Gemstones in the Bible

The Israelites obtained gemstones from across the known world, from Egypt and the African continent broadly to the Baltic Sea in Europe as far as Badakhshan in Afghanistan.

When they were settled in the Land of Israel, they obtained gemstones from the merchant caravans traveling from Babylonia or Persia to Egypt, and those from Saba and Raamah to Tyre (Book of Ezekiel, 27:22).

[1] The ancients did not classify gemstones by analyzing their composition or crystalline shapes: names were given in accordance with appearance (color, luster), use, or provenance.

Another problem is nomenclature; names having changed in the course of time: thus the ancient chrysolite is peridot, sapphire is lapis lazuli, etc.

The banded agate belongs to the silex family (chalcedony species) and is formed by deposits of siliceous beds in hollows of rocks.

The Greek and Latin translations here (Septuagint's λιγύριον ligurion ‘amber’ and Vulgate's ligurius) are probably swapped with another stone or corrupt.

It stands fourth in the enumeration of Ezekiel 28:13 and is given as the seventh foundation stone of the celestial city in Revelation 21:20.

The term taršīš is a fascinating development: originally an ethnic group in southern Iberia (modern Andalusia), which then became the name of their country, Tartessos.

Blue Chalcedony - Hebrew יָשְׁפֶה‬‎ yošp̄e, Greek ἴασπις iaspis, Latin jaspis; the twelfth stone of the breastplate (Exodus 28:18, 39:11), representing the tribe of Benjamin.

[5] Chrome Chalcedony - Greek χρυσόπρασος chrysoprasos, the tenth foundation stone of the celestial Jerusalem (Revelations 21:20).

Job lists gavish (crystal quartz) alongside gold, onyx, lapis lazuli, glass, coral, and peridot as a valuable trade good.

The Nubian Kerma culture created beads from quartz crystals in their natural shape, sometimes coating them in a copper-based glaze.

The earliest known emerald is a single unengraved stone mounted in a gold ring, dated circa 330–300 BC.

[5] However, the Greek and Latin terms smaragdos, smaragdus are broad enough to include other green gemstones, the most valuable of which was the emerald.

Many of the finest specimens have been found in Muzo, Bogota, South America but the ancients obtained the stone from Egypt.

Of all the emerald-bearing locales in the world, the only ones in proximity to the Levant are a series of sites in the southern Eastern Desert of Egypt, referred to as Mons Smaragdos.

These emerald deposits were first exploited no earlier than the Ptolemaic period, based on the material remains at the worker camp at Sikait.

Because diamond was unknown prior to the Roman period, and because of the similarity between the words smiris, the Egyptian asmir "emery", a grade of corundum used to polish gemstones, the Hebrew word shamir may be corundum, which exhibits the same qualities, and is used in India for the same purposes as the diamond.

Lapis lazuli is a rock consisting of dark blue lazurite with minute golden specks of pyrite and white patches or veins of calcite.

[8] In the Ancient Near East, an association between lapis lazuli and the divine was a common cultural motif, born of the resemblance of the stone to the night sky.

This association is implicit in the Hebrew Bible, and is the likely origin of the biblical commandment to wear a string of tekheleth on the fringes of ones' garment.

The source of lapis lazuli in the Ancient Near East was Badakhshan, the same location where the stone is primarily mined today.

It derives from the root w-r-ḳ meaning "yellow-green," originally encompassing a broad range of green precious stones.

For instance, Greek smaragdos and Akkadian barraqtu reflect borrowings of the Hebrew term, adopted to the green gemstones familiar to the speakers of those languages.

Unlike emerald, which was unknown in biblical times, green jasper was widely used in the Levant and often associated with religious and ornamental purposes.

Red Jasper is the third stone in the third row of the priestly breastplate, representing the tribe of Issachar (Exodus 28:19,[2] 39:12[3]); the Septuagint enumerates it among the riches of the King of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:13[4]).

Pearl is a concretion consisting chiefly of lime carbonate found in several bivalve molluscs, but especially in Avicula margaritifera.

Pearl was considered the most precious of all among the ancients, and was obtained from the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf.

The genuine sapphire is a beautiful blue hyaline corundum and is composed of nearly pure alumina, its color resulting from the presence of iron oxide.

Hebrew piṭḏa and Greek topazion are likely related words, the term originating from an African language of the Red Sea region.