Marble
Marble appears in the UPDV as a luxury construction stone — stockpiled for the Jerusalem sanctuary, displayed in the pillars and pavements of the Persian court, figuring the legs of the beloved in the Song, and listed among the cargo no merchant can sell when Babylon falls.
Stockpiled for the House of God
David's preparation-inventory for the temple closes its stone-cluster with marble. After the structural metals (gold, silver, bronze, iron) and timber, and after the onyx and inlay-stones of decorative work, marble is the abundance-stone: "all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance" (1Chr 29:2). The framing clause — "I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God" — places marble among the king-energy stockpile assembled for the sanctuary.
Pillars and Pavement of the Persian Court
In Shushan, marble names both the supports and the floor of the seven-day garden-feast. The hangings of white, green, and blue are fastened "with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble," and the couches of gold and silver rest "on a pavement of red, and white, and yellow, and black marble" (Esth 1:6). The same verse exhibits marble twice: as pillar-stone holding up the canopy and as four-color pavement under the banquet.
Pillars of the Beloved
The Song's praise of the beloved adopts the same pillar-image but turns it onto a body. "His legs are pillars of marble, set on sockets of fine gold: his aspect is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars" (Song 5:15). The marble-pillar figure that holds up a king's hangings in Esther here figures the standing strength of the beloved.
Babylon's Lost Cargo
In the lament over fallen Babylon, marble closes the merchandise-list of vessel-materials. The merchants' inventory runs through gold, silver, precious stone, pearls, fabrics, and dyes, then through thyine wood and ivory, and ends: "every vessel made of most precious wood, and of bronze, and iron, and marble" (Rev 18:12). Marble is the capstone hard-stone of the luxury-vessel catalog whose buyers have vanished with the city.