ספיר, Exod. xxiv, 10; xxviii, 18; Job xxviii, 6, 16; Cantic.
v, 14; Isa. liv, 11; Ezek. i, 26; x, 1; xxviii, 13, σάϖφειρος, Rev. xxi,
19, only. That this is the sapphire, there can be no doubt. The
Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the general run of commentators, ancient
and modern, agree in this. The sapphire is a pellucid gem. In its finest
state it is extremely beautiful and valuable, and second only to the
diamond in lustre, hardness, and value. Its proper colour is pure blue;
in the choicest specimens it is of the deepest azure; and in others
varies into paleness, in shades of all degrees between that and a pure
crystal brightness, without the least tinge of colour, but with a lustre
much superior to the crystal. The oriental sapphire is the most
beautiful and valuable. It is transparent, of a fine sky colour,
sometimes variegated with veins of a white sparry substance, and
distinct separate spots of a gold colour. Whence it is that the prophets
describe the throne of God like unto sapphire, Ezek. i, 26; x, 1.
Isaiah, liv, 11, 12, prophesying the future grandeur of Jerusalem, says,
“Behold, I lay thy stones in cement of vermilion,
And thy foundations with sapphires:
And I will make thy battlements of rubies,
And thy gates of carbuncles;
And the whole circuit of thy walls shall be of precious stones.”
“These seem,” says Bishop Lowth, “to be general images to express
beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the
ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be
strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they
had each of them some precise moral or spiritual meaning.” Tobit, xiii,
16, 17, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes
the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner: “For Jerusalem shall be
built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls,
and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of
Jerusalem shall be paved with the beryl and carbuncle, and with stones
of Ophir,” Rev. xxi, 18–21.
v, 14; Isa. liv, 11; Ezek. i, 26; x, 1; xxviii, 13, σάϖφειρος, Rev. xxi,
19, only. That this is the sapphire, there can be no doubt. The
Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the general run of commentators, ancient
and modern, agree in this. The sapphire is a pellucid gem. In its finest
state it is extremely beautiful and valuable, and second only to the
diamond in lustre, hardness, and value. Its proper colour is pure blue;
in the choicest specimens it is of the deepest azure; and in others
varies into paleness, in shades of all degrees between that and a pure
crystal brightness, without the least tinge of colour, but with a lustre
much superior to the crystal. The oriental sapphire is the most
beautiful and valuable. It is transparent, of a fine sky colour,
sometimes variegated with veins of a white sparry substance, and
distinct separate spots of a gold colour. Whence it is that the prophets
describe the throne of God like unto sapphire, Ezek. i, 26; x, 1.
Isaiah, liv, 11, 12, prophesying the future grandeur of Jerusalem, says,
“Behold, I lay thy stones in cement of vermilion,
And thy foundations with sapphires:
And I will make thy battlements of rubies,
And thy gates of carbuncles;
And the whole circuit of thy walls shall be of precious stones.”
“These seem,” says Bishop Lowth, “to be general images to express
beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the
ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be
strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they
had each of them some precise moral or spiritual meaning.” Tobit, xiii,
16, 17, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes
the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner: “For Jerusalem shall be
built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls,
and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of
Jerusalem shall be paved with the beryl and carbuncle, and with stones
of Ophir,” Rev. xxi, 18–21.