How do sapphires fulfill Biblical prophecy? How is God's appearance to Moses linked to this gemstone? What role does this precious gemstone play in Ezekiel's famous wheel within a wheel vision? What is the folklore surrounding this stone?
Description of Gem
Sapphires are one of the four traditional gemstones which includes diamonds, rubies and emeralds.
Sapphires are composed of crystalline aluminum oxide (corundum). They are formed deep in the Earth under high heat and pressure, in both metamorphic and igneous rock.
Trace elements determine the color of the sapphire. Iron and titanium, for example, produce the classic blue coloration. Other possible colors of this gem include pink, yellow, green and purple. The rarest and most valuable coloration is a delicate pink and orange. Sapphires that are colorless are considered fancy.
Sources
Modern sapphires are found in Kashmir, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Australia, Thailand, and the U.S. state of Montana.
How Hard Is it?
Sapphires have a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale where 10 is the hardest gemstone. They, along with rubies, are the second hardest precious stones mentioned in Scripture.
Biblical Occurrences
The gemstone known as sapphire is recorded, by name, twelve times in twelve King James Bible verses. It is found the most in Exodus and Ezekiel (3 times each) followed by Job (2) and once each in Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Lamentations and Revelation.
Sapphires, along with the onyx stone, hold the distinction of being the most frequently mentioned gemstone in the King James!
The ancient Israelites, under Moses, agree to a special relationship with God known as the Old Covenant (Exodus 19 - 23). Moses, Aaron, Aaron's two sons and seventy of Israel's elders are then invited to a covenant meal before God on Sinai!
God's appearance to the elders was breathtaking. Under his feet, as he sat to eat a covenant meal, was a type of pavement that appeared to look like sapphires!
And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. (Exodus 24:10, KJV throughout).
The patriarch Job, in discussing the knowledge of natural things, mentions where sapphires are created.
Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.
As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire. The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold. (Job 28:1, 5 - 6).
Job, in his discourse concerning his trials, comments that wisdom was more valuable than precious metals or even sapphires.
But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? . . . It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. (Job 28:12, 15 - 16).
Solomon's future bride describes him using incredible metaphors one of which likens his stomach to sapphires!
His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. (Song of Solomon 5:13 - 14).
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. (Isaiah 54:11).
Jeremiah, in his book of Lamentations, writes about the destruction of Jerusalem and the penalties that came due to disobeying God.
Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
Their visage (now) is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. (Lamentations 4:7 - 8).
In Ezekiel's well-known "wheel in a wheel" vision of God's glory and throne, he sees things colored like this gemstone.
And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it . . .
Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. (Ezekiel 1:26, 10:1).
God created angels before he made the physical universe (Job 38:4, 6 - 7). When He made Lucifer, his greatest creation before humans existed, he adorned him with many gemstones, one of which was a sapphire.
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 . . . (Ezekiel 28:13).
John's prophecy of the New Jerusalem reveals that sapphires will be utilized by God to create the city's second foundation stone!
And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire (Greek sappheiros, Strong's #G4552); the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald . . . (Revelation 21:19).
Exception to the Rule
Even though the word "sapphire" is recorded twelve times in the KJV Bible, two of these occurrences are technically not valid.
Exodus 28:18 and 39:11, in the King James, states one of the stones in the High Priest's breastplate is a sapphire.
And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. (Exodus 28:18).
Sapphires have a hardness value of nine, the same as rubies and second only to diamonds. All the gems in the breastplate required the name of an Israelite tribe engraved upon them (Exodus 28:21). The ability to engrave such a hard stone was almost certainly unknown at the time of Moses. The stone in the second row was likely a lapis lazuli which is much softer with a hardness value of 5 to 5.5.
Other Uses
Sapphires are the gems of choice for many royal engagement rings.
Folklore and Facts
Sapphires, in the past, were associated with wisdom, loyalty, and nobility.
Sapphires, in ancient times, were believed not only to be an antidote against poison but also a powerful charm that protected the wearer from fever (Diamonds, Pearls and Precious Stones, page 60).
This gemstone was also believed to protect kings from harm. Those who wore it believed that it could not only protect them from envy but also grant them favor with God.
A necromancer is someone who uses black magic to trick others into believing they had the power to contact the dead. Those who practice such black arts, among many condemned in the Bible, sought sapphires for their believed power to enable them to hear and understand obscure oracles (Curious Lore of Precious Stones, page 104 - 105).