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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Sapphire
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One of the hyaline corundums; deep blue, hard, brilliant, and costly. Representing the hue of the divine throne. On the high-priest's breast-plate (); some think the lapis lazuli is meant (). ; ; ; ; , sapphire, sparkling in the girdle round Him; ; , "their polishing was of sapphire," they were like beautifully cut and polished sapphires. The sapphires represent the blue veins of a beautiful person (). The best sapphires came from Persia. Our sapphire is the azure or indigo blue, crystalline corundum; but the Latin and Greek sapphire was "refulgent with spots of gold, azure, never transparent, not suited for engraving when intersected with hard crystalline particles" (Pliny, H. N. 37:9); i.e. the lapis lazuli. The Hebrew lapis lazuli is transparent and suited for engraving; probably our sapphire.