the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Bdellium
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or בדלה , occurs Genesis 2:12 , and Numbers 11:7 . Interpreters seem at a loss to know what to do with this word, and have rendered it variously. Many suppose it a mineral production. The Septuagint translates in the first place, ανθρακα , a carbuncle, and in the second, κρυσταλλον , a crystal. The rabbins are followed by Reland in calling it a crystal; but some, instead of bedolah, read berolah, changing the ד into ר , which are not always easily distinguished, and are often mistaken by transcribers; and so render it the beryl, which, say they, is the prime kind of crystal. The bedoleh, in Genesis, is undoubtedly some precious stone; and its colour, mentioned in Numbers, where the manna is spoken of as of the colour of bdellium, is explained by a reference to Exodus 16:14; Exodus 16:31 , where it is likened to hoar frost, which being like little fragments of ice, may confirm the opinion that the bdellium is the beryl, perhaps that pellucid kind, called by Dr. Hill the ellipomocrostyla, or beryl crystal.
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Bdellium'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/b/bdellium.html. 1831-2.
