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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Topaz
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From pitdah (Hebrew) by transposition. One of the hyaline corundum stones, bright yellow. Second in the first row of the high-priest's breast-plate (; ), ninth foundation stone of the wall of New Jerusalem (). Job () represents it as from Ethiopia,; so Strabo (xvi. 770), Diodorus (iii. 39), and Pliny (xxxvii. 32). The king of Tyre wore it; among the nine of the 12 jewels of the high priest's breast-plate; as type of antichrist who shall usurp Christ's king priesthood (). Septuagint, Vulgate, and Josephus identify the Greek topaz with the Hebrew pitdah; and Smith's Bible Dictionary identifies the topaz as our chrysolite and the ancient chrysolite as our topaz. Pliny (H. N. 37, section 8) speaks of "the green tints of the topaz," meaning our chrysolite.