Where are carbuncles (red garnets) mined in the world? What makes this stone unique in Scripture? What is its link to medieval cures and mythical beasts?
Description of Gem
Historically, the word "carbuncle" wasn't used as a mineral name. It was used, like in the King James Bible, as a generic term for any red gemstone. It usually refers to a red garnet (Wikipedia).
Garnets are nesosilicates that are usually found in metamorphic or, to a lesser extent, igneous rocks.
Sources
Red garnets are found in India, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Tanzania, Brazil, and the Czech Republic.
How Hard Is it?
Carbuncles (red garnet) have a hardness of 6.5 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale.
Biblical Occurrences
Carbuncles (red garnets) are mentioned by name, in the King James Bible, 4 times in 4 verses. It is found twice in Exodus and once each in Isaiah and Ezekiel.
Mistranslations
And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, shalt thou make it . . .
And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle (Hebrew barqath, Strong's Concordance #H1304): this shall be the first row. (Exodus 28:15, 17, KJV throughout, see also Exodus 39:10).
Unfortunately, the King James translation of "carbuncle" in Exodus 28:17 and 39:10 is almost certainly incorrect.
Strong's states barqath means "flashing" and is perhaps an emerald. Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew Definitions agrees with this assessment. The first century historian Josephus, as well as the Septuagint, Vulgate, NKJV and other translations label this stone as an emerald.
Carbuncles (red garnet), however, though not in the first row of the priest's breastplate, are hidden in the second row! The word "emerald" in Exodus 28:18 and 39:11 is highly likely a mistranslation of the Hebrew.
And the second row shall be an emerald (Hebrew nophek, Strong's #H5306), a sapphire, and a diamond. (Exodus 28:18, see also 39:11).
The Hebrew nophek in the above two verses is best translated as "carbuncle," specifically a red garnet.
"The Vulgate, Jerusalem Targum, Josephus and most authorities agree with the translation of nophek into "carbuncle" . . . While garnets are found in many colors, those of deep-red color were highly prized in ancient times" (Gemstones in the Breastplate, pages 18 - 19).
Comforting Jerusalem
God promises, in the Bible, that one day the afflictions of Jerusalem will end and she will be comforted. One of the comforts she will receive will be to be rebuilt using precious gemstones.
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles (red garnet), and all thy borders of pleasant stones. (Isaiah 54:11 - 12).
A Beautified Lucifer
The book of Ezekiel reveals that carbuncles (red garnets) were used by God to adorn the cherub named Lucifer upon his creation.
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. (Ezekiel 28:13).
Other Uses
Carbuncles (garnets), in the past, had a couple of interesting uses.
"The garnet is one of the oldest stones known. In some of the most ancient mummies discovered in Egypt are found necklaces and other jewels containing garnets . . .
"According to the Talmud, the only light which Noah had in the Ark was afforded by a carbuncle" (Diamonds, Pearls and Precious Stones, page 90).
Modern uses of garnets include abrasive blasting, water-filtration media, water-jet-assisted cutting, abrasive powders, nonslip coatings, and sandpaper. Industries such as aircraft and motor vehicle manufacturers, ceramics and glass producers, the petroleum industry, shipbuilders and others use this gem (U. S. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025).
Facts and Folklore
Garnets are one of the natural gemstones mined in the United States. Others include agate, beryl, coral, diamond, jade, jasper, opal, pearl, quartz, sapphire, topaz, tourmaline, turquoise, and many others. Six U.S. states, Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, California, Montana, and Maine, account for 71% of gem production in America. (Minerals Commodity Summaries 2025 published by U.S. Geological Survey).
The red garnet (carbuncle) is one of at least seven stones mislabeled in the Bible. The others that are mislabeled are carnelians, chrysoprase, lapis lazuli, peridot, turquoise and rock crystal.
The grinding up and ingesting of a garnet was once considered a remedy for various ailments.
"Precious stones were often employed as amulets, and some, not content to wear them externally, adopted the means of reducing them to powder, and taking them as internal remedies . . .
"Butler quotes from Encelins, who says that the garnet, if hung about the neck or taken in drink, much assisteth sorrow and recreates the heart." (On Superstitions Connected with the History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery, page 69 - 70).
Red garnets, historically, were symbolic of fire, protection, vitality, courage, and illumination.
Stones that are red like the color of blood, such as garnets and rubies, were believed to protect the wearer from wounds (especially in battle). Carbuncles were also, in ancient times, thought to protect seafaring people in tumultuous weather and keep them from drowning.
The eyes of the mythical beast known as the dragon were thought to be made of carbuncles (red garnets) (Curious Lore of Precious Stones, pages 33, 39, 61 - 62).
The stone was also thought to be a "heart stimulant" which supposedly could make a person so angry that it could lead to a stroke (ibid).
Hamlet by William Shakespeare refers to carbuncles in act 2 scene 2 line 401: "With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus . . ."