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SandyA March 24, 2010

Are diamonds ever mentioned in the bible?

I'm a devout christian and will only buy diamonds if my priest says it's ok. Can you tell be if diamonds are mentioned in the bible?

Answers (1 - 4 of 4)

Urherew April 27, 2012

1 Corinthians 10:26 says "For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof". Also, Genesis 1:31 declares "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good". Therefore, all that God made in this earth is, according to Scripture, good. And that includes diamonds.

NickI April 11, 2010

Yes diamonds are mentioned in the bible, but we can never be entirely certain that what our biblical ancestors were referring to as a diamond is the same thing that we refer to as a diamond today. In Biblical Hebrew the word for diamond is "shmyr" and it is mentioned a few times: in Ezekiel 3:9, Jeremiah 17:1 and Zechariah 7:12. But the passages talk about the diamond's qualities and its hardness. In Jeremiah the diamond is used as the point of an engraving pen. However, there are other precious gemstones that are hard enough to engrave stone as well, so this isn't enough proof that the passage in Jeremiah is talking about diamonds as we know them. We do know that there were diamonds during the biblical time period because it is known that the first diamonds were discovered in India thousands of years ago, so there is certainly a chance that they made their way to the land of Israel.

GregoryO March 29, 2010

Diamonds are mentioned in Exodus.

ViktorR March 28, 2010

I checked in Exodus and the reference to precious gemstones probably is not meant to refer to diamonds. The translation of the names of different gemstones has changed over the years, so although in Exodus 28:18 there is a reference to 'yahalom' which is the Modern Hebrew word for diamond, historians and interpreters of the bible believe that what is actually being referred to here is a pearl. The passage is talking about what precious gemstones were set into the Hoshen, which was the sacred breast plate worn by the High Priest of the Israelites during biblical times. The Hoshen was set with 12 precious gemstones, with each one representing one of the 12 tribes of Israel. The passage says that 'yahalom' (or 'diamond') represents the Israelite tribe of Zebulun, but acutally it is not likely. It was probably a very hard possibly clear stone, although that does not necessarily mean it was a diamond.