Hebrew word · H6357

פִּטְדָה

pitdah

topaz

A precious stone. Its origin is uncertain and it may be a foreign word. Besides the breastpiece lists (28:17; 39:10) it appears in Ezek 28:13 and in Job 28:19, as "the piṭdāh of Cush", a treasure that cannot match wisdom.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) topaz or chrysolite

1a) a precious stone

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Exodus 28:17

Range of meaning

A precious stone. Its origin is uncertain and it may be a foreign word. Besides the breastpiece lists (28:17; 39:10) it appears in Ezek 28:13 and in Job 28:19, as "the piṭdāh of Cush", a treasure that cannot match wisdom.

Against the English

Nearly all English versions say "topaz". NIV says "chrysolite", and NLT "pale-green peridot". Modern topaz is a different mineral from what the ancients called topazion.

How it drifted

English kept the Greek and Latin name "topaz", but over the centuries the name moved to a different stone. The Roman writer Pliny (Natural History 37) describes topazos as a greenish stone from an island in the Red Sea. It is generally identified with peridot, which is still mined on Zabargad (St John's Island) in the Red Sea.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint has topazion, and the Vulgate topazius. Job's "piṭdāh of Cush" points toward the lands south of Egypt and the Red Sea, which fits the classical description. Some scholars have proposed a link to an Indic word for "yellow", but this is speculative.

Where it appears

Exodus · 2

  1. Exodus 28:17 פִּטְדָה֙ a topaz

    And mount on it a setting of gemstones, four rows of stones: In the first row there shall be a ruby, a topaz, and an emerald;

    Here: A precious stone of uncertain identity. Job 28:19 links it with Cush, the lands south of Egypt. The Greek translators called it topazion, a name ancient writers gave to a yellow-green stone from a Red Sea island, probably what is now called peridot. It is not the modern topaz.

  2. Exodus 39:10 פִּטְדָה֙ a topaz

    And they mounted on it four rows of gemstones: The first row had a ruby, a topaz, and an emerald;

Job · 1

  1. Job 28:19 פִּטְדַת־ <the> topaz of

    Topaz from Cush cannot compare to it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 28:13 פִּטְדָ֞ה topaz

    You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation.

    Here: A yellowish or greenish gem, linked with Cush (Job 28:19). Possibly peridot or chrysolite; the identification is uncertain.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.