And the gold of that land [is] good: there [is] bdellium and the onyx stone.
12. bdellium ] LXX : Lat. bdellium. In Num 11:7, “manna” is compared with “ bdellium ”; where the LXX gives . Possibly it may be identified with an aromatic transparent resin, obtained from balsam ( balsamodendron mukul), and found in Arabia as well as in India, Bactria and Africa. The Hebrew name b’dla is probably a foreign word. Another rendering, “pearls” (which are abundantly found in the Persian Gulf), would be more poetical, and possibly more appropriate for comparison, with “manna”; but we can only conjecture.
the onyx stone ] or beryl. Hebrew Shoham mentioned elsewhere, Exo 25:7, Job 28:16. A precious stone is clearly intended; possibly = “carbuncle.” Assyriologists have identified it with an Assyrian word Samdu; but what Samdu was, is not known. Sayce conjectures “turquoise”; Haupt “pearl.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 12. There is bdellium ( bedolach) and the onyx stone, eben hashshoham.] Bochart thinks that the bedolach or bdellium means the pearl-oyster; and shoham is generally understood to mean the onyx, or species of agate, a precious stone which has its name from a man’s nail, to the colour of which it nearly approaches. It is impossible to say what is the precise meaning of the original words; and at this distance of time and place it is of little consequence.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Good, i.e. better than ordinary.
Bdellium, which signifies either a precious gum, of which see Num 11:7, or gems and pearls. Once for all observe, that many of the Hebrew words or names of stones, trees, birds, and beasts, are even to the Hebrew doctors and others, both ancient and modern interpreters, of uncertain signification, and that without any considerable inconvenience to us, who are free from the obligations which the Jews were formerly under of procuring such stones, and abstaining in their diet from such beasts and birds as then were sufficiently known to them; and if any were doubtful, they had one safe course, to abstain from them.
The onyx stone, a kind of precious stone, of which see Exo 25:7; 28:9,20.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the gold of that land is good,…. Arabia was famous for gold: Diodorus Siculus x speaks of gold in Arabia, called “apyrus”, which is not melted by fire out of small filings, as other; but as soon as dug is said to be pure gold, and that in the size of chestnuts, and of such a flaming colour, that the most precious stones are set in it by artificers for ornament: and in Colchis and Scythia, as Strabo y relates, there are rivers which produce gold; and from whence came the fable of the golden fleece, the Argonauts went to Colchis for:
there is the bdellium, and the onyx stone; the first of these is either an aromatic gum; the tree, according to Pliny z, is black, and is of the size of an olive tree, has the leaf of an oak, and its fruit is like capers; it is found in Arabia, India, Media, and Babylon; but the best, according to him, is in Bactriana, and, next to that, the bdellium of Arabia: or else it is a precious stone, and which the Jewish writers a commonly take to be crystal; and, according to Solinus b, the best crystal is in Scythia. Bochart c would have it that the pearl is meant, because of its whiteness and roundness, for which the manna is compared to it, Nu 11:7 and the rather because of the pearl fishery at Catipha, taking Havilah to be that part of Arabia which lies upon the Persian gulf. The latter, the onyx, is a precious stone, which has its name from its being of the colour of a man’s nail; and, according to Pliny d, the onyx marble is found in the mountains of Arabia, and the ancients thought it was nowhere else; and he speaks elsewhere of the Arabian onyx precious stone, and of the sardonyx, as in the same country e; and some think that is here meant; though the word is sometimes by the Septuagint rendered the emerald; and the best of these, according to Solinus f and Pliny g, were in Scythia.
(After the global destruction of Noah’s flood, it is doubtful that the location of these places could be determined with degree of certainty today. Ed.)
x Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 133. y Geograph. l. 1. p. 31. & l. 11. p. 344. z Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 9. a Jarchi in Numb. xi. 7. David de Pomis Tzemach David, fol. 8. 3. b Polyhistor. c. 25. c Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 5. p. 675, &c. d Nat. Hist. l. 36. c. 7. e lb. l. 37. c. 6. f Polyhistor. ut supra. (c. 25) g Ut supra, (Nat. Hist. l. 36.) c. 5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
12. Bdellium The word occurs only here and in Num 11:7. The Septuagint renders it by in this passage, and by in Numbers . Gesenius, following Bochart and the rabbins, takes the word collectively in the sense of pearls . The English version, bdellium, follows Josephus, the Vulgate, and the Greek versions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, and is as probably correct as any . Bdellium is a transparent, waxlike resin, now found on the trunks of trees in India .
Onyx stone Some render beryl; others, sardonyx . Some precious stone is meant, but it is impossible to determine its identity .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 2:12 And the gold of that land [is] good: there [is] bdellium and the onyx stone.
Ver. 12. And the gold of that land is good. ] But pale, because it feareth, saith one, wittily, those many that lie in wait for it. Sed melius est pallens aurum, quam fulgens aurichalcum. a The common cry is, “Who will show us any good?” Psa 4:6 That will I, saith God to Moses, when he gave him a glimpse of his glory. Exo 33:19 and I will “show thee, O man, what is good,” &c. Ostendam tibi omne bonum Mic 6:8-9 As for gold, how good soever in itself, it is to men but an imaginary good at best: for it is opinion which setteth the price upon it: brass or leather, forma publica percussum saith Seneca, that is, stamped for coin, may pass as well as gold; it did so some time in the Roman provinces; and here in England also, in the time of the barons’ wars. Yea, gold oft proves to the possessors a real evil. Pro 1:19-20 It doth always so, when it gets within them, b as it did within the covetous Pharisees, so that they “said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence”. as Job 31:24 Pindar saith, it was an opinion of the people concerning Rhodes, that Jupiter rained down gold upon that city, so rich it was; yet is it now in slavery to the Turk. America is said to have as much gold ore as other earth: yet are the Americans bound by the proud Spaniard to be both popish and poor upon pain of death. Susiana, the country here called Havilah, the gold whereof is so good, had its name from Shushan or Susa, the palace of the kings of Persia, the stones whereof were joined together with gold, saith Cassiodorus: yet is it now called, in the Persian tongue, Valdac, from the poverty of the place. “Trust not,” therefore, “in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy”. 1Ti 6:17
And the onyx-stone.
a Bernard.
b
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
verses 8-14 Figure of speech Parecbasis. App-6.
onyx. Hebrew. shoham, identified with Assyr. samtu, from that region.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Bdellium is a transparent aromatic gum. The onyx is a precious stone, so called from a Greek word signifying a man’s nail, to the colour of which it nearly approaches. Num 11:7
onyx: Exo 28:20, Exo 39:13, Job 28:16, Eze 28:13
Reciprocal: Exo 28:9 – onyx 1Ch 29:2 – onyx stones