(1.00) | (Rev 21:19) | 2 sn Agate (also called chalcedony) is a semiprecious stone usually milky or gray in color (L&N 2.32). |
(0.36) | (Sos 4:9) | 3 tn Alternately, “eye-stone [of your necklace].” The term עִינַיִךְ (ʿinayikh, “your eyes”) probably refers to her physical eyes (e.g., 4:1). However, in Sumero-Akkadian literature the term “eye” sometimes refers to the eye-stone of a necklace. Agate-stones were cut so that white stripes appeared around the black or brown core to look like the pupil on the eye. M. H. Pope (Song of Songs [AB], 482-83) suggests that the parallelism between the A and B lines suggests the following: “with one of your eye-stones” and “with one jewel of your necklace.” See W. G. Lambert, “An Eye Stone of Esarhaddon’s Queen and Other Similar Gems,” RA 63 (1969): 65-71. |