Revelation 21:11

21:11 The city possesses ¹  the glory of God; its brilliance is like a precious jewel, like a stone of crystal-clear jasper. ² 

Revelation 21:19-20

21:19 The foundations of the city’s wall are decorated ³  with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, ⁴  the fourth emerald, 21:20 the fifth onyx, ⁵  the sixth carnelian, ⁶  the seventh chrysolite, ⁷  the eighth beryl, ⁸  the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, ⁹  the eleventh jacinth, ¹⁰  and the twelfth amethyst.

Exodus 24:10

24:10 and they saw ¹¹  the God of Israel. Under his feet ¹²  there was something like a pavement ¹³  made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself. ¹⁴ 

Ezekiel 1:26

1:26 Above the platform over their heads was something like a sapphire shaped like a throne. High above on the throne was a form that appeared to be a man.

Ezekiel 28:13

28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. ¹⁵ 

Every precious stone was your covering,

the ruby, topaz, and emerald,

the chrysolite, onyx, and jasper,

the sapphire, turquoise, and beryl; ¹⁶ 

your settings and mounts were made of gold.

On the day you were created they were prepared.

¹ tn Grk “from God, having the glory of God.” Here a new sentence was started in the translation by supplying the words “the city” to refer back to the previous clause and translating the participle (“having”) as a finite verb.

² tn On the term ἰάσπιδι (iaspidi) BDAG 465 s.v. ἴασπις states, “jasper, a precious stone found in various colors, mostly reddish, somet. green…brown, blue, yellow, and white. In antiquity the name was not limited to the variety of quartz now called jasper, but could designate any opaque precious stone. Rv 21:18f. W. λίθος 4:3 (TestSol C 11:8). λίθος ἴασπις κρυσταλλίζων a stone of crystal-clear jasper 21:11 (cp. Is 54:12); perh. the opal is meant here; acc. to some, the diamond.”

³ tn The perfect participle here has been translated as an intensive (resultative) perfect.

⁴ sn Agate (also called chalcedony) is a semiprecious stone usually milky or gray in color (L&N 2.32).

⁵ sn Onyx (also called sardonyx) is a semiprecious stone that comes in various colors (L&N 2.35).

⁶ sn Carnelian is a semiprecious gemstone, usually red in color (L&N 2.36).

⁷ sn Chrysolite refers to either quartz or topaz, golden yellow in color (L&N 2.37).

⁸ sn Beryl is a semiprecious stone, usually blue-green or green in color (L&N 2.38).

⁹ sn Chrysoprase is a greenish type of quartz (L&N 2.40).

¹⁰ sn Jacinth is a semiprecious stone, probably blue in color (also called “hyacinth,” but that translation is not used here because of possible confusion with the flower of the same name). See L&N 2.41.

¹¹ sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 254) wishes to safeguard the traditional idea that God could not be seen by reading “they saw the place where the God of Israel stood” so as not to say they saw God. But according to U. Cassuto there is not a great deal of difference between “and they saw the God” and “the Lord God appeared” (Exodus, 314). He thinks that the word “God” is used instead of “Yahweh” to say that a divine phenomenon was seen. It is in the LXX that they add “the place where he stood.” In v. 11b the LXX has “and they appeared in the place of God.” See James Barr, “Theophany and Anthropomorphism in the Old Testament,” VTSup 7 (1959): 31-33. There is no detailed description here of what they saw (cf. Isa 6; Ezek 1). What is described amounts to what a person could see when prostrate.

¹² sn S. R. Driver suggests that they saw the divine Glory, not directly, but as they looked up from below, through what appeared to be a transparent blue sapphire pavement (Exodus, 254).

¹³ tn Or “tiles.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and like the body of heaven for clearness.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven” or “sky” depending on the context; here, where sapphire is mentioned (a blue stone) “sky” seems more appropriate, since the transparent blueness of the sapphire would appear like the blueness of the cloudless sky.

¹⁵ sn The imagery of the lament appears to draw upon an extrabiblical Eden tradition about the expulsion of the first man (see v. 14 and the note there) from the garden due to his pride. The biblical Eden tradition speaks of cherubs placed as guardians at the garden entrance following the sin of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:24), but no guardian cherub like the one described in verse 14 is depicted or mentioned in the biblical account. Ezekiel’s imagery also appears to reflect Mesopotamian and Canaanite mythology at certain points. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:119-20.

¹⁶ tn The exact identification of each gemstone is uncertain. The list should be compared to that of the priest in Exod 28:17-20, which lists twelve stones in rows of three. The LXX apparently imports the Exod 28 list. See reference to the types of stones in L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:91.