh, 268–71; Israel Museum, Jewellery from the Ancient World (Je-
rusalem: Israel Museum, 1969); P E McGovern, Late Bronze Age Palestinian Pendants: Innovation
in a Cosmopolitan Age (Sheield: JSOT Press, 1985); Israel Museum, Treasures of the Holy Land:
Ancient Art from the Israel Museum (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986), 131–34;
R Gonen, Jewelry through the Ages at the Israel Museum (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1997); A
Golani, “Jewelry (Chapter 4),” in Bronze and Iron Age Tombs at Tell Beit Mirsim, ed S Ben-Arieh
(Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority, 2004), 189–202; V Boschloos, “Late Bronze Age Cor-
nelian and Red Jasper Scarabs with Cross Designs: Egyptian, Levantine or Minoan?” Journal
of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 4/2 (2012): 5–16; observations in museums by one of the
coauthors, J A Harrell
30 Mesopotamia: B Buchanan, Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean
Museum: Cylinder Seals, vol 1 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1966), 101–24; D Collon, First Impressions:
Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987); B Buchanan
and P R S Moorey, Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum, vol 3:
The Iron Age Stamp Seals (c. 1200–350 BC) (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988), 6–9, 53–70; D Collon,
“Materials and Techniques of Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals,” in Technology and Analysis
of Ancient Gemstones, ed T Hackens and G Moucharte (Rixensart: PACT, 1989), 11–19; D Col-
lon, Near Eastern Seals (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 31–37; M Sax, “The
Composition of the Materials of First Millennium b c Cylinder Seals from Western Asia,” in
Archaeological Sciences 1989: Proceedings of a Conference on the Application of Scientific Techniques
Essentially the same stones were used for seals in all three regions with
the main diference being a greater reliance on the harder, microcrystalline
quartz varieties in Mesopotamia It is immediately evident in this table that
not all the materials used for seals and jewelry are what today would be
considered gemstones For example, limestone, serpentinite and steatite are
ordinary rocks that were especially popular for seals because of their rela-
tive softness, making them easy to carve, and because of their widespread
geologic occurrence, making them readily available and inexpensive
It has been assumed that the breastplate stones are sparkling, colorful
gems of high value, but there is nothing in Exod 28 and 39 to suggest this
Rather the purpose of the stones was to record the names of the Hebrew
tribes, and it may well have been the more popular and less attractive seal
stones that were used, at least in part, with the colored thread and gold
of the breastplate backing providing much of this device’s visual appeal
The vast majority, if not all, of the breastplate gemstones ought to be rep-
resented by the stone varieties in table 3 It is certainly possible, however,
that other stones were also used, possibly unique gems obtained through
trade from distant sources, or those stones with a special connection to an-
cient Israel, either because of the close proximity of their sources, or their
historical or religious signiicance
For example, gemstones from three sources close to ancient Israel are
not known to have been used for seals or jewelry but are nevertheless suit-
able materials for them: red garnet (almandine-pyrope varieties) from vol-
canic deposits at Mount Carmel in northwest Israel and metamorphic rocks
near Eilat at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, 31 and the variegated blue and
to Archaeology, Bradford, September 1989, ed P Budd, B Chapman, C Jackson, R Janaway and

B Ottaway (Oxford: Oxbow, 1991), 104–14; P R S Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and
Industries: The Archaeological Evidence (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994); H Pittman, “Cylinder Seals
and Scarabs in the Ancient Near East,” in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, ed M Sasson, J
Baines, G Beckman and K S Rubinson, vol 3 (New York: Scribner’s, 1995), 1589–1603; M Sax,
“The Seal Materials, Their Chronology and Sources,” in Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in
the British Museum: Cylinder Seals: Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods, ed D Collon, vol
1, part 5 (London: British Museum Press, 2001), 18–34; C Wagner and J Boardman, A Collec-
tion of Classical and Eastern Intaglios, Rings and Cameos (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2003), 99, 103,
126–29; M Sax, “The Seal Materials, Their Chronology and Sources,” in Catalogue of the Western
Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals VI—Pre-Arcaemenid and Achaemenid Periods, ed
P H Merrillees (London: British Museum Press, 2005), 143–61; T C Mitchell, Catalogue of the
Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Stamp Seals—Prehistoric to Parthian Periods, vol 2,
part 1 (London: British Museum Press, 2008)
Egypt: W C Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt, part 2: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom
(1675–1080 b c ) (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art), 179–87; M Vilímková, Egyptian
Jewelry (London: Hamlyn, 1969); C Aldred, Jewels of the Pharaohs: Egyptian Jewelry of the Dynastic
Period; C Andrews, Ancient Egyptian Jewelry (New York: Abrams, 1997); J A Harrell, “Old Tes-
tament Gemstones: A Philological, Geological, and Archaeological Assessment of Septuagint,”
BBR 21 (2011): 141–71; J A Harrell, “Gemstones,” in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, ed W
Wendrich (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012) Online: http://digital2 library
ucla edu/viewItem do?ark=21198/zz002czx1r]
31 Y Nathan, A Katz, and M Eyal “Garnets from the Eilat Area, Southern
Israel,”Mineralogical Magazine 35 (1965–66), 386–92; D W Mittlefehldt, “Petrology of High
Pressure Clinopyroxenite Series Xenoliths, Mount Carmel, Israel,” Contributions to Mineralogy
green “Eilat Stone” (a mixture of malachite, azurite, chrysocolla and other

copper-bearing minerals) from the ancient copper-mining district of Timna
in the southern Negev Desert 32 The latter is now the “national stone” of
Israel and widely used in jewelry
The wanderings of the Hebrews after their exodus from Egypt, accord-
ing to the Torah, took them through the Sinai Peninsula and thence through
the lands of Edom, Moab and Ammon in western Jordan (Exod 15:22; Num
36:13) It seems highly unlikely that the Israelites were unaware of the gem-
stones mined in these regions at the time of their passage: turquoise, mala-
chite, and other copper ore minerals from the Sinai; 33 malachite and other
copper ore minerals from the aforementioned Timna and from the Wadi
Feinan region of southwest Jordan; 34 and, in western Jordan, hematite at
Mugharet el-Wardeh northwest of Amman, in Wadi Sabra near Petra, and
at sites between the Wadi Feinan and Dead Sea 35 The Israelites would also
have passed through areas with deposits of other gemstones and they may
have noticed these although no ancient mines have yet been identiied: in
western Jordan, garnet in wadi sediments northeast of Gharandal, and ag-
ate and rock crystal in siliciied limestone between Ras en-Naqb and Qa-
trana 36 Perhaps one or more of these stones had special meaning for the
early Hebrews
The Gemstones on the High Priest’s Breastplate

1. ‫א ֶֹדם‬, ʾōḏem
Philological Discussion. This gemstone appears in Exod 28:17 and 39:10 and
Ezek 28:13 No description of the stone is ofered in these passages The
word ʾōḏem, however, clearly derives from the root Hebrew ‫ אדם‬mean-
ing “red” or “redness,” which surely is suggestive of the color of the stone 37
and Petrology 94 (1986): 245–52; E Sass, “Late Cretaceous Volcanism in Mount Carmel, Israel,”
Israel Journal of Earth-Sciences 29 (1980): 8–24; M A Cosca, A Shimron and R Caby, “Late Pre-
cambrian Metamorphism and Cooling in the Arabian Nubian Shield: Petrology and 40Ar/39Ar
Geochronology of Metamorphic Rocks of the Elat Area (southern Israel),” Precambrian Research
98/1–2 (1999): 107–27; A Segev, E Sass, H Ron, B Lang, Y Kolodny and M McWilliams,
“Stratigraphic, Geochronologic, and paleomagnetic Constraints on Late Cretaceous Volcanism
in North Israel,” Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 51 (2002): 297–309
32 B Rothenberg, Timna: Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines (London: Thames & Hudson,
1972), 20, 231 Eilat Stone is also described by www gemdat org
33 Turquoise, Egyptian mf kꜢt, is consistently mentioned in the inscriptions at Serabit
el-Khadim and Wadi Maghara See A H Gardiner, T E Peet, and J Černy, The Inscriptions of
Sinai II (London: Oxford University Press, 1955), 3–11; A M A Mansour, Turquoise in Ancient
Egypt: Concept and Role (Oxford: BAR International, 2014)
34 F Bender, Geology of Jordan,167
35 A M Quennell, “The Geology and Mineral Resources of (Former) Trans-Jordan,”
in Colonial Geology and Mineral Resources, ed E H Beard, vol 2 (London: Colonial Geologi-
cal Surveys, 1951), 85–115; R A Coughenour, “Preliminary Report on the Exploration and
Excavation of Mugharat el-Wardeh and Abu Thawab,” Annual of the Department of Antiquities
(Jordan) 21 (1976): 71–78
36 Bender, Geology of Jordan, 167
37 HALOT 14–15
Umberto Cassuto labeled it “a red stone diicult to identify ” 38 This prob-

ably indicates a red gemstone, a point of universal agreement among
Hebraists 39
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Reddish carnelian was one of
the most frequently used gemstones for seals and jewelry with the only
other similarly colored stone a variety of jasper (table 3, pp 50–52) It is per-
haps signiicant that ʾōḏem is the irst gem in the breastplate, as this could
support the translation as carnelian, which was by far the more popular of
the two stones No ancient mines for these stones are known in the Near
East, but microcrystalline quartz rich in iron, the source of carnelian’s color,
is relatively common geologically and so there probably were some deposits
exploited during antiquity in the Near East For example, although evidence
of ancient mining has not been reported, there is a carnelian deposit near
al-Ghayl in the United Arab Emirates 40 Carnelian of good color, however,
is rare in nature and it is now becoming increasingly apparent that its rich
orangy-red to red color in ancient seals and jewelry is the product of heat
treatment of originally drab-colored (e g , light yellow or brown) chalce-
donic quartz This treatment also has the advantage of making the stone
easier to knap and drill This process has certainly been employed in mod-
ern times for beads manufactured in the Khambhat (Cambay) area of Guja-
rat state, western India, 41 and there is evidence that heat treatment was also
practiced by the ancient Indus Valley or Harappan civilization (mid-third
to early second millennium BC) of northwestern India and southern Paki-
stan 42 Although there is no evidence of this technique being employed in
the ancient Near East or Egypt, it nevertheless probably was given the great
abundance of well-colored carnelian used in these regions and the gem’s
natural scarcity
Red jasper appears in many parts of Egypt’s Eastern Desert 43 and was
obtained there by the Egyptians and tribal peoples in that region However,
38 U Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1967), 376

39 P L Garber and R W Funk, “Jewels,” in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol 2
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), 901–2; Houtman, Exodus, 499; W C Propp, Exodus, 19–40, AB 2A
(New York: Anchor Doubleday, 2006), 439
40 O Brunet, “Bronze and Iron Age Carnelian Bead Production in the UAE and Armenia:
New Perspectives,” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 39 (2009): 57–68
41 E J H Mackay, “Bead Making in Ancient Sind,” Journal of the American Oriental Society
57 (1936): 3; G L Possehl, “Cambay Beadmaking: An Ancient Craft in Modern India,” Expedi-
tion 23 (1981): 41–42; J M Kenoyer, M Vidale, and K K Bhan, “Contemporary Stone Bead-
making in Khambhat, India: Patterns of Craft Specialization and Organization of Production
as Relected in the Archaeological Record,” World Archaeology 23/1 (1991): 51, 55; M -L Inizan
and J Tixier, “L’Émergence des Arts du Feu: le Traitement Thermique des Roches Siliceuses,”
Paléorient 26/2 (2001): 23–36
42 E J H Mackay, “Chanhu-Daro Excavations 1935–36 (New Haven, CT: American Ori-
ental Society, 1943), 209, 214; J M Kenoyer, M Vidale, and K K Bhan, “Carnelian Bead Pro-
duction in Khambhat, India: An Ethnoarchaeological Study,” in Living Traditions: Studies in the
Ethnoarchaeology of South Asia, ed B Allchin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994) 284, 300;
J M Kenoyer, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1998), 160–62
43 A Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries (London: Edward Arnold, 1962),
397–398; P K Sims and H L James, “Banded Iron-Formations of Late Proterozoic Age in the
if ʾaḥlāmâ is red jasper, as seems likely (see below), then carnelian is probably
the stone meant by ʾōḏem Given that lapis lazuli was transported from its
source in northeast Afghanistan to all parts of the Near East as early as the
fourth millennium BC, it is conceivable that some carnelian or, at least drab
chalcedonic quartz that was later heat-treated, came from distant Asian
sources such as the famous agate deposits in India’s Gujarat state 44
Proposed Identiication. A reddish stone, probably carnelian
2. ‫פּ ְט ָדה‬,
ִ piṭḏâ
Philological Discussion. In addition to references to piṭḏâ in the breastplate
(Exod 28:17, 39:10) and its association with the prince of Tyre in Ezek 28:13,
the word also appears in Job 28:19 where its value is compared with that of
wisdom The origin of the word piṭḏâ is problematic Ludwig Koehler and
Walter Baumgartner ofer no etymology for piṭḏâ 45 A Sanskrit root, pita
meaning “yellow” has been suggested 46 It is only known from late Sanskrit
texts, however, and the absence of the d militates against the equation of
the Sanskrit word pita and Hebrew piṭḏâ A further problem for the Sanskrit
connection is that pita/piṭḏâ is not attested in Indo-European languages
such as Hittite, Old Persian, or modern Farsi 47 So an Indo-European origin
for piṭḏâ seems unlikely The proximity of two dentals in the word, ṭ and d,
is unexpected in a word of Semitic or Indo-European origin 48 but appears
in Egyptian
Consequently, an Egyptian etymology for piṭḏâ has also been pro-
posed Linguistically, Hebrew piṭḏâ corresponds to Egyptian pꜢ-ddt This
association was proposed by Jehoshua Grintz and recently reairmed by
Benjamin Noonan, 49 but they did not point to an actual Egyptian term that
could be associated with a mineral or stone We, however, believe that a
connection to an Egyptian mineral substance can indeed be posited First,
the initial element pꜢ in pꜢ-ddt represents the deinite article for which
Central Eastern Desert, Egypt: Geology and Tectonic Setting,” Economic Geology and the Bulletin
of the Society of Economic Geologists 79 (1984): 1777–84; A Hussein, “Mineral Deposits,” in The
Geology of Egypt, ed R Said (Rotterdam: Balkema, 1990), 511–66
44 Possehl, “Cambay Beadmaking,” 40–41; R W Law, Inter-Regional Interaction and Ur-
banism in the Ancient Indus Valley: A Geologic Provenience Study of Harappa’s Rock and Mineral
Assemblage Ph D diss (University of Wisconsin at Madison, 2008), 430–38
45 HALOT 924
46 E König, Hebräisches und aramäisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament (Leipzig: Hin-
richs, 1922), 361; H Quiring, “Die Edelsteine im Amtsschild des jüdischen Hohenpriesters und
die Herkunft ihrer Namen,” Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin un der Naturwissenschaften
38 (1954): 196; Harris, “The Stone of the High Priest’s Breastplate,” 47
47 Personal communication from Edwin Yamauchi at Miami University (OH), who is a
specialist in Persia
48 This observation was ofered in a personal communication from the late Harry Hof-
ner, Emeritus Professor of Hittitology at the University of Chicago This same linguistic prob-
lem is noted by Benjamin J Noonan, Foreign Words in the Hebrew Bible: Linguistic Evidence for
Foreign Contact in Ancient Israel, Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic (Winona Lake,
IN: Eisenbrauns, forthcoming) Dr Noonan kindly sent relevant pages from his manuscript
49 J Grintz, “‫ ”מונחים קדומים ב’תורת כהנים‬Lešonénu 39 (1974–1975): 8–9; Noonan, Foreign
Words in the Hebrew Bible.
Hebrew ‫—פּ‬piִ is compatible 50 Second, the Egyptian word didi or ddi ac-
cords linguistically with Hebrew ‫ט ָדה‬,
ְ ṭĕḏāh, and didi is clearly a mineral as
demonstrated by its writing with the determinative º or ººº (cf , Gardiner’s
N-33) It represents a grain (or grains) of sand, and is (are) used to classify
minerals or metals 51
Many years ago Warren R Dawson argued that didi referred to he-
matite 52 This identiication was recognized by the Wörterbuch, 53 Raymond
Faulkner in his dictionary, 54 and J R Harris in his authoritative Lexico-
graphical Studies in Ancient Egyptian Minerals 55 Ricardo Caminos translated
didi as “Nubian hematite ” 56 The reason for this geographical note is that a
number of texts specify that didi comes from the area of Elephantine and
Nubia Frequently used in medical papyri of Middle Kingdom (2000–1786
BC) origin for various remedies, the reddish substance could be pulverized
and added for various concoctions In the Hearst Medical Papyrus, didi ap-
pears in seven prescriptions or remedies, 57 while Pap Ebers speciies using
“pounded didi of Elephantine (Ꜣbw) ” 58 The Stela of Ineni, an oicial of Thut-
mose I (1504–1492 BC), mentions didi n Ꜣbw, “didi of Elephantine ” 59 Didi is
listed in Pap Koller (13th century BC) on a tribute list from Cush, along with
gold, ivory, and ebony and other desirable materials Didi’s inclusion shows
that it was considered to be valuable enough to transport to Egypt
The redness of the didi is mentioned in several texts, notably in the
Book of the Divine Cow, versions of which appear in royal tombs beginning
with Tutankhamun (1336–1327 BC) and down to the reign of Ramesses VI
(1143–1136 BC) In this myth, beer is mixed with didi to give the beverage
the appearance of blood 60 Thus, didi was a mineral (based on the use of the
indicator º), it can be pulverized, was reddish in appearance, and comes
from Cush and Elephantine (Egypt’s southern frontier with Nubia)
Job 28:19 ofers an intriguing geographical location for piṭḏâ This
chapter contains a poem on wisdom and praises its surpassing value: “The
piṭḏâ of Cush cannot compare with it; it cannot be bought with pure gold ”
The parallelism with gold in the verse is not a hint of piṭḏâ’s color (yellow/
gold) but of its worth The toponym Cush (‫ )ּּשׁ‬is documented in Egyptian
50 Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North-West Semitic, 268

51 A H Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar (London: Oxford University, 1969), 490
52 W R Dawson, “The Substance Called Didi by the Ancient Egyptians,” Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society 59 3 (1927): 497–503
53 WÄS 5:421
54 R O Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1962), 317
55 J R Harris, Lexicographical Studies in Ancient Egyptian Minerals (Berlin: Akademie-
Verlag, 1961), 155–157
56 R Caminos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), 442;
L Lesko, A Dictionary of Late Egyptian, vol 4 (Providence, RI: Scribe, 1989), 122
57 G A Reisner, The Hearst Medical Papyrus (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905), 46
58 Dawson, “The Substance Called Didi by the Ancient Egyptians,” 497
59 Urk 4, 55 7
60 For the text in the golden shrine of Tutankhamun, see A Piankof, The Shrines of Tut-
Ankh-Amon: Texts Translated with Introductions (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 27–28
Interestingly, Piankof renders didi as “red ochre ”
texts from the early second millennium BC, and included the Nile River
valley in modern Sudan between Buhen, just north of the Second Cata-
ract and south to Kerma at its capital near the Third Cataract and perhaps
down to the Fourth Cataract 61 The area between Cush and Egypt’s south-
ern frontier was called Wawat 62 Apart from the Job 28 reference, Cush is
known elsewhere in the OT (e g , 2 Kgs 19:9; Isa 11:11; 18:1; 20:3, 5; Ps 68:32)
and refers to the area south of Egypt, with Elephantine Island (present-day
Aswan) being the demarcation between Egypt and Cush/Nubia The Bible
does not delineate between Wawat and Cush
It is not insigniicant that in the LXX translation of Job 28:19 the “piṭḏâ
of Cush” is rendered as τοπάζιον Αἰθιοπίας, topazion Aithiopias, where Helle-
nistic Ethiopia encompassed not only Nubian Cush but also the deserts east
of the Nile in southern Egypt and northern Sudan Topazion or topazos was
the Greek name for peridot, the yellowish-green gem variety of the mineral
olivine from Zabargad (or St John’s) Island in the Red Sea 63 This stone,
however, was unknown in the Near East prior to the Hellenistic period and
so cannot be equated with piṭḏâ
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Egypt’s Aswan is known for its
granite, granodiorite and siliciied sandstone (or quartzite), all ornamental
stones quarried in antiquity for a wide variety of sculptured objects 64 This
area is also known for one other mineral commodity: hematite, a common
form of iron oxide 65 It was mined here beginning in the late 19th century
but ancient hematite mines near Aswan are also known, although they are
not well dated 66 The hematite appear as cement and oolitic concretions
61 T Kendall, “Kush,” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, ed D B Redford, vol 2

(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 250–52; S T Smith, Wretched Kush (London: Rout-
ledge, 2003), 4–9
62 D O’Connor, “New Kingdom and The Third Intermediate Period, 1552–664,” in An-
cient Egypt a Social History, ed B Trigger, B Kemp, D O’Connor and A Lloyd (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1983), 256–57
63 J A Harrell and E Bloxam, “Egypt’s Evening Emerald,” Minerva 21 (2010): 16–19;
J A Harrell, “Discovery of the Red Sea Source of Topazos (Ancient Gem Peridot) on Zabargad
Island, Egypt,” in Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Sinkankas Symposium—Peridot and Uncommon
Green Gem Minerals (April 5, 2014), ed L Thoresen (Fallbrook: Pala, 2014), 16–30; L Thoresen
and J A Harrell, “Archaeogemology of Peridot,” in Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Sinkankas
Symposium: Peridot and Uncommon Green Gem Minerals (April 5, 2014), ed L Thoresen (Fallbrook:
Pala, 2014), 31–51
64 J A Harrell, “Ornamental Stones,” in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, ed W Wen-
drich (Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles, 2012) Online: http://digital2
library ucla edu/viewItem do?ark=21198/zz002dwzs4
65 W F Hume, Geology of Egypt, vol 2: The Fundamental Precambrian Rocks of Egypt and
the Sudan, part 3: The Minerals of Economic Value Associated with the Intrusive Precambrian Igne-
ous Rocks and Ancient Sediments (Cairo: Survey of Egypt, Geological Survey Department, 1937),
851–52; O H Little and M I Attia, The Development of the Aswan District, with Notes on the
Minerals of Southeastern Egypt (Cairo: Survey of Egypt, Geological Survey Department, 1943),
38–46; M I Attia, Topography, Geology and Iron-Ore Deposits of the District East of Aswan (Cairo:
Mineral Resources Department, Geological Survey, 1955); Hussein, “Mineral Deposits,” 550–52
66 L Nassim, “Minerals of economical interest in the deserts of Egypt,” in Congrès In-
ternational de Géographie le Caire, Avril 1925 (Cairo: l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale
du Caire, 1926), 163–68; P Degryse, P Storemyr and T Heldal “Notes on Iron Ore Mining
within sandstone, and this is very diferent from the purer varieties of this
mineral used for seals and jewelry (table 3) The same rock formation, the
so-called Nubian Sandstone, continues south through Nubia and in places
is enriched in hematite, although not to the same extent as at Aswan Upon
grinding, all forms of hematite are reduced to a reddish powder and, in-
deed, the hills and valleys northeast of Aswan are now coated with red
dust from the modern iron mines The piṭḏâ in the breastplate and canopy
cannot be the impure, soft, and earthy (ocherous) form of hematite found at
Aswan, but it could well be one of the purer, harder hematite varieties, es-
pecially the submetallic kind, commonly used for seals in the Levant When
ground, this also produces a red powder
Proposed Identiication. Probably the sub-metallic variety of hematite
3. ‫ֶקת‬
ֶ ‫ ָּר‬, bāreqeṯ
Philological Discussion. Bāreqeṯ is only found in the breastplate references

(Exod 28:17, 39:10) and in the prince of Tyre’s canopy (Ezek 28:13) The He-
brew word ‫ ברק‬means “shine” and “gleam,” and is the word for lightening 67
It is attested in cuneiform texts of the Neo-Babylonian period as barraqtu,
where it is the name of a gemstone set in a gold ring or necklace 68 As a loan
word, brq appears in Egyptian of the Ramesside era meaning “to sparkle” 69
and “to glitter, glisten, to lash ” 70 Thus, the word was known in the Semitic
speaking world earlier than the 7th century BC (the Chaldean period when
it appears in cuneiform) In the Ptolemaic period, berget is the word for a
green gemstone, either emerald (beryl) or peridot (olivine), both mined in
Egypt 71 This same writing with the g in place of the q is not a late-period
development, for it is found in New Kingdom (1550–1295 BC) texts, where
it shares the same meaning as brq. 72 Friederich Junge explains this phenom-
enon as “develarization” in which the q loses its “velar feature becoming
g ” 73 This linguistic shift may explain the word in medieval Arabic, zabargad,
which was applied to both emerald and peridot 74 Based on the meaning
of brq, it is diicult to determine what gem was intended for bāreqeṯ Is it
and Smelting, and Clay Extraction at the West Bank of Aswan,” in Characterization of Complex
Quarry Landscapes: an Example from the West Bank Quarries, Aswan, ed E G Bloxam, T Heldal,
and P Storemyr (QuarryScapes Report INCO-CT-2005–015416, Deliverable 4 Online: www
quarryscapes no, 2007), 141–49
67 HALOT 162
68 CAD B, 113
69 J Hoch, Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), §§126 and 132
70 WÄS 1:466; L Lesko, A Dictionary of Late Egyptian, vol 1 (Berkeley CA: Scribe, 1982),
158
71 Lesko, A Dictionary of Late Egyptian, 1:159 Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 105
72 WÄS 1:466; Lesko, A Dictionary of Late Egyptian, 1:158
73 F Junge, Late Egyptian Grammar: An Introduction (Oxford: Griith, 2001), 36 See also
R A Caminos, Late Egyptian Miscellanies (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), 167
74 T Lewicki, “Les écrivains Arabes du Moyen âge au sujet des mines de pierres
précieuses et de pierres ines en territoire African et de leur exploitation,” Africana Bulletin 7
(1967): 65–67
shiny? Is it white-yellow like lightening or of a greenish color? These are

possible clues
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. If bāreqeṯ is unusually shiny,
then perhaps it is garnet The late 1st-century AD Roman writer Pliny the
Elder (NH 37 25 93) refers to red garnet as carbunculus and says it has “ex-
ceptional brilliance in sunlight ” 75 This reference to “brilliance” is echoed by
the early 3rd-century BC poet Posidippus of Pella (L 3 1), who describes red
garnet as “shining anthrax ” 76 These descriptions are apparently prompted
by garnet’s unusually high refractive index, which causes it to be more re-
lective (shinier) than most other gemstones, including all in table 3 (pp 50–52
except malachite 77 Green garnet was used on rare occasions for Assyrian
seals, 78 but neither this nor red garnet is known to have been used in the
Levant prior to the Hellenistic period for either seals or jewelry
It is more likely that bāreqeṯ refers to another kind of green stone In
Egypt, olivine (peridot) and green beryl (emerald) were irst mined in the
3rd and 1st centuries BC, respectively, 79 and this indicates that the Hebrew
bāreqeṯ, if it is related to the Ptolemaic word, refers to a diferent green gem-
stone As can be seen in table 3, green stones used for Levantine seals or
jewelry include amazonite, malachite, varieties of chalcedony and jasper,
and varieties of steatite and serpentinite None of these stones are partic-
ularly shiny but, with the exception of steatite, they all take a good polish
The most precious of these was green jasper (or metajasper), which was
the signature gemstone of the Iron Age Phoenicians 80 Much more popu-
lar, however, in terms of the quantities used were steatite and serpentinite
Green jasper and serpentinite sometimes resemble each other megascopi-
cally, and in such cases may not have been recognized as diferent stones in
75 D E Eichholz, Pliny—Natural History, Books XXXVI-XXXVII (Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, 1962), 238–39
76 C Austin and G Bastianini, Posidippi Pellaei Quae Supersunt Omna (Milan: Edizioni
Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto, 2002), 24–25
77 Unlike garnet, which occurs in large single crystals, malachite is usually found in
microcrystalline aggregates that do not exhibit a high relectivity
78 D Collon, “Materials and Techniques,” 17; M Sax, “The Seal Materials, their Chronol-
ogy and Sources,” in D Collon (ed ), Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum:
Cylinder Seals—Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Periods, ed D Collon, vol 1, part 5 (London:
British Museum Press, 2001), 18–34
79 J A Harrell, “Archaeological Geology of the World’s First Emerald Mine,” Geoscience
Canada 31 2 (2010): 69–76; S E Sidebotham, M Hendrikje, A Nouwens, M Hense, and J A
Harrell, “Preliminary Report on Archaeological Fieldwork at Sikait (Eastern Desert of Egypt)
and Environs in 2002–2003,” Sahara 15 (2004): 7–30; Harrell and Bloxam, “Egypt’s Evening
Emerald,” 16–19
80 D Collon, “The Green Jasper Cylinder Seal Workshop,” in Insight Through Images:
Studies in Honor of Edith Porada, ed M Kelly-Buccellati (Malibu, CA: Undena, 1986), 57–70;
J Boardman, “Scarabs and Seals: Greek, Punic and Related Types,” in Tharros: A Catalogue of
Material in the British Museum from Phoenician and Other Tombs at Tharros, Sardinia, ed R D Bar-
nett and C Mendleson (London: British Museum, 1987), 99–100; A D Baynes and M Bimson,
“Scarabs and Seals: Scientiic Examination,” in Tharros: A Catalogue of Material in the British
Museum from Phoenician and Other Tombs at Tharros, Sardinia, ed R D Barnett and C Mendle-
son (London: British Museum, 1987), 106–7; Boardman, “The Lyre Player Group of Seals: An
Encore”; idem, “Classical Phoenician Scarabs,” 3, 6
antiquity If sōḥāreṯ is green jasper, as seems likely, then bāreqeṯ is probably

serpentinite It is perhaps not a coincidence that Egyptian serpentinite is
commonly yellowish-green like olivine, although the former is opaque and
the latter transparent If bāreqeṯ is yellowish-green serpentinite, then this
suggests that the Ptolemaic berget refers to olivine rather than green beryl
Because of their similar colors, serpentinite and olivine have even been con-
fused by archaeologists 81
Proposed Identiication. A greenish stone, probably serpentinite but pos-
sibly green jasper
ְ ‫נֹפּ‬, nōpeḵ
4. ‫ֶך‬
Philological Discussion. In addition to the appearance of nōpeḵ in Exod 28:18,
39:11, and Ezek 28:13, it is mentioned in Ezek 27:16 among other gems and
luxury items traded between Edom 82 and Israel, and in Isa 54:11 as the
variant pûḵ, where it is a foundation stone More than 60 years ago, Thomas
Lambdin conclusively demonstrated the linguistic correlation between He-
brew nōpeḵ and Egyptian mf kꜢt 83 Early on, some thought it might include
malachite, but its application solely to turquoise was recognized by Victor
Loret early in the 20th century, 84 and this identitication has been univer-
sally accepted ever since 85 Further, Thomas Lambdin showed that by irst
millennium BC vocalization of this word had shifted (as relected in Assyr-
ian texts) to pûḵ, meaning that nōpeḵ came into the Hebrew language at an
earlier (probably second millennium) date 86
Returning to Ezek 27:16, the Edomites may have been miners in the 7th
and 6th centuries BC, or were “middlemen” as they controlled the “King’s
Highway,” the important north-south overland trade route from Aqaba to
Damascus Since Sinai was the source of turquoise, the role of Edom in its
distribution in the Levant makes sense Note that turquoise is only rarely
found in Egypt and the Levant during the Iron Age Turquoise was scarce in
the irst millennium BC because Egyptian mining operations at Serabit el-
Khadim and nearby Maghara, the main sources of turquoise in Sinai, ceased
in the 20th Dynasty (1186–1069 BC) Ramesses VI (1143–1136 BC) is the last
Pharaoh whose name appears at Serabit el Khadim 87
81 For example, serpentinite beads, which were common in Egypt’s Predynastic period,
are commonly misidentiied as olivine in museum collections such as the one in the Petrie
Museum of Egyptian Archaeology (London)
82 ‫( ארם‬Aram) is probably a defective writing for ‫( אדם‬Edom) based on the LXX reading
Misreading ‫ ד‬for ‫ ר‬and vice versa, was a common scribal error That Edom should be involved
in trade of turquoise between Sinai and Israel makes geographical sense, see J K Hofmeier,
Ancient Israel in Sinai (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 168
83 Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” 152 See the following to il-
lustrate the widespread acceptance of this identiication: HALOT, 709 Muchiki, Egyptian Proper
Names and Loanwords, 251 Hofmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai, 216
84 V Loret, “La turquoise chez les ancients Égyptiens,” Kêmi 1 (1928): 99–114
85 WÄS 2:56 Gardiner and Peet, The Inscriptions of Sinai II, 3–11 Harris, Lexicographical
Studies, 106–10
86 Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” 152
87 Gardiner and Peet, The Inscriptions of Sinai 2:196
Archaeological and Geological Discussion The Serabit el-Khadim and

Gebel Maghara mines were the main sources of turquoise for Egypt (and
probably for the Levant) 88 The other major source of turquoise for the Near
East was distant Iran, 89 suggesting that most if not all the turquoise found
in the Levant came from the nearby Sinai Peninsula Turquoise mining in
Egypt goes back to the Early Dynastic period but after the 12th century BC
there is only limited evidence for mining activities in Sinai 90 This is re-
lected in the small amounts of turquoise among the gems found in the royal
tombs at Tanis, which date to the 11th through 8th centuries BC 91
Proposed Identiication. Deinitely turquoise
5. ‫ס ִַפּיר‬, sappîr
Philological Discussion This is one of the two most frequently appearing

gemstones in the OT (along with šōham), with instances in a wide range of
types of Hebrew literature (e g , Exod 24:10; 28:18; 39:11; Job 28:6, 16; Song
5:14; Isa 54:11; Lam 4:7; Ezek 1:26; 10:1; 28:13) The LXX simply transliter-
ated the Hebrew word as σάπφειροϛ, sappheiros Most English translations,
in turn, followed suit, but rendering it incorrectly as sapphire (see table 1,
pp 46–47) To identify this with the gemstone sapphire (blue corundum)
is not possible, however, as the modern mineralogical deinition was only
made in recent centuries based on a misinterpretation of the Greco-Roman
sappheiros 92 Also, true sapphire was unknown in the Mediterranean region
prior to the late 1st century BC 93
It has been proposed that sappîr derives from the Sanskrit saniprīya for
“slowly moving Saturn,” 94 but how this sheds light on the gem’s identity is
unclear If sappîr is a loanword from south-central Asia, a Semitic or Egyp-
tian root will not be found While the word sappîr may not help with iden-
tifying the stone behind the word, several descriptions of it in the OT are
88 W M F Petrie, Researches in Sinai (London: Murray, 1906), 34–193; R Weill, La

Presqu’ile du Sinai: Étude de Géographie et d’Histoire, Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études
(Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, 1908), 144–83; Lucas Ancient Egyptian Materials and In-
dustries, 404–5; R Giveon, The Stones of Sinai Speak (Tokyo: Gakuseisha, 1978), 55–135; and
M Chartier-Raymond, B Gratien, C Traunecker, and J -M Vincon, “Les sites miniers phar-
aoniques du Sud-Sinaï: quelques notes et observations de terrain,” Cashiers de Recherche de
l’Institut de Papyrologie et Egyptologie de Lille 16 (1994): 31–80; B Aston, J Harrell, and I Shaw,
“Stone,” in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, ed P T Nicholson and I Shaw (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 62–63
89 E Gubelin, “A Visit to the Ancient Turquoise Mines in Iran,” Gems and Gemology 12/1
(1966): 3–13; M Manutchehr-Danai, “On the Turquoise Deposits of Nishabur (N E Iran),”
Gems and Gemology 15 10 (1977): 315–19; P Bancroft, Gem and Crystal Treasures (Fallbrook: West-
ern Enterprises and Mineralogical Record, 1984), 285–88
90 G Mumford and S Parcak, “Pharaonic Ventures into South Sinai: El-Markha Plain
Site 346,” JEA 89 (2003): 86
91 Aldred, Jewels of the Pharaohs, igs 98–108
92 Harrell, “Old Testament Gemstones,” 159
93 Personal communications from two archaeogemologists, Lisbet Thoresen (formerly
with the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles) and Jefrey Spier (University of Arizona, Tucson)
94 HALOT 764
suggestive of lapis lazuli (table 2, p 49) 95 Job 28:6 mentions sappîr and “dust
of gold” together In Exod 24:10 the elders of Israel witness the God of Israel,
but a barrier separates them from a direct line of vision That barrier is de-
scribed “as it were a pavement of sappîr, like the very heaven for clearness ” 96
Sappîr is described as ‫( טֹהַר‬Exod 24:10), which many English translations
render as “clearness” (KJV, ESV, NRSV) or “clear” (NASB, NEB), but the
primary meaning of ṭōhar is “pure” 97 (so JB’s translation) It also can mean
“sparkle ” 98 The meaning “sparkle” nicely describes lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli is a rock consisting of dark blue lazurite with minute golden
specks of pyrite and white patches or veins of calcite 99 This understanding
of lapis lazuli might stand behind the description of the barrier looking
like the sky, the gold-like particles resembling stars in a dark-blue celestial
canopy and the white patches looking like clouds Two of the Ezekiel refer-
ences (cf 1:26; 10:1) echo Exod 24:10 in likening the night sky to sappîr
The Akkadian word for lapis lazuli is uqnû, and iqnû at Ugarit, 100 and
these appear to derive from the word uqnâtu for “blue ” This suggests that
like Hebrew sappîr, the Akkadian term was descriptive The Egyptian word
for lapis lazuli was ḫsbḏ 101 and if the two syllables of ḫsbḏ are reversed, bdḫs,
it looks similar to Badakhshan (in Afghanistan), the only known ancient
source of lapis lazuli 102 This transposition or metathesis of two syllables is
not an uncommon linguistic phenomenon with loanwords in order to allow
for a more comfortable vocalizing of a word in the receptor’s language The
words sappîr and uqnû/iqnû appear to in some way be descriptive of the ap-
pearance of lapis, whereas the Egyptian term ḫsbḏ might relect the place
of its origin
Archaeological and Geological Discussion The source of lapis lazuli
for the Near East and Egypt was the Badakhshan area in northeastern
Afghanistan, 103 indicating that a long and complex trade route existed to
bring this precious stone to Egypt and other points along the way Even
today, Afghanistan supplies a signiicant portion of the world’s lapis lazuli
for jewelry
95 Further on the identiication of sappîr as lapis lazuli, see Quiring, “Die Edelsteine im
Amtsschild des jüdischen Hohenpriesters und die Herkunft ihrer Namen,” 200–202
96 This is the ESV translation, but the word sappîr is written in place its transliteration,
“sapphire ”
97 HALOT 369
98 Houtman, Exodus, 293
99 Aston, Harrell, and Shaw, “Stone,” 39; Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials, 398–99
100 Uqnû: CAD U/W, 195–96; Z Cochavi-Rainey, Royal Gifts in the Late Bronze Age, Four-
teenth to Thirteenth Centuries b.c.e. (Beer-Sheva: Ben Gurion University Press, 1999), 232 Iqnû:
HALOT 764
101 WÄS 3:334; Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 124–26
102 Ibid , 125
103 Aston, Harrell, and Shaw, “Stone,” 39 See also G Herrmann, “Lapis Lazuli: The
Early Phases of its Trade,” Iraq 30 (1968): 21–57; and J Wyart, P Bariand and J Filippi, “Lapis
Lazuli from Sar-E-Sang, Badakhshan, Afghanistan,” Gems and Gemology 17/4 (1981): 184–90;
G Herrmann and P R S Moorey, “Lapis Lazuli,” in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasi-
atischen Archäologie 6 (1980–83), 489–92
This gemstone was transported to Egypt as early as Predynastic times

and continued to be used in jewelry, scarabs, amulets and various inlays
throughout the Pharaonic period 104 In the Late Bronze Age, lapis lazuli
is included in the lists of tribute coming from Assur to Thutmose III, “ine
lapis lazuli of Babylon ” 105 The Egyptian court of Akhenaten and Tutankha-
mun (1353–1327 BC) received gifts of lapis lazuli from king Burra Buriyash
of Babylon according to four Amarna Letters (EA 7, 8, 9 and 10) 106 The As-
syrian Asshur-uballit likewise included lapis lazuli in his gifts to Pharaoh
(EA 15 and 16) and speciically mentions a “seal of genuine lapis lazuli ” 107
The tomb of Tutankhamun revealed numerous pieces of elegant jewelry
that used lapis lazuli, including the famous golden burial mask 108Among
the royal jewelry found at Tanis from the later second and early irst millen-
nia b c , lapis lazuli is present
Proposed Identiication Deinitely lapis lazuli
6. ‫יָהֲלֹם‬, yāhălōm
Philological Discussion Yāhălōm appears only in connection with the priest’s

breastplate (Exod 28:18, 39:11) and the prince of Tyre’s canopy (Ezek 28:13)
Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner declared the etymology of
yāhălōm to be uncertain, 109 and neither of the texts ofer any description of
the stone This uncertainty no doubt explains why there is no consensus on
translations (see table 1) 110 In the absence of any description of yāhălōm, we
are left with the word itself to ofer clues as to its possible identity
‫יָהֲלֹם‬, yāhălōm, may be the imperfect or yiqtol form of the root ‫ הלם‬Hlm
is attested in Ugaritic and means “to strike” or “to beat” and has the same
meaning in Hebrew 111 Some commentators have recognized this as a clue
to yāhălōm’s identity 112 In Isa 41:7, hlm is used to refer to the activity of a
craftsman hammering metal on an anvil The action of hammering might
suggest that yāhălōm is something either pounded or struck, or used to do
the striking
Except for the implied hardness, there is nothing to connect this notion
of yāhălōm with its longstanding translation as “diamond” (table 1); yāhălōm
is the word for “diamond” in modern Hebrew Diamonds, however, were
unknown in the Near East prior to the Roman period
104 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technologies, 398–99; J C Payne, “Lapis Lazuli
in Early Egypt,” Iraq 30 (1968): 58–61; L Bavay, “Matière première et commerce à longue dis-
tance: Le lapis-lazuli et l’Égypte prédynastique,” Archéo-Nil 7 (1997): 79–100
105 K Sethe, Urkunden Der 18. Dynastie IV (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1961), 668 13
106 W Moran , The Amarna Letters (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992),
13, 16–19
107 Ibid , 13, 16–19
108 N Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun (London: Thames & Hudson, 1995), 111–15,
150–54; Aldred, Jewels of the Pharaohs, igs 62–81
109 HALOT 397
110 Harris, “The Stones of the High Priest’s Breastplate,” 53
111 HALOT 249
112 Harris, “The Stones of the High Priest’s Breastplate,” 53; Propp, Exodus 19–40, 440
Another possible connection to striking is that the pounding of sand

is the irst step in making faience, a glazed quartz frit used in Egypt for
amulets, beads, and jewelry as early as the late fourth millennium 113 It
seems doubtful, however, that the manufacturing of faience is in view
here Indeed, the Egyptian word for faience, ṯḥn.t, also means “gleam” or
“radiant” 114 and thus points to its appearance, not how it was made One
might think that, if faience were intended for yāhălōm, the Hebrew name
might relect its glistening feature, or more likely, would have been an
Egyptian loanword
A diferent explanation was ofered by Heinrich Quiring, namely to
connect yāhălōm to the gemstone known in Akkadian as ḫulālu, 115 which
is found in cuneiform texts as early as the Ur III period (late third millen-
nium BC) 116 and is mentioned numerous times in the dowry inventory of
king Tushratta of Mitanni in an Amarna Letter, EA 25 117 Akkadian ḫulālu is
described as set in gold and is often coupled with lapis lazuli in jewelry, and
speciically both are set in a gold crescent moon (EA 25, lines 11–12) The
description of this piece of jewelry led Quiring to think that the stone has a
milky white color, possibly moonstone (Mondstein) 118 This understanding
of yāhălōm has gained some recongition among OT scholars, 119 and, indeed,
“moonstone” is the translation in the NRSV
Linguistically, however, this correlation is problematic as the Akkadian
ḫ corresponds not to the Hebrew h but to ḥ This problem would appear to
preclude drawing a irm conclusion on associating yāhălōm and ḫulālu, and
yet it is noteworthy that ḫulālu and lapis lazuli frequently appear together
in the Amarna Letters, as does lapis lazuli and yāhălōm in the breast piece of
the high priest in Exod 28:18 and 39:11 where they occupy the 5th and 6th
positions, respectively Thus while the linguistic correspondence between
the Akkadian and Hebrew term militates their relationship, the alternative
is to connect yāhălōm with the striking action that results in sparks
Archaeological and Geological Discussion In antiquity, a common pro-
cedure for starting ires was to strike quartz against pyrite (natural iron
sulide) or manufactured iron with the resulting cascade of sparks directed
to the wood tinder Any variety of quartz (but not diamond) will work,
but perhaps the common milky quartz is meant by yāhălōm because of its
113 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technologies, 156–57

114 WÄS 5:390–92
115 Quiring, “Die Edelsteine im Amtsschild des jüdischen Hohenpriesters und die
Herkunft ihrer Namen,” 202
116 CAD Ḫ, 226–27
117 For the text, see Moran, The Amarna Letters, 72–81 See further J N Postgate “Mes-
opotamian Petrology: Stages in the Classiication of the Material World,” Cambridge Archaeo-
logical Journal 7 (1997): 215–16
118 Suggested by Quiring, “Die Edelsteine im Amtsschild des jüdischen Hohenpriesters
und die Herkunft ihrer Namen,” 202
119 Andrew Hill, “‫יָהֲלֹם‬,” in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and
Exegesis, ed W Van Gemeren, vol 2 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 1997), 418 See translation in
the recent commentary of Duane A Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus (Grand Rapids: Kregel,
2014), 582
moon-like whiteness Notable deposits of this quartz variety are found near
Dimona in Israel’s Negev Desert 120 Although milky quartz was occasion-
ally used for seals in the Levant, so too were two other white to pale gray
materials: calcite and chalcedony (table 3, pp 50–52) Of these, the much
harder chalcedony was the more popular and precious, in Mesopotamia
at least, and often has a moon-like bluish-white color as in the sappharine
variety 121 It is also a variety of quartz and so could be used to strike sparks
from iron Chalcedony of this color has been reported from geodes near
ad-Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, and in the Dhofar area of south-
western Oman 122 It also appears as volcanic amygdales on the island of
Cyprus 123 and as veins in Egypt’s ancient chalcedony mine at Stela Ridge
in the Nubian Desert, although this mine predates the Late Bronze Age 124
Moonstone (a subvariety of potassium feldspar), was unknown in the Med-
iterranean world prior to the Roman period, and thus is not a possibility
Proposed Identiication. Probably a whitish or pale gray stone, perhaps
either milky quartz or sapphirine chalcedony
7. ‫ֶשׁם‬
ֶ ‫ל‬, lešem
Philological Discussion. An Egyptian etymology for this word is certain

Nšm(t) is widely believed to be the Egyptian word behind Hebrew lešem, 125
a gemstone which is found only in Exod 28:19 and 39:12 The linguistic shift
between the Egyptian nun and Hebrew lamed is found in a number of cases
because in some instances the Egyptian /n/ was actually vocalized with a /l/
sound 126
Nšm(t) is mentioned on a pair of stelae (nos 182 and 200) from Serabit
el-Khadim (Sinai) belonging to Hatshepsut and Thutmose III (1479–1425
bc) 127 In the former it refers to transporting precious objects back to Egypt:
“they brought away every product of [this] foreign land, turquoise [in great
quantity], lapis lazuli [of Asia], 128 malachite, green felspar (nšm(t)), copper
(?), in abundance all the wonders of this foreign land which her majesty
trod (?) ” 129 Even though this statement is found in Sinai, it does not mean
120 Online: http://www mindat org/loc-191489 html

121 Note Postgate “Mesopotamian Petrology,” 215–16 who also says “chalcedony ”
122 J J Matzko and J Mohammed Naqui, “Geodes from Saudi Arabia,” The Lapidary
Journal 37/8 (1983): 1145–46; M H Clarke, Oman’s Geological Heritage (London: Stacey, 1990),
188–89
123 L M Bear, The Mineral Resources and Mining Industry of Cyprus (Nicosia: Geological
Survey Department, 1963), 182
124 Harrell, “Gemstones,” table 1
125 Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” 152; Muchiki, Egyptian
Proper Names and Loanwords, 248; HALOT 537
126 For examples, see J Cerny, Coptic Egyptomological Dictionary (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1976), 69–76
127 A H Gardiner, T E Peet, and J Cerny, The Inscriptions of Sinai I (London: Oxford
University Press, 1955) nos 182 and 200; translation in The Inscriptions of Sinai, 2:153–54 and 162
128 Gardiner, Peet and Cerny, The Inscriptions of Sinai, 2:154
129 The term stt is preserved in no 200, Gardiner, Peet, and Cerny, The Inscriptions of
Sinai, 2:162
that this region was the source of all these precious items For example, in
this statement Hatshepsut speciically refers to “lapis lazuli of Asia (stt),”
which would have come from Afghanistan This datum suggests that some
of the gems transported from Sinai (apart from turquoise and malachite)
could have been received by the Egyptian agents in Sinai via trade
Book of the Dead (ca 1500–1300 BC) spells 159 and 160 deal with the
placement and activation of a papyrus column amulet, which is actually de-
picted, but not colored (BM 10098/11) 130 The term for the papyrus column
or scepter ( ) amulet is wꜢḏ, the basic meaning of which is “green,” like the
papyrus plant 131 Then too the wood of a Sycamore tree is likened to nšm(t)
in a late New Kingdom (1550–1296 BC) love poem in Turin 132 Based on
these and other texts, J R Harris concluded that “there is nothing to suggest
that nšm(t) was other than green in colour, and its use for the green papyrus
scepter shows that it was undoubtedly green felspar [feldspar] ” 133
Archaeological and Geological Discussion: Green feldspar, or amazonite
as it is commonly called, was popular in Egyptian jewelry from the Middle
Kingdom (2000–1786 BC) until the Third Intermediate Period (1069–525 BC)
and is particularly used for amulets, inlays and beads in Tutankhamun’s
tomb 134 Surviving -amulets, like the one mentioned in Book of the Dead,
are green and commonly made of amazonite 135 Amazonite deposits are
known from numerous localities in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, with New King-
dom (1550–1295 BC) mines at two of these (at Gebel Migif and Wadi Abu
Muawad), and in west-central Saudi Arabia in Wadi al-Kharar 136
Proposed Identiication. A greenish stone, probably amazonite
8. ֹ‫שׁב‬,
ְ šĕḇô
Philological Discussion: Like the preceding, this gemstone occurs only on the
priestly breastplate (Exod 28:19 and 39:12) Šĕḇô is a loanword into Akka-
dian from Sumerian šubû 137 Based on the analysis of a number of texts, the
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary proposed the meaning “agate.” 138 From cunei-
form sources is clear that šubû was used for jewelry, being mentioned along
130 For a picture of this plate, see R O Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
(London: British Museum, 1985), 154
131 Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 480
132 K A Kitchen, Poetry of Ancient Egypt (Jonsered: Åströms, 1999), 348–49
133 Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 116
134 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technologies, 394; D Ben-Tor, The Scarab: A Re-
flection of Ancient Egypt (Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1993) 40–41; Andrews, Ancient Egyptian
Jewelry, 41–42; Aston, Harrell and Shaw, Stones, 45–46
135 W M F Petrie, Amulets (London: Constable, 1914), 12 and pl 2, 20c–f; Andrews,
Ancient Egyptian Jewelry, 81–82
136 Harrell and Osman, “Ancient Amazonite Mines in the Eastern Desert,” 26–28;
R Klemm and D Klemm, Gold and Gold Mining in Ancient Egypt and Nubia (Berlin: Springer,
2013), 173; P Collenette and D J Grainger, Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia Not Including Oil,
Natural Gas, and Sulfur, Directorate General of Mineral Resources Special Publication SP-2
(Jiddah: Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, 1994), 78–79
137 HALOT, 1383
138 CAD Š/3, 186
with lapis lazuli in the goddess Ishtar’s jewels, and is said to be shiny Šubû
was also used for cylinder seals and set in rings 139 The fact that seals were
made out of this stone indicates that one could engrave it with motifs and
writing as would be the case with the gemstones in the high priest’s breast-
plate (Exod 28:21) 140
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Varieties of translucent, micro-
crystalline quartz are among the most common gemstones used for seals
and jewelry in Mesopotamia, 141 and the most popular of these for seals in
the Levant was banded agate (table 3)
Proposed Identiication: Probably microcrystalline quartz and most likely
banded agate
9. ‫א ְַח ָלמָה‬, ʾaḥlāmâ

Philological Discussion. ʾAḥlāmâ appears only in association with the priestly
breastplate (Exod 28:19 and 39:12) Behind this Hebrew word is the Egyp-
tian term ḫnm(t), the name for red jasper, as has been long recognized 142 and
widely accepted 143 The same linguistic shift noted with lšm and nšm(t) is
in play here In the tomb of Huy, the Viceroy of Cush during the reign of
Tutankhamun, Nubians are depicted presenting baskets of gold and ḫnm(t)
as tribute from Cush to the Viceroy 144 The pieces of ḫnm(t) in this scene are
painted a reddish-orange color Then too, the above cited Turin love poem
describes the igs of the sycamore as “redder than ḫnm(t) ” 145 Based on these
texts, ʾaḥlāmâ had a red to orange hue, which led J R Harris and others to
propose that it is red jasper, 146 which seems plausible to us
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Veins of red jasper are com-
monly found in metavolcanic rocks in the deserts east of the Nile River in
Egypt and northern Sudan 147 No ancient mines are known but these depos-
its were surely the source of one of ancient Egypt’s most popular gemstones
There is, however, another deposit of red jasper much closer to the Levant
139 CAD Š/3, 185–86

140 Postgate “Mesopotamian Petrology,” 215
141 Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries, 99–100.
142 König, Hebräisches und aramäisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament, 13; WÄS 3:294
143 Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” 147; HALOT 34; Muchiki,
Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 238–39; Hofmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai, 218
144 N Davies and A Gardiner, The Tomb of Ḥuy (London: Egypt Exploration Society,
1926), 27
145 Kitchen, Poetry of Ancient Egypt, 348–49
146 Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 124 HALOT 34; Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and
Loanwords, 238–39
147 T Barron and W F Hume, Topography and Geology of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, Central
Portion (Cairo: Survey Department, 1902), 221, 261 and 266; W F Hume, Geology of Egypt, vol
2, part 3, 862; P K Sims and H L James, “Banded Iron-Formations of Late Proterozoic Age in
the Central Eastern Desert, Egypt,” Economic Geology and the Bulletin of the Society of Economic
Geologists 79/9 (1984): 1777–84; S M Aly and I A Salem, “Mineralogy and Chemistry of Jasper
from Um Ghamis and El-Dabbah Metamorphic Iron Deposits, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt,”
Annals of the Geological Survey of Egypt 15 (1985): 223–32; K A Soliman and A A Barakat, “New
Jasper Deposit in the Eastern Desert,” Annals of the Geological Survey of Egypt 27 (2004): 599–604
in northwestern Saudi Arabia 148 Although no mine has been reported, the
jasper-bearing geodes are up to 1 3 m across and accumulate naturally on
the ground surface, and so would not have gone unnoticed in antiquity
Also in Saudi Arabia, red jasper veins like those in Egypt and Sudan have
been reported near Tabuk, just east of the Gulf of Aqaba 149
Proposed Identiication. A reddish stone, probably red jasper
10. ‫שׁישׁ‬
ִ ‫ַּ ְר‬, taršîš
Philological Discussion. It is diicult not to connect this gem in the priestly
breastplate (Exod 28:20, 39:13) and the prince of Tyre’s royal booth (Ezek
28:13) with the geographical location of the same name Taršîš (or Tarshish),
as the historical geographer Simons recognized, was “reached only by sea
and was far away ” 150 Tartessos in southwestern Spain has been one of the
favored locations for Taršîš, although Carthage in North Africa and another
Carthage in Spain have also been proposed 151 William Foxwell Albright
favored a location in Sardinia 152 In recent years, several scholars have pro-
posed equating taršîš with Tarsus in Cilicia (southern Turkey), 153 but this
placement north of Israel does not seem to it the more distant and westerly
location suggested by the biblical data This point has been strongly made in
a recent study of the location of Taršîš by John Day, who shows that it was a
location west of Cyprus and Greece 154 He argues convincingly that Tartes-
sos in Spain remains the best candidate for Taršîš of the OT
The etymology of taršîš is not settled, but a possible root is from the
Akkadian rašāšu, which means “glow” and is applied to metals when be-
ing smelted, 155 hence the suggested meaning “to smelt” and perhaps
“reinery ” 156 Because Tartessos was renowned for its mines, especially sil-
ver and tin, the Hebrew taršîš could have originated from the smelting ac-
tivities that occurred there The Phoenicians traded with Tartessos at least
148 Matzko and Naqui, “Geodes from Saudi Arabia ”

149 Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia: A
Guide for Investment and Development (Jiddah: Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources,
Directorate General of Mineral Resources, 1965), 31
150 J Simons, “ ‘The Table of the Nations’—Genesis 10: Its General Structure and Mean-
ing,” Oudtestamentische Studiën 10 (1954): 178
151 D W Baker, “Tarshish,” ABD 6:332–33; A Rainey, The Sacred Bridge (Jerusalem:
Carta, 2006), 28
152 W F Albright, “The Role of the Canaanites in the History of Civilization,” in The Bible
and the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of William Foxwell Albright, ed G E Wright (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961), 347 and 360 n 96
153 A van der Kooij, The Oracle of Tyre: The Septuagint of Isaiah XXIII as Version and Vision,
VTSup 71 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 40–47; A Lemaire, “Tarshish-Tarsis: problème de topographie
historique biblique et assyrienne,” in Studies in Historical Geogrpahy and Biblical Historiography
Presented to Zecharia Kallai, ed G Galil and M Weinfeld, VT Sup 81 (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 44–62
154 J Day, “Where Was Tarshish?” in Let Us Go Up to Zion: Essays in Honour of H. G. M.
Williamson on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed I Provan and M Boda (Leiden: Brill,
2012), 360–69
155 CAD R, 191
156 Albright, “The Role of the Canaanites in the History of Civilization,” 347 and 360
n 96 ; Baker, “Tarshish,” 332
as early as the 9th century BC, 157 and its products would certainly have
been known to Iron Age Hebrews
There are other references in the OT that may shed additional light on
taršîš It appears in connection with Ezekiel’s visions in which he sees the
glory of God (Ezek 1:16 and 10:9) In both instances, the gem is set in the
wheels of the mobile throne Ezek 1:16 reads ‫שׁישׁ‬ ִ ‫ּעֵין ַּ ְר‬, ְ lit , “like an eye of
taršîš,” while in 10:9 it reads ‫שׁישׁ‬ ְ lit , “like a stone eye of taršîš ”
ִ ‫ּעֵין ֶאבֶן ַּ ְר‬,
The use of “eye” is understood iguratively, and thought to mean sparkle
or gleam, 158 following the suggestion of P Auvray that it means “sparkling
lights ” 159 In Dan 10:6, taršîš is used to describe a gleaming angelic igure
that appears in visions: “His body was like taršîš, his face like the appear-
ance of lightning, his eyes like laming torches, his arms and legs like the
gleam of burnished bronze ” These several references having to with smelt-
ing and gleaming led John Wevers to suggest that the material in question
was yellowish in color 160 Cyrus Gordon thought that taršîš might be “yel-
low jasper or other gold-colored stone ” 161 The references to smelting and
gleaming, however, might mean that taršiš has a metallic sheen Although
some Levantine seals were made of bronze, which when polished can have
a yellowish hue, taršîš cannot refer to this metal as ‫שׁת‬ ֶ ֹ ‫נְח‬, nĕḥōšeṯ, is the stan-
dard term for (copper) bronze in the Hebrew Bible
Signiicantly, one of the LXX’s gemstones in both the breastplate and
canopy is λιγύριον, ligyrion, which is deinitely amber 162 Because there is no
consistent correspondence between the gemstones in the parallel passages
of the LXX and MT, we cannot be certain that ligyrion is replacing taršîš, but
this is likely the case The evidence is that, whereas taršîš does not appear
among the gemstones in the LXX’s breastplate and canopy, which are the
only places ligyrion occurs in the LXX, taršîš and its Greek transliteration,
θαρσις, tharsis, do appear, respectively, in the MT’s and LXX’s Dan 10:6,
Ezek 1:16, and Song 5:14 This suggests that the MT’s taršîš was replaced by
λιγυριον in the LXX’s Exod 28:20 and 36:19, and Ezek 28:13
Archaeological and Geological Discussion Although the Iberian Peninsula
is rich in minerals and metals of many kinds, no gemstones are known to
have been traded from there by the Phoenicians or anyone else during the
Late Bronze and Iron Ages The Phoenicians had many colonies and other
settlements scattered throughout southern Spain, 163 although most of these
were concentrated in the Tartessos region Conceivably, the Hebrew taršîš
157 E Lipiński, “The Phoenicians,” in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, ed J M Sas-
son, vol 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), 1322–24
158 D Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1–24 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 100
159 P Auvray, “Sur le sens du mot ʿayin en Ez I, 18 et X, 12,” Vetus Testamentum 4 (1954):
1–6
160 Wevers, Ezekiel, 46
161 C Gordon, “Tarshish,” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol 4 (Nashville:
Abingdon, 1962), 517
162 Harrell, “Old Testament Gemstones,” 156–58
163 Map in ig 13 of A J Dominguez, “Greeks in the Iberian Peninsula,” in Greek Coloni-
sation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas, ed G R Tsetskhladze, vol 1
(Leiden: Brill, 2006), 429–505
toponym referred more generally to the Iberian Peninsula rather than spe-
ciically to Tartessos, and if true, this allows the possibility that the taršîš
stone came from another part of the Spanish coast and perhaps its continu-
ation into France The famous “Spanish topaz” is not the mineral topaz at all
but rather citrine, that is, yellow quartz It was not used prior to the Roman
period and so need not concern us here
If taršîš is truly a yellowish stone that was traded by the Phoenicians
then maybe it was amber, which is often yellowish in color and, signii-
cantly, gives of sparkling electrical discharges when rubbed with a wool
cloth It is well documented that Baltic amber was traded to all parts of
southern Europe at least as early as the Bronze Age and would have been
a commodity available to the Phoenicians in western Mediterranean ports 164
Deposits of amber also appear in northern Israel (in the Naftali Mountains),
western Syria (at Mount Hermon), and southern Lebanon (in the Jezzine
district) as well as further north in the Lebanon Mountains, but no ancient
mines have been reported from any of these localities 165 It varies in color
from light to dark yellow, orange, brown, and red Although gem-quality
material can sometimes be found, the Levantine amber usually appears
in pieces both smaller and softer than Baltic amber, which consequently
would have been the more prized material Amber is too fragile to be used
for seals, but it was occasionally employed for jewelry in the Levant (table
3, pp 50–52) and so was deinitely known to the early Hebrews
If taršîš has a metallic sheen, rather than a yellowish color, as seems
more likely, then it may be hematite This mineral was widely employed in
the Levant for seals and is the only stone in table 3 that possesses a metallic
luster Although there is a well-known ancient mine for hematite at Mu-
gharet el-Wardeh northwest of Amman (in biblical Ammon), 166 the hema-
tite could also have come from Spain This country has numerous hematite
deposits, with many of them near the Mediterranean coast, 167 and northern
Spain is said to be a source of hematite used in modern jewelry 168
Earlier, we concluded that piṭḏâ is probably the submetallic variety of
hematite If this is correct, then taršîš could be the fully metallic (specular)
variety of this mineral Specularite, however, was rarely used in the Levant
and so its identiication with taršîš, one of the most frequently mentioned
biblical gems, is not convincing Given its distant western source and appar-
ent equivalence with the LXX’s ligyrion, it is more likely that taršîš is amber
Proposed Identiication. Probably amber, but possibly the specularite va-
riety of hematite
164 P C Rice, Amber: The Golden Gem of the Ages (New York: Reinhold, 1980), 4–11, 27–51
165 A Nissenbaum, “Lower Cretaceous Amber From Israel,” Naturwissenschaften 62
(1975): 341–42; J M Munro, “Amber Forever,” Saudi Aramco World 32/6 (1981): 32–36; G Poinar
and R Milki, Lebanese Amber: The Oldest Insect Ecosystem in Fossilized Resin (Corvallis: Oregon
State University Press, 2001)
166 Coughenour, “Preliminary Report on the Exploration and Excavation of Mugharat
el Wardeh and Abu Thawab ”
167 Online: http://www mindat org/min-1856 html
168 O C Farrington, Gems and Gem Minerals (Chicago: Mumford, 1903), 188
11. ‫שֹׁהַם‬, šōham

Philological Discussion. Of the 12 examples of šōham, 7 are found in connec-
tion with the priestly breastplate Two šōham stones were to be placed on
the shoulder clasps to which the golden chains were attached (Exod 25:7;
28:9; 35:9; 35:27 and 39:6), and these in turn held the pectoral that included
another šōham-stone (Exod 28:20 and 39:13) The šōham-stones in the clasps
were engraved with the names of six tribes on one and six on the other
(Exod 28:9–10 and 39:6–7) This factor suggests that šōham was available in
sizes large enough accommodate so many names, but most of the stones in
table 3 come in suiciently large sizes to allow this treatment The 12 refer-
ences to šōham in the Hebrew Bible must mean that it was either a widely
available stone or an especially popular stone Job 28:16 speaks of “precious
šōham and sappîr,” and so the former must be a highly valued stone to be
compared to lapis lazuli from distant Afghanistan
In addition to the prince of Tyre’s canopy (Ezek 28:13), šōham is also
found in 1 Chr 29:2 as one of the stones decorating the irst temple, and
again in a description of the primeval lands surrounding Eden and the four
rivers associated with it (Gen 2:10–14) The irst river, the Pishon, lowed
through “the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold And the gold of
that land is good; bĕdōlaḥ and šōham are there” (Gen 2:11–12) This geo-
graphical notice is signiicant because this toponym has a number of other
appearances in the OT (Gen 10:7, 29; 25:18; 1 Sam 15:7 and 1 Chr 1:9, 23)
and is generally identiied with northern Arabia 169 Behind the Hebrew
term šōham is Akkadian (known from the Old Babylonian Period onward)
sāmtu(m)/sūmu(m), meaning “redness” and “red glow of dawn,” 170 and the
forms of the word siāmu(m)/sâmu meaning “to be (become) red, brown ” 171
In Ugaritic, it is applied to a red stone, thought to be carnelian, but in par-
ticular with a purple or violet hue 172
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. If šōham has a purplish hue, it
cannot be carnelian as this gem never exhibits this kind of coloration In any
case, ʾōḏem is almost certainly carnelian, and this gem clearly would not ap-
pear twice under diferent names in the breastplate and canopy Similarly,
red jasper, probably the Hebrew ʾaḥlāmâ, cannot be meant here The purple
amethyst immediately suggests itself This was one of the more precious
gemstones used for Levantine seals and jewelry The translation of šōham as
amethyst would be better supported, however, if the Akkadian sāmtu(m)/
sūmu(m) could also mean “purplish” or “purple glow of dawn ” 173 The fact
169 S Cohen, “Havilah,” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed G Buttrick, vol 2
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), 537; V Hamilton, The Book of Genesis Chapters 1–17 (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1990), 169; W W Müller, “Havilah (place),” ABD 3:382
170 CAD S, 131
171 CAD S, 132
172 G Del Olmo Lete and J Sanmartín, A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alpha-
betic Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 2:831 See also Postgate, “Mesopotamian Petrology,” 215–16
173 According to J Baines, “Color Terminology and Color Classiication: Ancient Egyp-
tian Terminology and Polychromy,” American Anthropologist 87/2 (1985): 282–97, the Sumerian
and Akkadian languages only had words for four basic colors: black, white, red, and grue (that
that šōham comes from the land of Havilah is also consistent with it being
amethyst because there is an amethyst deposit with “ancient,” but other-
wise undated, mine workings at An Nagab in west-central Saudi Arabia 174
Besides carnelian and red jasper, there is another reddish stone noted
in n 6 in table 3 (p 52), and this is sardonyx Some of what has been called
carnelian in the archaeological literature is actually sardonyx, but most of-
ten the latter is identiied simply as agate because of its conspicuous inter-
nal banding Carnelian and sardonyx usually appear together in the same
geologic deposits, and so it is likely that wherever carnelian was popular,
sardonyx was also in use Geologically, sardonyx is far more common than
carnelian and it is also one of the most widespread gemstones generally, and
so it would not be surprising if it were found in northern Arabia, although
we are not aware of any reports of it occurring there Its absence from re-
ports, however, is not meaningful because today sardonyx is considered of
little value as a gemstone and so it might well be omitted from geological
surveys of economic mineral resources
Flavius Josephus (AD 37–ca 94) indirectly supports identifying šōham
with sardonyx He describes the two ephods and breastplate in his Jewish
War (J.W. 5 233–34) and Jewish Antiquities (Ant. 3 165–68) In both accounts,
his lists of breastplate gemstones are identical to that in the LXX with one
minor exception: in place of the LXX’s sardion (almost certainly carnelian),
Josephus reports sardonyx in his “Jewish Antiquities,” where this is the same
stone as the modern sardonyx (see n 6 in table 3) 175 Also, the ephod stones
in both works are carved from sardonyx whereas in the LXX (Exod 28:9 and
36:13) these are smaragdos The order of the 12 breastplate gemstones difers
somewhat in both of his descriptions, and neither of these is the same as the
order given in the LXX Although Josephus cannot be entirely trusted on the
ephod and breastplate, it is notable that he recognized sardonyx as one of the
stones and clearly this is what he thought šōham was
Proposed Identiication. Probably either amethyst or the sardonyx vari-
ety of agate
12. ‫ָשׁפֵה‬
ְ ‫י‬, yāšpê
Philological Discussion. This gemstone is limited to the priestly breastplate
(Exod 28:20, 39:13) and the prince of Tyre’s canopy (Ezek 28:13) Thus, the
Bible ofers no further information about this stone and its appearance
Yāšpê is cognate with Akkadian jašpû (ašpû), where it appears in all pe-
riods 176 Notably, the Amarna letters of Tushratta, king of Mitanni, sent
jašpû to Amenhotep III of Egypt 177 Yašpê is thought by Assyriologists to be
some form of microcrystalline quartz and is described in Akkadian as “the
is, green/blue; see p 283) If this is correct, then what has been translated as “redness” and
“red glow of dawn” could just as well refer to purple, and this interpretation is supported by
the Ugaritic meaning (see previous note)
174 Collenette and Grainger, Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia, 79
176 CAD I–J, 328
177 Moran, The Amarna Letters, 56, IV 6
stone whose appearance is like the pure (faraway?) sky” and “like a storm
cloud ” 178 In Akkadian texts, jašpû (ašpû) is found in association with lapis
lazuli, and seals were made of this stone, which admirably its the function
of yāšpê in Exod 28 and 39 179
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Two kinds of microcrystalline
quartz, translucent agate and opaque jasper, sometimes exhibit multiple
colors as well as sky- or cloudlike patterns These stones would be visually
very diferent from the numerous subvarieties of microcrystalline quartz
identiied above and so might have been referred to by a diferent name
Proposed Identiication. Probably multicolored, patterned agate or jasper
Other Gemstones and Materials

1. ‫ְכֹכית‬
ִ ‫ז‬, zĕḵôḵît
Philological Discussion. This word appears only in Job 28:17 where “wis-
dom” is described as surpassing gold, silver and various gems The pre-
ceding verse reads “it (wisdom) cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in
precious šōham or sappîr” followed by “gold and zĕḵôḵît cannot equal it, nor
can it be exchanged for jewels of ine gold ” Although this word is a hapax le-
gomenon in the Hebrew Bible, its attestation in Akkadian ofers some clue as
to its meaning Zakakatu means “glass, glaze,” which is often blue 180 Zĕḵôḵît
becomes zgugitʾ in Jewish Aramaic and zegugita in Syriac and these also
mean glass 181 In the LXX, zĕḵôḵît is translated as χρυσιον (chrysion), which
equates with gold
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. The origin of glass remains a
subject of some debate While beads and tiny amulets are possibly known
in Predynastic Egypt, certainly by the 5th Dynasty (ca 2500–2350 BC) glass
was made in small amounts 182 By the 18th Dynasty (1550–1295 BC), large
amounts of high-quality glass were being produced in Egypt and exported
throughout the Near East 183 However, from the 11th century through
around 400 BC there was a notable reduction in glass output with a lower
standard of craftsmanship 184 Even so, because of its scarcity, the glass of
this period may have been highly valued Colors of glass from Egypt include
blue, black, green, red, white, and yellow, 185 and presumably similarly col-
ored glass was available in the Levant If manufactured glass is not intended
178 CAD I–J, 328

179 For seals made of jašpû, see ibid For yāšpê, see Postgate “Mesopotamian Petrology,”
208 and 215
180 HALOT 269; CAD Z, 124
181 HALOT 269
182 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 179
183 Ibid ; P T Nicholson and J Henderson, “Glass,” in Ancient Egyptian Materials and
Technologies, ed P T Nicholson and I Shaw (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000),
195–225
184 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 179; Nicholson and Henderson,
“Glass,” 196
185 Ben-Tor, The Scarab, 42
by zĕḵôḵît, then perhaps obsidian, a natural volcanic glass, is meant (table

3), although the high value put on this material in Job 28:17 would seem to
argue against this Glasslike rock crystal would also seem to be a possibility,
but this gemstone is probably qeraḥ or, less likely, gāḇîš
Proposed Identiication. Probably manufactured glass
ְ
2. ‫פּּך‬, pûḵ
Philological Discussion. Pûḵ appears twice in the context of building and
decorating the irst temple in 1 Chr 29:2, which is the postexilic telling of
David’s preparations for Solomon (1 Kings does not ofer a synoptic pas-
sage on the building materials gathered) The second usage of pûḵ is in Isa
54:11 where it apparently refers to a precious stone because it appears in
the context of the elegantly rebuilt Jerusalem Isa 54:11 reads: ‫ִהֵּה אָנ ִֹכי מ ְַר ִּיץ‬
ְ ִּ ‫ִך ִויס ְַד‬
‫יך ַּּ ִַפּ ִירים‬ ְ ‫א ָבנַי‬ ְ ַּ , “behold, I will set your stones in pûḵ, and lay your
ֲ ‫פּּך‬
foundations with sappîr.” This instance seems to view pûḵ as a kind of mor-
tar into which building stones were set 186 This account, however, cannot be
taken literally, as precious sappîr (lapis lazuli) certainly would not be used
as a foundation material and so nor should we think pûḵ was employed as
mortar, unless this statement should be understood metaphorically to de-
scribe the incredible opulence of the new Jerusalem The expected meaning
of pûḵ based on its use in 2 Kgs 9:30 and Jer 4:30 is as a material used for eye-
shadow (kohl) 187 Egyptian eyeshadow was almost always either ground
galena or malachite, and not antimony as occasionally claimed 188 In Isa
54:11, the parallel usage of pûḵ and sappîr suggests that they are both valu-
able stones
A further understanding of pûḵ was proposed by Lambdin, namely, that
it derives from the same root as mf kꜢ(t), the Egyptian term for turquoise 189
The writing pûḵ would result from the dropping of the M-preformative
used in nominalized forms of words in Egyptian and Semitic languages 190
In other words, f kꜢ would have been the root of the word from which mf kꜢ(t)
was derived Hebrew pûḵ may represent a irst-millennium writing of the
earlier word nōpeḵ for turquoise 191 or possibly both words were acceptable
variants for turquoise However, given that malachite was widely used for
eyeshadow and often appears in the same rocks as turquoise, and both are
copper-bearing minerals, it is quite possible that pûḵ in the Iron II period
refers to malachite, whereas nōpeḵ applies to turquoise
186 R N Whybray, Isaiah 40–66, NCB (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1975), 188
187 HALOT 918
188 Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 102–5, 174–76; Aston, Harrell, and Shaw, “Stones,”
43–44
189 Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” 152
190 J Hoch, Middle Egyptian Grammar (Mississauga: Benben, 1997), §192
191 This suggestion must account for the 6th century b c writings of nōpeḵ in Ezek
27:16 and 28:13 The latter reference is in the ruler of Tyre’s royal booth treated above, and as
argued there the list of gemstones in Ezek 28:13 was copied from the priestly breastplate in
Exod 28:17–20 and 39:10–13 The only other occurrence of nōpeḵ in the Hebrew Bible is in Ezek
27:16 where it appears along with a group of luxury items traded between Aram and Tyre It
may be that this writing simply follows the archaic form borrowed from the book of Exodus
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. For a discussion of turquoise,

see the treatment above for nōpeḵ It should be noted that in the Iron II pe-
riod turquoise rarely appears in the archaeological record of the Levant, and
thus may have even been more valuable than in the Late Bronze Age and
Iron I periods when mining operations in Sinai were more intensive than
in later centuries 192 Turquoise was never used for kohl, but the closely as-
sociated malachite was As noted previously, malachite deposits are wide-
spread in the southern Levant (Timna in Israel’s Negev Desert, Wadi Feinan
in southwest Jordan, and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula) and so this would have
been a familiar stone to the early Hebrews
Proposed Identiication. Probably malachite but possibly turquoise
3. ‫ּ ְַדֹּד‬, kaḏkōḏ
Philological Discussion. This stone is found but twice in the OT In Isa 54:12,
it decorates the ‫שׁ ְמשֹׁת‬, ִ šimšōt, of Jerusalem This latter term is related to the
word for “sun” (šemeš) but appears to have an architectural meaning 193 that
is paralleled by “gates of sparkling jewels ” Šimšōt has been translated as
“battlements” (NIV) or “pinnacle” (JPSV, RSV, ESV) Whatever this feature
was, it was clad with kaḏkōḏ The second instance is in Ezek 27:16 in which
kadkōd appears with nōpeḵ (turquoise) and other luxury trade items that
were involved in commerce between Tyre and Edom
Arabic kadkad, which is cognate with Hebrew ‫ּ ְַדֹּד‬, means “bright red”
and “red insect ” This has led to the interpretation that a reddish stone was
intended, 194 perhaps a stone used as a building veneer While rubies are a
proposed, 195 they are unknown in the Near East prior to the 1st century AD
and these rare, precious, and typically small crystals would not have been
used for veneer
In his treatment of the Egyptian mineral qd, J R Harris demonstrated
that it is the New Kingdom (1550–1295 BC) word for gypsum 196 The word
is actually found written in hieratic on lumps of gypsum discovered in exca-
vations, notably on samples from Amarna Because it is written syllabically
as qꜢdꜢ, it is clearly a loanword, probably from Akkadian gaṣṣu 197 A gypsum
plaster would make sense in the Isaiah passage, but in Ezekiel it would
have to be the alabaster form of gypsum, which was a popular building and
sculptural stone in ancient Persian (we discuss šayiš below)
The question is, can Hebrew kaḏkōḏ derive from Egyptian qꜢdꜢ/qd? This
is unlikely, as normally Egyptian q would correspond to Hebrew ‫ = ק‬q (and
possibly ‫ = ג‬g and not ‫ = כ‬k); second, Egyptian ḏ appears in Semitic lan-
192 Mumford and Parcak, “Pharaonic Ventures into South Sinai,” 86

193 HALOT 1592, no 6
194 HALOT 460–61
195 Ibid
196 Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 90–91
197 Suggested by Harris and conirmed in Hoch’s more recent study (Semitic Words in
Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, 307–8); CAD G, 54
guages as ‫ = צ‬ṣ 198 It is not linguistically possible to trace Hebrew kaḏkōḏ to

Egyptian qꜢdꜢ.
Archaeological and Geological Discussion If kaḏkōḏ is a reddish-colored
building stone as perhaps indicated by Isa 54:12, then the well-known mizzi
ahmar limestone from the Jerusalem area suggests itself This stone, how-
ever, was apparently only used for architectural applications in Jerusalem
from the Hellenistic period onward 199 Today, small sculptures in this lime-
stone, one of the so-called “Jerusalem Stones,” are sold to tourists in Israel,
and if small carvings in the same stone were a product of ancient Israel, this
would explain Ezekiel’s description of kaḏkōḏ as a trade commodity
Proposed Identiication. Probably the reddish limestone near Jerusalem
known today as mizzi ahmar.
4. ‫ָג ִּבישׁ‬, gāḇîš

Philological Discussion. This word appears only in Job 28:18, where it is
mentioned along with other precious commodities Gāḇîš appears to be
a shortened form of ‫ָבישׁ‬ ְ ‫א‬, ʾelgāḇîš, which appears in Ezek 13:11–13 and
ִ ּ‫ֶל‬
38:22, where it means hail stones 200 The LXX’s Job 28:18 is not helpful as
gāḇîš is merely transliterated: γαβις, gabis ʾElgāḇîš may derive from the Old
Akkadian word algamišu, which seems to be a more common kind of stone
out of which bowls were made, causing the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary to
suggest that it was steatite (also known as soapstone) 201 If this meaning is
correct for Akkadian algamišu, the context of the Hebrew usage indicates
rather that gāḇîš is a stone used for seals and jewelry Interestingly, ʾelgāḇîš/
algamišu appears in Egypt as a Semitic loanword, irqbs, in the 13th century
BC Papyrus Koller (4 2–3) 202 Irqbs is included in a list of luxury items and
precious stones, along with ḫnmt (ʾaḥlāmâ, discussed above = red jasper)
and ḥmq (a stone of uncertain identity) 203 Clearly in Egypt irqbs/gāḇîš was
viewed as a precious stone Caminos translated Egyptian irqbs as “rock crys-
tal” (colorless quartz; table 3) 204 Rock crystal would also it the description
that gāḇîš is like hailstones, clear and colorless like ʾelgāḇîš 205 This meaning
seems to be more compatible with Job’s use of ‫ ָג ִּבישׁ‬than steatite
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Rock crystal was used spar-
ingly for seals and jewelry in the Levant and Egypt, but to a much greater
extent in Mesopotamia (table 3) Rock crystal is one of the more common
198 For the correspondences of Egyptian to Hebrew, see Muchicki, Egyptian Proper Names
and Loanwords, 262–63
199 Y Shiloh and A Horowitz, “Ashlar Quarries of the Iron Age in the Hill Country of
Israel,” BASOR 217 (1975): 47; A D Baly, “The Geology of Palestine,” in The Interpreter’s Dic-
tionary of the Bible: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, ed G A Buttrick, vol 3 (Nashville: Abingdon,
1962), 639–46
200 HALOT 51
201 CAD A/1, 337–38
202 Hoch, Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom, §22
204 Caminos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies, 442; Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 100
205 Postgate “Mesopotamian Petrology,” 215
gemstones with deposits throughout the Near East, including the Moab
region of western Jordan 206 If gāḇîš derives from the Old Akkadian word
algamišu, then it could well be steatite, which was the most heavily used of
all the stones listed in table 3 Steatite is also the only stone in the Levant
that was extensively employed for vessels 207 as well as seals and jewelry
Although the apparent connection of gāḇîš with hailstones in Ezek 13:11–13
and 38:2 supports its identiication as rock crystal, qeraḥ in Ezek 1:22, as
discussed below, also seems to be rock crystal and really cannot be anything
else Unless both terms refer to the same thing, a real possibility, then it
seems that gāḇîš is more likely to be steatite
Proposed Identiication Probably either steatite or rock crystal
5. ‫ראמֹת‬,
ָ rāʾmôṯ
Philological Discussion. This precious material appears in Ezek 27:16 among

the traded items between Edom and Tyre, along with nōpeḵ and kaḏkōḏ
It is also found in Job 28:18 where it occurs along with gāḇîš and pĕnînîm
(next entry) The etymology of rāʾmôṯ is uncertain, although rāʾmôṯ means
“high place ” 208 In the LXX translation of Job 28:18, rāʾmôṯ becomes μετέωρα,
meteōra, which is probably coral 209 Elsewhere in the LXX, however, the
Greek translators of Ezek 27:16 evidently did not know how to render ‫רָאמֹת‬,
as it was simply transliterated as ραμὸθ, ramoth The Hebrew rāʾmôṯ is clearly
related to the Arabic raʾmat/raʾumat, which means seashells Oddly, black
coral has been suggested for rāʾmôṯ, 210 even though this deep marine coral
is not known to have been used in the Levant People in this region would
have been more familiar with the white and red corals found at shallower
depths Rāʾmôṯ appears along with pĕnînîm in Job 28:18 and the latter term
almost certainly refers to either red coral or pearls If, however, pĕnînîm is
pearl, then rāʾmôṯ could be red coral
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Marine mollusk shells of vari-
ous sorts, including especially the so-called mother-of-pearl (the inner sur-
face or nacre of some clam shells), have been used for jewelry since earliest
times across the ancient Near East (table 3) Of all these shell varieties, the
beautiful mother-of-pearl would have been by far the most precious, and
rāʾmôṯ was clearly treated as such a material in Ezek 27:16 The Mediterra-
nean and Red Sea supplied the mollusc shells, which are found commonly,
along with red and white corals, on ofshore reefs A reef’s top and land-
ward side are in shallow waters whereas the seaward side has a precipi-
tous drop-of to the deeper sealoor Thus, reefs do form a “high place” on
sealoors as represented by rāʾmôṯ and as such could well refer to a type of
mollusk shell or coral
206 Bender, Geology of Jordan, 167

207 R T Sparks, Stone Vessels in the Levant (Leeds: Maney, 2007), 155–56
208 HALOT 1164
210 HALOT 1164
Proposed Identiication. Probably mother-of-pearl or, if pĕnînîm is pearl,

possibly red coral
6. ‫פּנִינִים‬,
ְ pĕnînîm (pl.)
Philological Discussion. This word only appears in plural form and largely
in wisdom books (Prov 3:15; 8:11; 20:15; 31:10; and Job 28:18), and in Lam
4:7 Its only occasion in the singular form, pĕninnâ, is as the personal name
of the rival wife of Hannah, the prophet Samuel’s mother (1 Sam 1:4–8)
This suggests that as a personal name it is attested in the 11th century BC
While several meanings are suggested for pĕninnâ, the preferred translation
is coral or pearl 211 In didactic literature, wisdom is said to surpass pĕnînîm
The LXX’s translation is not helpful as it simply renders pĕnînîm as “precious
stones” (λίθων πολυτελῶν) in Proverbs (3:15; 8:11; and 31:10) It is curious that
the Hebrew word ‫ דַ ּר‬in Esth 1:6 is rendered in the LXX as πιννίνου, pinninou
Durr in Arabic and dar in Ethiopic means pearl (we discuss dar below) 212 In
Classical Greek texts, πινίκον (pinikon) and πινίνος (pininos) refer, respec-
tively, to pearl and mother-of-pearl, 213 and so perhaps Hebrew pĕnînîm is
one of these materials The problem with this suggestion, however, is the
fact that there is little evidence for the use of pearl or mother-of-pearl in
jewelry prior to the Greco-Roman period
The reference in Lam 4:7 ofers a possible insight into the color of pĕnînîm
The leaders 214 of devastated and dispersed Jerusalem “were brighter than
snow and whiter than milk,” followed by “their bodies more ruddy than
pĕnînîm” (NIV) The word for body literally means “bones” (‫) ֶעצֶם‬, but seems
to stand for the entire body, although Delbert Hillers thinks that word re-
fers to the body’s blood-red tissue (ּ‫ָדמ‬ ְ ‫א‬, lit , “they are red”) 215 It is this
redness that is likened to pĕnînîm, which explains why “rubies” has been a
common translation This gemstone however, cannot be intended because
it was unknown in the Near East prior to the Roman period Some reddish
gemstones (e g , carnelian and red jasper) were known in the world of the
OT from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages, but it seems pĕnînîm was not one of
these given this word’s clear connection, in the Greek and Roman literature
at least, with pearl and coral Both consequently have been suggested as
translations, but red coral is more likely 216 as natural pearls are never red
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Clams producing pearls are
found in both the Mediterranean and Red Seas, but only the latter was a
source of red coral Red coral and, for the most part, pearls, are seemingly
absent from the archaeological record in the Levant for the Late Bronze
and Iron Ages The only known example of the use of pearls in the Levant
211 R Youngblood, “Peninnah,” ABD 4:222

212 HALOT 230
213 H G Liddell and R Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon, 1940), 1405
214 ‫ ִנזִי ֶר ָה‬literally means “its Nazirites,” which is what might be intended; see D Hillers,
Lamentations (Garden City: Doubleday, 1972), 80
215 Hillers, Lamentations, 81
216 P L Garber and R W Funk, “Jewels,” in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed
G A Buttrock, vol 2 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), 901 Red coral more likely: HALOT 946
prior to the Greco-Roman period is for beads in the Late Bronze Age city
of Ugarit at Ras Ibn Hani on Syria’s Mediterranean coast 217 Red coral and
pearls are fragile materials and, unlike nearly all other gemstones in table 3,
readily decompose under most burial conditions Thus, contrary to the ab-
sence of evidence, both may have been commonly employed in jewelry
Proposed Identiication. Probably red coral or pearl
7. ‫ֶקָּח‬
ְ ‫א‬, ʾeqdāḥ
Philological Discussion. Isaiah 54:12 contains the lone example of ʾeqdāḥ,
which is another precious gem that appears along with kaḏkōḏ, pûḵ, and sap-
pîrîm (pl , sappîr) in Isa 54:11, and is used to rebuild a glorious Jerusalem The
only cognate presently known for ʾeqdāḥ is Arabic qaddaḥ, meaning chert
(or synonymously lint) and “iron (for striking sparks from chert) ” 218 It
is unlikely that ordinary chert would be a valuable enough stone to it the
context of Isa 54 Alternatively, a chert gate might symbolize its hardness,
and so point to the strength and protection of the new city of Jerusalem
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Chert is a name for any opaque
rock consisting mainly of microcrystalline quartz The colored jaspers in
table 3 are merely varieties of chert The limestones that blanket much of
Israel are rich in chert nodules, which have weathered out of the enclosing
bedrock to form gravel deposits at the surface It is this chert that was used
from the earliest times for tools and weapons as well as for ire-starting (see
also the discussion of yāhălōm above) Conceivably, ʾeqdāḥ is a general term
for chert that in the context of Isa 54:12 referred to precious jasper
Proposed Identiication. Probably either ordinary chert or some variety
of colored jasper
8. ‫ה ְַּדֹלַח‬, habĕḏōlaḥ
Philological Discussion. This substance is found only twice in the OT (Gen
2:12 and Num 11:7), and both instances are written with the deinite article
In Gen 2:12 habĕḏōlaḥ appears beside šōham (probably either amethyst or the
sardonyx variety of agate), leading some to think of it as a gemstone 219 In-
deed, the LXX rendered it as the gemstone anthrax in Gen 2:12, whereas the
food manna in Num 11:7 is likened to habĕḏōlaḥ The obscurity of the word
is further clouded by some Greek versions (e g , Aquila) 220 transliterating
‫ ה ְַּדֹלַח‬as βδελιον, which in turn yields “bdellium” that was followed in many
English translations (cf KJV, NASB, RSV, NRSV, ESV)
‫ּדֹלַח‬,ְ bĕḏōlaḥ, is attested in Neo-Babylonian texts as budulḫu and is an
“aromatic ” 221 The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary believes that budulḫu may be
217 See pp 411–13 in P Bordreuil, J Lagarce, É Lagarce, A Bouni, and N Saliby, “Les
découvertes archéologiques et épigraphiques de Ras Ibn Hani (Syrie) en 1983,” Comptes Rendus
des Séances de l’Année, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 128 2 (1984): 398–438
218 H Wehr, Arabic-English Dictionary (New York: Spoken Language Services, 1976), 745
219 U Cassuto, A Commentary of the Book of Genesis (Jerusalem: Magness, 1961), 120
220 HALOT 110
221 CAD B, 305
a loanword from Aramaic 222 Koehler and Baumgartner propose that ‫ְּדֹלַח‬
is “the odoriferous yellowish transparent gum of a South Arabian tree ” 223
Havilah is the source of ‫ ה ְַּדֹלַח‬in Gen 2:11, and Havilah in the Bible is situ-
ated within the Arabian Peninsula 224 Thus, while ‫ ה ְַּדֹלַח‬was a valuable
commodity, it was apparently not a stone, despite Cassuto’s suggestion that
it applied to both a gem and the resinous aromatic 225 The meaning of the
cognate word bubulḫu argues against associating ‫ ה ְַּדֹלַח‬with a stone
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Aromatic frankincense and
myrrh from South Arabia (and Somalia) are tree resins 226 and, as such, may
sometimes resemble amber, the fossilized tree resin that was occasionally
used for jewelry (discussed under taršîš above) There is no reason to doubt,
however, that bĕḏōlaḥ refers to the Arabian incense How far back the Near
Eastern trade in aromatic resins go is uncertain, but present evidence in-
dicates that it began at least as early as the late 8th century BC, with the
Israelites irst using it in their rituals sometime in the 7th century BC 227 The
Egyptians, however, imported frankincense and myrrh from Punt, on the
shore of the southern Red Sea of Africa, as early as the reign of Sahure in the
5th Dynasty (ca 2490 BC) 228
Proposed Identiication. Probably incense, either frankincense or myrrh
9. ‫שׁ ִמיר‬,
ָ šāmîr
Philological Discussion. Šāmîr is found only in prophetic literature of the 6th
and 5th centuries BC, where it is clearly an extremely hard substance In Jer
17:1, it is the point of an iron pen that can engrave a (stone?) tablet The tra-
ditional translation “diamond” (KJV, NASB, RSV, ESV) is impossible simply
because diamonds were not known until the Roman period 229 Instances
of šāmîr in Zech 7:12 and Ezek 3:9 further enforce the meaning of hard; the
former describes people with their hearts (like) šāmîr, while in the latter
reference šāmîr is harder than ‫צר‬. ‫ צר‬is commonly translated as “chert” (or,
synonymously, “lint”), but see also ʾeqdāḥ, p 36 above
It is thought that šāmîr is a loanword from Egyptian ı͗ smr, 230 although
it may have come into Egyptian as a loanword from Sumerian, aAŠ MUR 231
I͗smr is a commodity brought into Egypt as tribute from Syria/Canaan
222 CAD B, 306

223 HALOT 110
224 W W Müller, “Havilah,” ABD 3:82; Sarna, Genesis, 20
225 Cassuto, A Commentary of the Book of Genesis, 120
226 N Groom, “Trade, Incense, and Perfume,” in Caravan Kingdoms: Yemen and the An-
cient Incense Trade, ed A C Gunter (Washington: Smithsonian Institute, 2005), 104–13
227 M Haran, “The Uses of Incense in the Ancient Israelite Ritual,” Vetus Testamentum
10 (1960): 113–29
228 K A Kitchen, “Punt,” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt 3:85–86; idem, “The
Land of Punt,” in The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metal and Towns, ed T Shaw, et al (London:
Routledge, 1993), 587–608; idem, “The Elusive Land of Punt Revisted,” in Trade and Travel in
the Red Sea Region, ed P Lunde and A Porter (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2004), 25–32
229 Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 386
230 HALOT 1562; WÄS 1:132
during the reign of Thutmose III 232 Emery has been a proposed meaning of
ı͗ smr, but J R Harris, while not ruling out this suggestion, notes that there
is no evidence for the use of emery in Egypt, and so ı͗ smr must refer to some
other kind of abrasive 233
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Emery is a rare metamorphic
rock that is a granular aggregate of corundum and iron oxide, either mag-
netite or hematite, plus lessor amounts of other, softer minerals 234 Blue
and red crystals of corundum are the gems sapphire and ruby, respectively,
but the corundum in emery is useful only as an abrasive Corundum has a
Mohs scratch hardness of 9, which makes it the second hardest naturally
occurring material on Earth after diamond with a Mohs hardness of 10 The
efective hardness of emery, however, depends very much on the variable
amounts of corundum and softer minerals Emery would, in any case, be
harder than chert and other forms of quartz, which have a Mohs hardness
of 7
There is no credible evidence of the use of emery in Egypt prior to the
Roman period, but it was employed in the Levant at least as early as the
Late Bronze Age at the site of Ras Ibn Hani on Syria’s Mediterranean coast
and also elsewhere in the Near East 235 Two of the world’s richest sources
of emery were within the ambit of Phoenician traders: both in the southern
Aegean Sea region, including the Greek island of Naxos (with a smaller de-
posits on the islands of Samos and Nicaria to the east), and just inland from
Turkey’s southwest coast in Aydin Province 236 Given the apparent avail-
ability of emery and the characteristics ascribed to šāmîr in the OT, there is
no good reason to question its translation as emery
Proposed Identiication. Probably emery (impure corundum)
10. ‫שֵׁן‬, šēn

Philological Discussion. The basic meaning of this Hebrew word is “tooth”
and is extended to ivory 237 Though not a gemstone or mineral, ivory was
232 Sethe, Urkunden Der 18. Dynastie IV, 731 and 744
233 Harris, Lexicographical Studies, 164 See also W Heimpel, L Gorelick, and A J Gwin-
nett, “Philological Evidence for the Us of Emery in the Bronze Age Near East, JCS 40 (1988):
195–210, esp p 199
234 See pp 7–8 in R B Ladoo, “Abrasives,” in Industrial Minerals and Rocks (Nonmetal-
lics Other Than Fuels) (New York: American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum
Engineers, 1960), 1–21; G R Rapp, Archaeomineralogy (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2002), 219–20
235 P Bordreuil et al , “Les découvertes archéologiques et épigraphiques de Ras Ibn
Hani (Syrie),” 413–14; A Boleti, “The Use of Emery in the Bronze Age Aegean and Eastern
Mediterranean: Methodological Approaches and Preliminary Results,” in Second International
Conference on Ancient Greek Technology: Proceedings (Athens: Techniko Epimeleterio Elladas,
2006), 276–83
236 Ladoo, “Abrasives,” 6–9; I N Papastamatiou, “The Emery of Naxos,” in The Mineral
Wealth of Greece, vol 1 (Athens: Hyperesia Ereunon Hypedaphous, 1951), 37–69; J de Lapparent,
“Composition mineralogique, structure et origine des emeris de Turquie,” Comptes Rendus des
Séances de l’Académie des Sciences 223 5 (1946): 227–28
237 HALOT 1594, entry 1 and 2
used for making jewelry, scarabs, and other seals (table 3) 238 It appears
quite frequently in the Bible, where it is used as inlay in furniture and wall
paneling as well as for tablets and utensils (Amos 3:15; 6:4; Ezek 27:6; Song
5:14; 2 Chr 9:17, 21; 1 Kgs 10:18 and 22:39)
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. There is no reason to doubt the
MT’s ŝēn is African ivory, either from elephants or hippopotami
Proposed Identiication. Deinitely ivory
11. ‫ה ֶַּרַ ח‬, haqqeraḥ

Philological Discussion. ‫ ה ֶַּרַ ח‬appears once in the OT In Ezek 1:22, the sky or
irmament (ַ‫ ָר ִקיע‬as in Gen 1:7) is described as ‫ּעֵין ה ֶַּרַ ח‬,
ְ literally “like the
eye of the qeraḥ ” The LXX translates qeraḥ as κρuσταλλον, krustallon, which
is almost certainly rock crystal 239 The clarity of the material seems to be im-
plied by this verse 240 The reference to “like the eye” in Ezek 1 was treated
above in reference to taršîš, and means “sparkle” or “gleam ” The Akkadian
cognate qarḫu means “ice,” 241 as does ‫ ֶקרַ ח‬in other contexts in Hebrew (e g ,
Psa 147:17; Job 6:16; 38:29) The association with ice suggests that ‫ ה ֶַּרַ ח‬prob-
ably means the gem rock crystal in Ezek 1:22, 242 which is supported by the
Greek translation κρuσταλλον, krustallon
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. The use of rock crystal for seals
and jewelry has already been remarked on in the earlier discussion of gāḇîš
To this may be added the common use of rock crystal for the cornea (that
is, the colorless, transparent portion of the eye surrounding the pupil) in
Egyptian statuary 243 and this is in accord with the use of qeraḥ in Ezek 1:22
Proposed Identiication. Probably rock crystal
12. ‫שַׁ יִשׁ‬, šayiš

Philological Discussion. 1 Chronicles 29:2 contains the lone reference to
šayiš, while the variant writing šēš is found in Esth 1:6 Šayiš/šēš is an Egyp-
tian loanword, 244 with the Egyptian šs referring to travertine (“Egyptian
alabaster”) 245 In the Chronicles passage, David recites the materials he had
accumulated for the building of the temple, and šayiš ends a list that is
238 Ben-Tor, The Scarab, 42

240 W Brownlee, Ezekiel 1–19, WBC 28 (Waco, TX: Word, 1986), 13–14; Block, Ezekiel
1–24, 100–101
241 CAD Q, 131
242 HALOT 1140; Wevers, Ezekiel, 47; Block, Ezekiel 1–14, 101–2 n 81
243 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 100–107
244 WÄS 4:540; Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” 155; Muchiki,
Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords, 256–67
245 “Alabaster” is a geologically incorrect name for this rock True alabaster is is a granu-
lar variety of gypsum like that used for so many carved reliefs in Mesopotamia Much of what
archaeologists incorrectly call “alabaster” actually consists of calcite, not gypsum, and is a
variety of limestone known as travertine See J A Harrell, “Misuse of the Term ‘Alabaster’
in Egyptology,” Göttinger Miszellen 119 (1990): 37–42; I Shaw, Hatnub: Quarrying Travertine in
Ancient Egypt (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2010), 13–15
immediately preceded by ‫ְק ָרה‬ ָ ‫וכֹל ֶאבֶן י‬,ְ “all kinds of precious stones ” In Es-
ther, šēš is the material out of which the pillars of Xerxes’ banquet hall were
made Both passages date to the Persian period and refer to architectural
applications and not gemstones Xerxes’ pillars may well have been made of
alabaster gypsum, a popular Persian building stone, but Solomon’s temple
would have been constructed with limestone Šēš is perhaps a general term
for any valuable architectural stone that is analogous to the modern-day us-
age of “marble,” a term commonly applied to any architectural or sculptural
stone that takes a good polish even though it is not always what geologists
would consider true metamorphic marble
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Travertine comes from Egypt
and elsewhere in the Near East including southwestern Turkey 246 It is best
known as one of Egypt’s premier ornamental stones, where it was widely
used for small objects like cosmetic bottles, igurines, ofering tables and
canopic jars, but also for much larger ones such as statues (including co-
lossal ones), sarcophagi, pavements and barque shrines It is unlikely that
Egyptian travertine was literally intended in 1 Chr 29:2, because there is no
evidence of its use in Jerusalem But it is entirely possible that travertine is
meant metaphorically in the same way that Isa 54:11–12 refers to the use
of gemstones as building materials In 1 Kgs 7:9–10, the blocks for building
the temple are described as “costly stone” (‫ְקרֹת‬ ֲ ), without naming the
ָ ‫א ָבנִים י‬
type of stone The general view is that the temple was built of limestone
ashlars 247 It is not known what type of limestone was used for the irst and
second temples, although it was probably the soft, chalky white nari vari-
ety that was so widely employed elsewhere in Israel’s hill country during
the Iron Age 248 A number of harder and more decorative limestone, the
so-called Jerusalem Stones, 249 were employed in monumental construction
during the Hellenistic and later periods, but they were also occasionally
used earlier for architectural elements such as column capitals 250 The mizzi
hilu and meleke limestone varieties were the ones most commonly used in
the Jerusalem area 251 Of the two, the white, coarsely crystalline meleke is
appealingly translucent like Egyptian travertine and so may be the šayiš
referred to in 1 Chr 29:2
Proposed Identiication. Probably one of the Jerusalem limestones used
for building, perhaps the meleke variety, but possibly Egyptian travertine
246 M Bruno, “Alabaster Quarries Near Hierapolis (Turkey),” in Interdisciplinary Studies

on Ancient Stone—ASMOSIA VI, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the Association
for the Study of Marble and Other Stones in Antiquity, Venice, June 15–18, 2000, ed L Lazzarini
(Padua: Bottega d’Erasmo—Aldo Ausilio Editore, 2002), 19–24; M T Price, The Sourcebook of
Decorative Stone (Bufalo: Firely, 2007), 56
247 L Ritmeyer, The Quest: Revealing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Jerusalem: Carta,
2006), 280–81; W Mierse, Temples and Sanctuaries from the Early Iron Age Levant (Winona Lake,
IN: Eisenbrauns, 2012), 99–100
248 Shiloh and Horowitz, “Ashlar Quarries,” 47
249 Baly, “The Geology of Palestine,” 641–42; M Avnimelech, “Inluence of Geolgical
Conditions on the Development of Jerusalem,” BASOR 181 (1966): 28, 31
250 Shiloh and Horowitz, “Ashlar Quarries,” 39, 47
251 Avnimelech, “Inluence of Geological Conditions,” 28
13. ‫דַ ּר‬, dar

Philological Discussion. This word appears only in Esth 1:6 where it is one
of several stones (see nos 12, 14 and 15 for the others) that are inlaid into a
majestic pavement The LXX renders this as pinninou with the meaning of
either mother-of-pearl or, more likely, pearl 252 This Greek word is clearly
related to the Hebrew pĕnînîm discussed above, which has the same mean-
ing The Hebrew dar appears to be another word for pearl as indicated by
the Arabic durr and Ethiopic dar, both referring to pearl 253 This late biblical
Hebrew term probably derives from the root ‫דור‬, meaning “ball,” “round,”
and “circle,” 254 and hence points to the shape of this gem
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. As noted under pĕnînîm above,
pearls were known to the early Hebrews Penînîm refers to either red coral
or pearl, and, if the latter, then dar is merely another, later term for pearl
Proposed Identiication. Deinitely pearl
14. ‫ס ָֹחרֶת‬, sōḥāret

Philological Discussion: This term appears only in Esth 1:6 along with other
elite metals, cloths, and stones that decorate the royal banquet hall It ap-
pears to be an Egyptian loanword 255 from shrt, a mineral used in making
amulets, and attested from the 13th century BC onward into the Ptolemaic
Period 256 J R Harris, after surveying the Egyptian textual data, avers that
“green jasper would suit shrt quite well, since it is of a bright green colour,” 257
an ideniication that has met with general acceptance
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Earlier, it was suggested that
bāreqeṯ, one of the breastplate gemstones, was probably either green jasper
or serpentinite, but this identiication is based only on bāreqeṯ’s probable
green color The situation is the same for sōḥāreṯ and unless it is a material
other than that used for seals and jewelry, it would seem to have the same
meaning as bāreqeṯ. Given, however, the 5th-century BC setting of the book
of Esther, the previously mentioned fact that green jasper was the signature
gemstone of the Iron Age Phoenicians, and the favored translation of Egyp-
tian shrt as green jasper, it is almost certainly the case that this is the gem-
stone meant by sōḥāreṯ The source of green jasper is unknown Although
this stone does appear in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, 258 no mines have yet been
found Jasper of various colors occurs widely throughout the Near East and
so there could well be a Levantine source After the Persian conquest of
Egypt by Cambyses in 525 BC, Egyptian commodities freely lowed from
the Nile Valley to Persia, and if green jasper was one of these commodities,
then it also would have been traded through the Levant

253 HALOT 230
254 HALOT 217
255 HALOT 750
256 WÄS 4:208
258 Harrell, “Gemstones,” table 1
Proposed Identiication. Probably green jasper

15. ‫ ַּהַט‬, bahaṭ
Philological Discussion. This stone appears only in Esth 1:6, where it is used
in the stunning “court of the garden of the king’s (Ahasuerus/Xerxes) pal-
ace” (Esth 1:5) with the other stones šēš, dar, and sōḥāret, all discussed above
Koehler and Baumgartner identiied it only as “a precious stone,” 259 but
‫ ַּהַט‬has traditionally been translated as “porphyry” (e g , RSV, ESV, NRSV,
NIV) It has been associated with the Egyptian word (ı͗ )bht(y) but challenged
because an Egyptian loanword with t does not correspond to Hebrew ‫ט‬,
leading Lambdin and Muchiki to conclude that equating Hebrew bahaṭ with
Egyptian ı͗ bhty is dubious 260 Noonan, however, has recently addressed the
etymology of ‫ ַּהַט‬and argues that Lambdin and Muchiki’s rejection of the
Egyptian origin on the word was based on an overly rigid expectation of
linguistic borrowing 261 Noonan further thinks the Arabic bht, the name of
an unidentiied stone, supports connecting Egyptian (ı͗ )bht(y) and Hebrew
bahaṭ because it locates this stone in North Africa 262
Another reason for not rejecting bahaṭ as an Egyptian loanword is that it
appears in the Persian context of the book of Esther Hence, the word would
have passed from Egyptian to Persian and then into Hebrew Consequently,
one should not expect the dentals to correspond precisely according to lin-
guistic rules when passing through several languages
It is clear from the many Egyptian instances that (ı͗ )bht(y) was a valued
stone but with uncertain identity and provenance 263 The stone is perhaps
associated with the name of the region in Nubia, where it may have been
found The biography of the 6th Dynasty oicial Weni (ca 2300 BC) reports
that he went on a royal mission to ͗IbhꜢt to obtain stone for King Merenre’s
sarcophagus 264 The Nubian provenance of ͗IbhꜢt has long been assumed, 265
although the precise location remains uncertain
Archaeological and Geological Discussion. Bahaṭ cannot be the porphyry of
many traditional translations, as these undoubtedly derive from the famous
Roman ornamental stone, the purplish-red “imperial porphyry,” which was
irst quarried in Egypt only during the 1st century AD 266 The only archae-
ological object directly associated with the region ͗IbhꜢt is Merenre’s sar-
259 HALOT 111

260 Lambdin, “Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament,” 147; Muchiki, Egyptian
Proper Names and Loanwords, 240
261 We are grateful to the author for sending the portion of his forthcoming book that
deals with the identiication of ‫ ַּהַט‬See Noonan, Foreign Words in the Hebrew Bible, forthcoming
262 Ibid
264 K Sethe, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie I: Bearbeitet und Übersezt (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1914),
106 14
265 H Gauthier, Dictionannaire des noms géographiques contenus dans les textes hiéro-
glyphiques, vol 1 (Cairo: Société royale de géographie d’Égypte, 1925), 64; WÄS 1:64
266 V Maxield and D Peacock, The Roman Imperial Quarries: Survey and Excavation at
Mons Porphyrites 1994–1998, vol 1: Topography and Quarries (London: Egypt Exploration Society,
2001), 252–253
cophagus, which survives in his pyramid at Saqqara The sarcophagus has

been examined and the stone found to be the greenish-gray graywacke (or
metagraywacke, that is, slightly metamorphosed siltstone and sandstone)
from the Wadi Hammamat quarry in Egypt’s central Eastern Desert 267 So
clearly in Weni’s time, Ibhet did not refer to Nubia Further, the graywacke
was well known to the ancient Egyptians as bḫn 268 Later texts seem to as-
sociate Ibhet with Lower Nubia, the region encompassing the Nile River
and adjacent deserts between the irst and second cataracts No ornamental
stones or gems were obtained from this region after the early second mil-
lennium BC, but the locally available sandstone was the building material
for several temples along the Nile in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages There is
nothing remarkable about this sandstone, however, and so it would be sur-
prising if it is the precious material referred to by bahaṭ, although sandstone
would certainly serve as a paving stone in the context of Esth 1:6
Proposed Identiication. An unknown stone, but possibly sandstone
Discussion
Of the 27 named stones found in the Hebrew Bible, nearly all can be trans-
lated as a gem or other kind of stone used during the Late Bronze and Iron
Ages in the Levant Although the list of stones in table 3 was employed as
a guide for possible translations, the translations we have adopted are not
forced by this list They are entirely consistent with what is known about
the sources and uses of archaeological stone in this place and time
While the purpose of this study is to try to identify the various gem-
stones mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, an unexpected observation emerged
concerning the gemstones used in the high priest’s breastplate A surpris-
ing number of the gems are represented by words of Egyptian (or possible
Egyptian) etymology, namely, piṭḏâ, nōpeḵ, lešem, and ʾaḥlāmâ, all of which
are stones mentioned in New Kingdom (1550–1100 BC) period texts Bāreqeṯ,
though likely a Semitic word, is attested as a loanword in Ramesside era
texts, where it means “to sparkle,” a descriptive word for the stone The
book of Exodus repeatedly reports that the Hebrews left Egypt with silver
and gold jewelry from their Egyptian neighbors (Exod 3:22; 11:2; 12:35), and
these were in turn used to make the illicit golden calf (Exod 32:2), as well as
for the various sacred utensils of the tabernacle, and the priestly breastpiece
(Exod 25:3–8) These ive gemstones with Egyptian etymologies appear only
in Exodus in connection with the priestly device (and in the Ezek 28 passage
which borrows from the Exodus list) 269
If yāhălōm is related to the Akkadian stone ḫulālu (though this con-
nection is linguistically problematic), which is mentioned in association
with lapis lazuli in ive Amarna Letters, then it originates in the second
267 M Wissa, “JbhꜢ t in the Autobiographical Inscription of Weni: Developments Since

1994,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 97 (2011): 223–27
269 As noted above, in the Hebrew text of Ezekiel 28, the stones in the third row of the
breastplate (lešem, šĕbô, and ʾaḥlāmâ) are omitted, probably due to scribal omission
millennium or earlier in the Levant Šōham too is a word attested in the

Old Babylonian period (sāmtu[m]/sūmu[m]) as well as in Ugaritic Yāšpê
likewise is found in Akkadian and included in EA 22 A fourth gem with
an Akkadian (borrowed from Sumerian) linguistic connection is šĕḇô/šeḇû.
Thus, yāhălōm (?)/ḫulālu, šōham/sūmu[m], yāšpê/jašpû, and šĕḇô/šeḇû were
gems with Sumero-Akkadian roots that were being distributed around the
Near East in the second millennium BC
Eight of these gems do not appear in the Hebrew Bible outside Exodus
and Ezekiel (ʾodēm, bāreqeṯ , nōpeḵ, yāhălōm, lešem, šĕḇô, ʾaḥlāmâ, and yāšpê),
and two others from these books, piṭḏâ and šōham, appear elsewhere but
only on a limited basis The former is found just in Job 28:19, and the latter
appears in Job 28:16, Gen 2:12, and 1 Chr 29:2 where it is included in the list
of materials David collected for building the temple This leaves only sappîr
and taršîš, which are found more widely in the OT (see table 2, p 49), indi-
cating that they were available throughout the Late Bronze and Iron Ages
Biblical source critics have long assigned the passages in Exod 25–31
and 35–39 to the Priestly (P) source Brevard Childs has referred to this
view as “a wide consensus for well over a hundred years,” 270 and P is com-
monly dated to the 5th century BC (the Postexilic Period) 271 The presence of
gemstones known and distributed in the second millennium BC in Exod 28
and 39 (and the borrowed usage in Ezekiel) in what has been tradition-
ally considered a late source, however, poses problems for the consensus
view Some of these are not known textually and archaeologically in the
irst millennium Turquoise (nōpeḵ), for example, is virtually absent in the
archaeological record of Egypt and the Near East after the 12th century BC
when mining operations in Sinai ceased with the demise of the New King-
dom in Egypt Then too, the termination of the kind of trade and tribute that
witnessed gemstones moving around the Near East during the Late Bronze
Age (as relected in the Amarna Letters) may explain why some of these
gems were not available in the Iron Age Sappîr, lapis lazuli, is one exception
to this general pattern It came from distant Afghanistan, and, in addition
to the biblical text citations mentioned above, it is known from engraved
stamp seals from the Levant for the Iron II period (925–586 b c ) 272 These
factors seem to suggest the gemstones in the high priest’s breastplate har-
ken back to a much earlier tradition than many biblical scholars maintain
Conclusions
By combining etymological, archaeological and geological information on
the Levantine gemstones of the Late Bronze and Iron Ages, we have greatly
narrowed the possible translations of the Hebrew words for these stones in
270 Childs, The Book of Exodus, 529

271 Hyatt, Exodus, 258–59
272 Based on the survey of N Avigad and B Sass, Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals
(Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1997), nine lapis lazuli seals are known from Israel and four
from Trans-Jordan, and two were written in Aramaic for a total of 15, all from the Iron II period
the Masoretic Text Most of the translations in later versions of the OT, be-
ginning with the LXX, are problematic because they are in some cases based
on guesswork, false premises, and/or using stones known in the translator’s
day Even with our new approach to this problem, there is too little informa-
tion in the Masoretic Text to allow singular translations of most of the gem-
stones We have, however, been able to limit the meanings to no more than
two possibilities for each gemstone Accordingly, our proposed translations
for the gemstones and other materials in the Hebrew Bible are as follows
Gems on the Priestly Breastplate

1 ‫א ֶֹדם‬, ʾōḏem, probably carnelian
2 ‫פּ ְט ָדה‬,ִ piṭḏâ, probably the sub-metallic variety of hematite
3 ‫ֶקת‬ ֶ ‫ ָּר‬, bāreqeṯ, probably serpentinite but possibly green jasper
ְ ‫נֹפּ‬, nōpeḵ, deinitely turquoise
4 ‫ֶך‬
5 ‫ס ִַפּיר‬, sappîr, deinitely lapis lazuli
6 ‫יָהֲלֹם‬, yāhălōm, possibly either milky quartz or sapphirine chalcedony
7 ‫ֶשׁם‬ֶ ‫ל‬, lešem, probably amazonite
8 ֹ‫שׁב‬, ְ šĕḇô, probably banded agate
9 ‫א ְַח ָלמָה‬, ʾaḥlāmâ, probably red jasper
10 ‫שׁישׁ‬ ִ ‫ַּ ְר‬, taršîš, probably amber but possibly the specularite variety of
hematite
11 ‫שֹׁהַם‬, šōham, probably either amethyst or the sardonyx variety of agate
12 ‫ָשׁפֵה‬ ְ ‫י‬, yāšpê, probably multicolored, patterned agate or jasper
Other Gemstones and Materials

1 ִ ‫ז‬, zĕḵôḵît, probably manufactured glass
‫ְכֹכית‬
2 ְ
‫פּּך‬, pûḵ, probably malachite but possibly turquoise
3 ‫ּ ְַדֹּד‬, kaḏkōḏ, probably Jerusalem’s mizzi ahmar variety of limestone
4 ‫ָג ִּבישׁ‬, gāḇîš, probably either steatite or rock crystal
5 ‫ראמֹת‬, ָ rāʾmôṯ, probably mother-of-pearl, also possibly red coral
6 ‫פּנִינִים‬,ְ pĕnînîm (pl ), probably red coral or pearl
7 ‫ֶקָּח‬ ְ ‫א‬, ʾeqdāḥ, probably either ordinary chert or possibly some variety
of colored jasper
8 ‫ה ְַּדֹלַח‬, habĕḏōlaḥ, probably frankincense or myrrh incense
9 ‫שׁ ִמיר‬,ָ šāmîr, probably emery (impure corundum)
10 ‫שֵׁן‬, šēn, deinitely ivory
11 ‫ה ֶַּרַ ח‬, haqqeraḥ, probably rock crystal
12 ‫שַׁ יִשׁ‬, šayiš and variant šēš, probably one of the Jerusalem building
stones, but also possibly the meleke variety of limestone, but possibly
Egyptian travertine
13 ‫דַ ּר‬, dar, deinitely pearl
14 ‫ס ָֹחרֶת‬, sōḥāret, probably green jasper
15 ‫ ַּהַט‬, bahaṭ, an unknown stone, but possibly sandstone
Table 1. Translations of Gemstones in the Priestly Breastplate

(Exodus 28:17–20)1
1st Row
Source 1st Column 2nd Column 3rd Column
Masoretic Text ‫א ֶֹדם‬, ʾōḏem ִ piṭḏâ
‫פּ ְט ָדה‬, ‫ ָּ ֶר ֶקת‬, bāreqeṯ
LXX2 σάρδιον, sardion τοπάζιον, topazion σμάραγδος, smaragdos
Vulgate3 lapis sardius topazius zmaragdus
LXX/Brenton2 sardius topaz emerald

LXX/NETS sardius topaz emerald
KJV4 sardius topaz carbuncle
NKJV5 sardius topaz emerald
RSV4 sardius topaz beryl
ESV4 sardius topaz carbuncle
NRSV5 carnelian chrysolite emerald
NASB4 ruby topaz emerald
JPS4 carnelian chrysolite emerald
JB4 sard topaz carbuncle
NJB4 sard topaz emerald
NEB5 sardion chrysolite green felspar
NIV4 carnelian chrysolite beryl
NAB6 carnelian topaz emerald
2nd Row
Masoretic Text ְ ‫נֹפ‬, nōpeḵ
‫ֶך‬ ‫ס ִַפּיר‬, sappîr ‫יָהֲלֹם‬, yāhălōm
LXX2 ἄνθραξ, anthrax σάπφειροϛ, sappheiros ἴασπιϛ, iaspis
Vulgate3 carbunculus sapphyrus iaspis
LXX/Brenton2 carbuncle sapphire jasper

LXX/NETS carbuncle lapis lazuli jasper
KJV4 emerald sapphire diamond
NKJV5 turquoise sapphire diamond
RSV4 emerald sapphire diamond
ESV4 emerald sapphire diamond
NRSV5 turquoise sapphire moonstone
NASB4 turquoise sapphire diamond
JPS4 turquoise sapphire amethyst
JB4 emerald sapphire diamond
NJB4 garnet sapphire diamond
NEB5 purple garnet lapis lazuli jade
NIV4 turquoise lapis lazuli emerald
NAB6 garnet sapphire beryl
3rd Row
Masoretic Text ֶ ‫ל‬, lešem
‫ֶשׁם‬ ְ šĕḇô
ֹ‫שׁב‬, ‫א ְַח ָלמָה‬, ʾaḥlāmâ
LXX2 λιγύριον, ligyrion ἀχάτης, achates ἀμέθυστος, amethystos
Vulgate3 ligyrius achates amethistus
LXX/Brenton2 ligure agate amethyst

LXX/NETS ligurion agate amethyst
KJV4 ligure agate amethyst
NKJV5 jacinth agate amethyst
RSV4 jacinth agate amethyst
ESV4 jacinth agate amethyst
NRSV5 jacinth agate amethyst
NASB4 jacinth agate amethyst
JPS4 jacinth agate crystal
JB4 hyacinth ruby amethyst
NJB4 hyacinth ruby amethyst
NEB5 turquoise ruby amethyst
NIV4 jacinth agate amethyst
NAB6 jacinth agate amethyst
4th Row
Masoretic Text ִ ‫ַּ ְר‬, taršîš
‫שׁישׁ‬ ‫שֹׁהַם‬, šōham ְ ‫י‬, yāšpê
‫ָשׁפֵה‬
LXX2 χρυσόλιθος, βηρύλλιον, beryllion ὀνύχιον, onychion
chrysolithos
Vulgate3 chrysolitus onychinus berillus
LXX/Brenton2 chrysolite beryl onyx

LXX/NETS chrysolite beryl onyx
KJV4 beryl onyx jasper
NKJV5 beryl onyx jasper
RSV4 beryl onyx jasper
ESV4 beryl onyx jasper
NRSV5 beryl onyx jasper
NASB4 beryl onyx jasper
JPS4 beryl lapis lazuli jasper
JB4 beryl onyx jasper
NJB4 beryl cornelian jasper
NEB5 topaz cornelian green jasper
NIV4 topaz onyx jasper
NAB6 chrysolite onyx jasper
1 Also in Exod 36:17–20 [MT, 39:10–13]

2 LXX: Septuagint Greek Old Testament (3rd to 1st centuries BC) Gemstones trans-
lated into English by: [1] C L Brenton, The Septuagint with Aprocrypha: Greek and English (Lon-
don: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1851); [2] NETS: New English Translation of the Septuagint
(2007); and [3] J A Harrell, “Old Testament Gemstones: A Philological, Geological, and Ar-
chaeological Assessment of the Septuagint,” Bulletin of Biblical Research 21 2 (2011): 141–171
Harrell, for example, identiies the LXX gemstones as follows: sardion—carnelian (plus sard),
topazion—peridot, smaragdos—probably turquoise but possibly malachite, anthrax—red garnet,
sappheiros—lapis lazuli, iaspis—probably green chalcedony or jasper but possibly amazonite,
ligyrion—amber, achates—agate, amethystos—amethyst, chrysolithos—probably yellowish chal-
cedony, beryllion—probably aquamarine, and onychion—onyx
3 Vulgate:Vulgate Latin Bible (late 4th century AD)
4 Old Testament translations based on the original Hebrew texts:
ESV: English Standard Version (Bible; 2001)
JB: Jerusalem Bible (1966)
JPS: Jewish Publication Society (Bible; 1977)
KJV: King James Version (Bible; 1611/1769)
NASB: New American Standard Bible (1977)
NEB: New English Bible (1961/1970)
NIV: New International Version (Bible; 1984)
NJB: New Jerusalem Bible (2002)
RSV: Revised Standard Version (Bible; 1952)
5 Old Testament translations based on the original Hebrew texts plus the LXX:
NKJV: New King James Version (Bible; 1982)
NRSV: New Revised Standard Version (Bible; 1989)
6 Old Testament translations based on the original Hebrew texts plus the Vulgate:
NAB: New American Bible (2005)
Table 2. Gemstones in the Hebrew Old Testament

Gemstones in the High Priest’s Breastplate
Hebrew Word Old Testament Passages
‫—א ֶֹדם‬ʾōḏem Exod 28:17; 39:10; Ezek 28:13
‫—פּ ְט ָדה‬piṭḏâ
ִ Exod 28:17; 39:10; Ezek 28:13; Job 28:19
‫ֶקת‬ֶ ‫— ָּר‬bāreqeṯ Exod 28:17; 39:10; Ezek 28:13
ְ ‫—נֹפ‬nōpeḵ
‫ֶך‬ Exod 28:18; 39:11; Ezek 27:16; 28:13
‫—ס ִַפּיר‬sappîr Exod 24:10; 28:18; 39:11; Ezek 1:26; 10:1; 28:13; Job 28:6; 28:16;
Isa 54:11; Song 5:14; Lam 4:7
‫—יָהֲלֹם‬yāhălōm Exod 28:18; 39:11; Ezek 28:13
ֶ ‫—ל‬lešem
‫ֶשׁם‬ Exod 28:19; 39:12
ֹ‫—שׁב‬šĕḇô
ְ Exod 28:19; 39:12
‫—א ְַח ָלמָה‬ʾaḥlāmâ Exod 28:19; 39:12
‫שׁישׁ‬ ִ ‫—ַּ ְר‬taršîš Exod 28:20; 39:13; Ezek 1:16; 10:9; 28:13; Song 5:14; Dan 10:6
‫—שֹׁהַם‬šōham Exod 25:7; 28:9; 28:20; 35:9; 35:27; 39:6; 39:13; Ezek 28:13; 1
Chr 29:2; Job 28:16; Gen 2:12
ְ ‫—י‬yāšpê
‫ָשׁפֵה‬ Exod 28:20; 39:13; Ezek 28:13
Other Gemstones
Hebrew Words Old Testament Passages
ִ ‫—ז‬zĕḵôḵît
‫ְכֹכית‬ Job 28:17
ְ
‫—פּּך‬pûḵ Isa 54:11; 1 Chron 29:2; 2 Kgs 9:30; Jer 4:30
‫—ּ ְַדֹּד‬kaḏkōḏ Ezek 27:16; Isa 54:12
‫—ָג ִּבישׁ‬gāḇîš Job 28:18; Lam 4:7; Prov 3:15; 8:11; 20:15; 31:10
‫— ָראמֹת‬rāʾmôṯ Ezek 27:16; Job 28:18
‫—פּנִינִים‬pĕnînîm
ְ Job 28:18
‫ֶקָּח‬ְ ‫—א‬ʾeqdāḥ Isa 54:12
‫—ה ְַּדֹלַח‬habĕḏōlaḥ Gen 2:12; Num 11:7
‫—שׁ ִמיר‬šāmîr
ָ Ezek 3:9; Jer 17:1; Zech 7:12
‫—שֵׁן‬šēn Amos 3:15, 6:4; Ezek 27:6; Song 5:14; 2 Chron 9:17, 21; 1 Kgs
10:18; 22:39
‫—ה ֶַּרַ ח‬haqqeraḥ Ezek 1:22
‫—שַׁ יִשׁ‬šayiš 1 Chr 29:2
‫—שֵׁשׁ‬šēš Esth 1:6
‫—דַ ּר‬dar Esth 1:6
‫—ס ָֹחרֶת‬sōḥāret Esth 1:6
‫— ַּהַט‬bahaṭ Esth 1:6
Table 3. Stones and Other Natural Materials Used
50
for Seals and Jewelry in the Near East During the Late Bronze and Iron Ages1, 2
Levant Levant Meso-
Rocks and Minerals2 Seals Jewelry3 potamia4 Egypt5
Amazonite (or amazon stone or green feldspar): translucent to opaque, light or medium r r r c
green to mainly bluish green and occasionally greenish blue microcline feldspar [KAlSi3O8]
Calcite, common: translucent, white to occasionally pale yellow or brown [CaCO3] r - r r
Garnet: transparent to translucent

Almandine-Pyrope: medium to mainly dark red, brownish red, or purplish red in - - - r
compositionally gradational pyrope and almandine sub-varieties [(Mg,Fe)3Al2Si3O12]
Grossular: pale green [Ca3Al2Si3O12] Grossular also comes in other colors (white, - - r -
yellow, pink, and pale brown or pale reddish brown—hessonite) but these have not been
reported for seals or other objects
Hematite (or haematite): opaque, sub-metallic reddish-brown, brownish black to black c r r r
or, rarely, metallic silvery gray (specularite) [Fe2O3] These are non-earthy or -ocherous
varieties of hematite Specularite was only rarely used
Lapis Lazuli: opaque rock composed of dark blue lazurite or haüynite, both minerals of r r c c
the sodalite group [(Na,Ca)8(AlSiO4)6(SO4,S,Cl)2], with golden pyrite [FeS2] and white
calcite [CaCO3] as the main components
Limestone: opaque rock consisting almost entirely of calcite [CaCO3] and generally ine- c c c -
grained with highly variable coloring due to a range of impurities Seals made of dark
brown bituminous limestone apparently unique to Palestine were made during the 11th
through 9th centuries BC Some of what has been reported as limestone may actually be
either dolostone [Mg,Ca(CO3)2] or calcitic or dolomitic marble
Obsidian: translucent, light to dark brownish black to black volcanic silica glass [SiO2] r - r r
Malachite: opaque, patchy to mainly banded light and dark green [Cu2CO3(OH)2] r - - -
Quartz varieties [SiO2]
Macrocrystalline
Amethyst: translucent to mainly transparent, light to dark violet or purple r r r r
Milky Quartz: translucent, white r - r -
Rock Crystal: transparent, colorless r r c r
Microcrystalline (mainly ibrous/chalcedonic quartz; translucent)
Agate6: usually banded with alternating layers of diferent colors and sometimes with c r c r
an irregular mottling or patterning of two or more colors
Harrell, Hofmeier, and Williams: Hebrew Gemstones

Chalcedony6 : non-banded
Carnelian (or cornelian): medium to dark orangy red, brownish red or red Heat r c c c
treatment may have been used in antiquity to intensity carnelian’s color
Sapphirine7: bluish white or pale bluish gray r - c -
Other colors: especially medium to dark brown (sard), but also pink, green7 and r - c r
yellow varieties
Microcrystalline (mainly granular/non-chalcedonic quartz; opaque) = jasper8
Medium to dark green 9, 10 c - c r
Medium to dark red 10 r r c c
Other colors: especially shades of brown and yellow to multi-colored and patterned r r c r
varieties
Serpentinite: opaque rock consisting largely of greenish serpentine-group minerals c - c -
(antigorite, chrysotile and lizardite) [Mg3Si2O5(OH)4] with a variety of accessory minerals,
especially magnetite [Fe3O4] The rock is typically mottled with lighter and darker shades
of green but commonly is yellowish-green or, when magnetite is abundant, nearly black If
oxidized, the rock may exhibit shades of brown or red Serpentinite is sometimes mistaken
for steatite and vice versa
Steatite (or soapstone) and Chlorite Schist (or chlorite): the two rocks are compositionally c r c -
gradational and often mistaken for one another Steatite is an opaque rock consisting
largely of grayish to greenish talc [Mg3Si4O10(OH)2] with a variety of accessory minerals,
commonly chlorite mica and serpentine whereas chlorite schist is an opaque rock
consisting largely of green chlorite mica [(Mg, Fe)3(Si,Al)4O10(OH)2▪(Mg, Fe)3(OH)6] plus
a variety of accessory minerals, commonly talc If oxidized, these rocks may exhibit shades
of brown or red Both are soft rocks that harden upon heating due to dehydroxilation A
51
colored glaze was sometimes added to ired steatite objects
52
Turquoise: opaque, greenish blue or light blue becoming greener with exposure over time r r r c
due to hydration [CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8▪5H2O]
Organic Materials11
Amber: transparent to translucent, light to dark yellow, brown, orange and occasionally - r r r
red fossil tree resin
Ivory: opaque; white or light yellowish white elephant or hippopotamus tusk Some bone r r - r
may have been mistaken for ivory
Shell: mollusc (snail and especially clam) shells, including mother-of-pearl—the iridescent - c c r
nacre (aragonite or CaCO3) lining in clam shells

Pearl: rounded concretion of iridescent nacre (aragonite or CaCO3) in clam shells - r - -
1 Relative abundance codes for usage: c = common, r = rare, and - = not used or, at least, not reported in the literature consulted Late Bronze Age,
1550–1200 b c , and Iron Age, 1200–550 b c
2 Additional materials were occasionally used for seals and jewelry, including other hard, ine-grained rocks as well as bone, bronze, glass (mainly green
and blue), and faience (sintered or glazed quartz)
3 Exclusive of seals
4 Used mainly for seals, but also for beads, pendants and amulets
5 Used mainly for jewelry and other small decorative items, but also for seals
6 The terms “agate” and “chalcedony” are sometimes used interchangeably to refer collectively to all varieties of ibrous/chalcedonic microcrystalline
quartz More usually, however, “agate” is applied to the banded and conspicuously mottled varieties, and “chalcedony” to the more uniformly-colored varieties
“Onyx” with alternating planar white or light gray and darker (gray or black) bands, and “sardonyx” with alternating planar white or light gray and reddish to
brownish bands are sub-varieties of agate The planarity of the bands, however, is often unrecognizable in the typically small seals, and so these sub-varieties
usually cannot be distinguished from similarly colored agates with curved to wavy concentric, alternating bands (i e , “common” agate)
7 The name sapphirine is sometimes informally applied to other pale blue minerals, but none of these were used in antiquity
8 Jasper is essentially colored chert or lint
9 The terms bloodstone (or heliotrope), chrysoprase, plasma and prase refer to diferent sub-varieties of greenish microcrystalline quartz (both ibrous
and granular types), but are too inconsistently deined in the archaeological and geological literature to be used here
10 These stones are sometimes low-grade metamorphic rocks and so are technically metajasper Some of what has been called green jasper by archaeolo-
gists may actually be serpentinite
11 Red coral was commonly used for jewelry during the Greco-Roman period, but is seemingly absent from the archaeological record of the Levant dur-
ing the Late Bronze and Iron Ages, although this may be due to poor preservation

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Hebrew Gemstones in The Old Testament

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CONTENTS

BOOKS RECEIVED 153

Hebrew Gemstones in the Old Testament:

james e harrell, james k hofmeier, and kenton f williams

appears in numerous biblical passages, probably at times included other

The High Priest’s Breastplate

3 J I Durham, Exodus, WBC 3 (Waco, TX: Word, 1987), 387

14 Swersky, “The High Priest’s Breastplate,” 108–9

Pectorals with inlaid gemstones are well known in Pharaonic Egypt,

The Prince of Tyre’s Canopy

of ‫ ֻסָּה‬, sukkâ, is hut or tabernacle (booth) 22 In Amos 9:11 the “booth” of

Gemstones Available in Ancient Israel

22 HALOT 753; H L Bosman, “‫ֹֻּּת‬,” NIDOTTE 3:251–52

to Archaeology, Bradford, September 1989, ed P Budd, B Chapman, C Jackson, R Janaway and

green “Eilat Stone” (a mixture of malachite, azurite, chrysocolla and other

The Gemstones on the High Priest’s Breastplate

Umberto Cassuto labeled it “a red stone diicult to identify ” 38 This prob-

38 U Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1967), 376

50 Muchiki, Egyptian Proper Names and Loanwords in North-West Semitic, 268

61 T Kendall, “Kush,” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, ed D B Redford, vol 2

Philological Discussion. Bāreqeṯ is only found in the breastplate references

shiny? Is it white-yellow like lightening or of a greenish color? These are

75 D E Eichholz, Pliny—Natural History, Books XXXVI-XXXVII (Cambridge: Harvard

antiquity If sōḥāreṯ is green jasper, as seems likely, then bāreqeṯ is probably

Archaeological and Geological Discussion The Serabit el-Khadim and

Philological Discussion This is one of the two most frequently appearing

88 W M F Petrie, Researches in Sinai (London: Murray, 1906), 34–193; R Weill, La

This gemstone was transported to Egypt as early as Predynastic times

Philological Discussion Yāhălōm appears only in connection with the priest’s

Another possible connection to striking is that the pounding of sand

113 Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technologies, 156–57

Philological Discussion. An Egyptian etymology for this word is certain

120 Online: http://www mindat org/loc-191489 html

9. ‫א ְַח ָלמָה‬, ʾaḥlāmâ

139 CAD Š/3, 185–86

148 Matzko and Naqui, “Geodes from Saudi Arabia ”

11. ‫שֹׁהַם‬, šōham

Other Gemstones and Materials

178 CAD I–J, 328

by zĕḵôḵît, then perhaps obsidian, a natural volcanic glass, is meant (table

Archaeological and Geological Discussion. For a discussion of turquoise,

192 Mumford and Parcak, “Pharaonic Ventures into South Sinai,” 86

guages as ‫ = צ‬ṣ 198 It is not linguistically possible to trace Hebrew kaḏkōḏ to

4. ‫ָג ִּבישׁ‬, gāḇîš

Philological Discussion. This precious material appears in Ezek 27:16 among

206 Bender, Geology of Jordan, 167

Proposed Identiication. Probably mother-of-pearl or, if pĕnînîm is pearl,

211 R Youngblood, “Peninnah,” ABD 4:222

222 CAD B, 306

10. ‫שֵׁן‬, šēn

11. ‫ה ֶַּרַ ח‬, haqqeraḥ

12. ‫שַׁ יִשׁ‬, šayiš

238 Ben-Tor, The Scarab, 42

246 M Bruno, “Alabaster Quarries Near Hierapolis (Turkey),” in Interdisciplinary Studies

13. ‫דַ ּר‬, dar

14. ‫ס ָֹחרֶת‬, sōḥāret

252 Harrell, “Old Testament Gemstones,” 166–67

Proposed Identiication. Probably green jasper

259 HALOT 111