980 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



of the Revised Version, both in the text and margin, being added in 

 pareutheses. 



Besides the stones enumerated in these lists, there are probably 

 mentioned, first, diamond, Hebrew shmnir, for which the following pas- 

 sages serve as illustrations: Jeremiah xvii, 1: "The sin of Judah is 

 written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond;" Ezekiel 

 iii, 9: "As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead;" 

 Zechariah vii, 12: "Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, 

 lest they should hear the law;" second, amber (margin of Ee vised Ver- 

 sion, following the Septuagint and Vulgate, electrum), Hebrew, hashmal, 

 Ezekiel i, 4, which however, may represent some metallic compound, 

 possibly the mixture of gold and silver, now called electrum; and, third, 

 crystal, Hebrew qerah and gabish, properly ice, according to the view 

 of the ancients, that crystal was ice hardened by intense cold.^ 



The three lists of precious stones in the Bible. 

 I. EXODUS XXVIII, 17-20. 



II. EZEKIEL XXVm, 13. 



]. Odem. 

 4. Tarshish. 

 7. Sappir. 



2. Pitdah. 

 5. Shoham. 

 8. Nofek. 



3. Yahalom. 

 6. Tashpeh. 

 9. Bareketh. 



III. REVELATIONS XXI, 19, 20. 



'Dr. Fr. Homniel, in his book, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition as Illustrated by the Monuments 

 Kew York. 1897, p. 281. compare also p. 291, surmi.ses that leshem and achlamah are Egyptian loan- 

 words, derived respectively from the Egyptian names neshem and ekhnome. 



1 Ezekiel i, 22 ; Job xxviii, 18 ; Revelations iv, 6. 



