Beryl

Beryl is one of the named precious stones of Scripture. It belongs to a small inventory of gems that recur in three settings: the worship furniture of Israel, the prophetic visions of Yahweh's glory, and the architecture of the new Jerusalem. The stone is never the subject of its own narrative; its work is always to give weight, color, and sanctity to whatever it adorns.

Set in the High Priest's Breastplate

The first occurrence of beryl in Scripture is on Aaron's breastplate. The breastplate itself is "a breastplate of judgment, the work of the skillful workman; like the work of an ephod you will make it; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen" (Ex 28:15). Onto its panel are set four rows of stones: "a row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle will be the first row; and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they will be enclosed in gold in their settings" (Ex 28:17-20).

Beryl thus stands in the tenth position of twelve, in the bottom row, before the high priest as he carries the names of Israel into the holy place. The same arrangement is repeated when the breastplate is actually constructed: "And they set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle was the first row; and the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jaspar: they were enclosed in enclosings of gold in their settings" (Ex 39:10-13). The materials list given to Moses for the sanctuary already anticipates this use of named stones: "onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate" (Ex 25:7).

Beauty in the Beloved

In the Song of Solomon the stone leaves the sanctuary and enters the language of love. The bride describes her beloved's hands in the same idiom of fitted gemwork that the breastplate uses: "His hands are rings of gold set with beryl: His insides are ivory work overlaid [with] sapphires" (Song 5:14). The image leans on the stone's familiar setting — a precious gem fixed in gold — and applies it to the body of the beloved.

Wheels and Glory in Ezekiel's Visions

Ezekiel uses beryl twice to describe what the prophet saw under the throne. In the inaugural vision by the Chebar, the wheels beside the four living creatures gleam with the color of the stone: "The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and the four of them had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel inside a wheel" (Eze 1:16). The same image returns when the glory is about to depart from the temple: "And I looked, and saw, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone" (Eze 10:9).

The stone also surfaces in Ezekiel's lament over the king of Tyre, who is pictured in Eden among an inventory of precious stones identical in vocabulary to the breastplate inventory: "every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold" (Eze 28:13). Beryl belongs to the standard biblical roster of stones used to figure royal and priestly splendor.

In the Foundation of the New Jerusalem

The stone's last appearance is in John's vision of the city. The foundations of the wall of the new Jerusalem are "adorned with all manner of precious stones," and the list as it descends to the eighth course names beryl by name: "the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst" (Rev 21:20). The same gem that once stood in the tenth position on the breastplate of judgment now stands in the eighth foundation of the city of God. The sanctuary stone has become a foundation stone.