חַשְׁמַל

From the study of Ezekiel 1:4

Range of meaning

Uncertain. It is found only in Ezekiel 1:4, 1:27 and 8:2, always as the gleam at the fiery centre of the divine figure. Proposals include: (1) amber, the fossil resin; (2) electrum, a shining alloy of gold and silver; (3) a cognate of Akkadian elmešu, a gleaming precious substance associated with divine splendour in Mesopotamian texts, cited in standard lexicons such as HALOT; (4) metal glowing white-hot in a furnace, suggested by 'from the midst of the fire' and 1:27 ('like the gleam of chashmal, like the appearance of fire').

Against the English

KJV and BSB 'amber'; YLT 'copper'; WEB, NIV, ESV and NASB 'glowing' or 'gleaming metal'; NLT 'gleaming amber'.

How it drifted

'Amber' comes through the Septuagint's ēlektron and the Vulgate's electrum. In Greek, ēlektron could mean either amber or the gold-silver alloy. English settled on 'amber', which today means the orange-brown resin of jewellery shops. Separately, in the 19th century Modern Hebrew revived chashmal as its word for 'electricity', following the Greek ēlektron. That is a modern coinage, not the ancient meaning.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has ēlektron in all three places, and the Vulgate electrum. Early rabbinic tradition treated the word as the most sacred and dangerous part of the vision. The Mishnah restricts teaching of the 'chariot' (Hagigah 2:1) and its public reading (Megillah 4:10). The Babylonian Talmud tells of a child who understood chashmal and was consumed by fire, and plays on the word as chashot memallelot, 'creatures that are silent and then speak' (b. Hagigah 13a–b). The wordplay is later interpretation, not a guide to the word's origin.