Bible Dictionaries
Topaz

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

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 (Exodus 28:17; Exodus 39:10), ninth foundation stone of the wall of New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:20). Job (Job 28:19) 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 (Ezekiel 28:13). 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.

Bibliography Information
Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Topaz'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​fbd/​t/topaz.html. 1949.