Hebrew word · H7215

רָאמוֹת

ramot

coral

A luxury material of uncertain identity. Coral is the traditional identification. Outside Job it appears in Ezek 27:16 as a trade good brought to Tyre with purple cloth, embroidery and fine linen.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

corals

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 Job 28:18

Range of meaning

A luxury material of uncertain identity. Coral is the traditional identification. Outside Job it appears in Ezek 27:16 as a trade good brought to Tyre with purple cloth, embroidery and fine linen. In Prov 24:7 the same spelling appears in a saying about wisdom, where it is usually read as 'too high' (from rûm, 'to be high'), possibly as a pun.

Against the English

Almost all English versions say 'coral'. That is a reasonable guess, but readers should know it is a guess.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel's list of goods traded at Tyre places it among imported luxury goods. The Septuagint and Vulgate here read it as 'high things' (meteōra; excelsa), from rûm, 'to be high'.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 28:18 רָאמ֣וֹת corals

    Coral and quartz are unworthy of mention; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

    Here: A costly natural material, probably coral (perhaps red coral from the Red Sea). Its exact identity is uncertain. It begins a list of luxury goods that do not even come close to wisdom's value.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 27:16 וְרָאמֹ֣ת and corals

    Aram was your customer because of your many products; they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your wares.

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