ברקת, Exod. xxviii, 17; xxxix, 10; Ezek. xxviii, 13; and
ἄνθραξ, Eccles. xxxii, 5; Tobit xiii, 17; a very elegant and rare gem,
known to the ancients by the name ἄνθραξ, or _coal_, because, when held
up before the sun, it appears like a piece of bright burning charcoal:
the name _carbunculus_ has the same meaning. It was the third stone in
the first row of the pectoral; and is mentioned among the glorious
stones of which the new Jerusalem is figuratively said to be built.
Bishop Lowth observes that the precious stones, mentioned Isa. liv, 11,
12, and Rev. xxi, 18, seem 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, and minutely and particularly explained, as if they had
some precise moral or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the
final restoration of Israel, Tobit xii, 16,17, describes the new
Jerusalem in the same oriental manner.
ἄνθραξ, Eccles. xxxii, 5; Tobit xiii, 17; a very elegant and rare gem,
known to the ancients by the name ἄνθραξ, or _coal_, because, when held
up before the sun, it appears like a piece of bright burning charcoal:
the name _carbunculus_ has the same meaning. It was the third stone in
the first row of the pectoral; and is mentioned among the glorious
stones of which the new Jerusalem is figuratively said to be built.
Bishop Lowth observes that the precious stones, mentioned Isa. liv, 11,
12, and Rev. xxi, 18, seem 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, and minutely and particularly explained, as if they had
some precise moral or spiritual meaning. Tobit, in his prophecy of the
final restoration of Israel, Tobit xii, 16,17, describes the new
Jerusalem in the same oriental manner.