THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIs1. 35 
the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a 
paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of 
heaven in his clearness.” Some of these will be dealt with 
when we are considering the identity of particular gems, but 
in others the significance of the allusion is sufficiently obvious. 
References of a general nature to jewels, apart from any 
particular gem, are frequent throughout the Bible. Thus both 
in Proverbs and The Book of Job we find wisdom compared 
to jewels, while the records in Exodus of the spoiling of the 
Egyptians and the gifts of jewels for the decoration of the 
Temple, are familiar to all. 
One of the most striking of these references is that in 
Malachi 3, 17—“And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, 
in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, 
as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” The term is 
here used figuratively in describing the preciousness of the 
Saints to Almighty God. This sentence forms the text for the 
beautiful children’s hymn by Cushing:—“When he cometh, when 
he cometh to make up his jewels.” 
With these introductory remarks in our minds we may pass 
on to consider some of the more notable allusions to precious 
or gem stones. 
Hasily first in interest, importance and beauty of imagery 
may well be placed the description in the Book of Revelation, 
21, 19, 20, of the foundations of the New Jerusalem:—“And 
the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all 
manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; 
the second, sapphire; the third, a chaleedony; the fourth, an 
emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, 
chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a 
chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.” 
Of this imposing list of stones, four only are mentioned 
elsewhere in the New Testament, all the references being also 
contained in the Book of Revelation. These are, jasper, sar- 
dius and emerald in Rey. 4, 3, “and he that sat was to look 
upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rain- 
bow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.” 
Jasper is again mentioned in Rey. 21, 18, “and the building 
of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like 
unto clear glass.” 
While jacinth is spoken of in Rev. 9, 17, “and thus I saw 
the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having 
breast-plates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone.” 
