onyx stones.The meaning of the word {shoham} is not easily determined. It has been variously rendered a beryl, emerald, prasius, sapphire, sardius, ruby, carnelian, onyx, and sardonyx. It may signify both the onyx and sardonyx. The latter stone is a mixture of the chalcedony and carnelian, sometimes in strata, and at other times blended together, and is found striped with white and red strata, or layers. It is generally allowed that there is no real difference, except in hardness, between the carnelian, chalcedony, agate, sardonyx, and onyx. The onyx is of a darkish horny colour, resembling the nail or hoof, from which circumstance it has its name [(onyx).] It has often a plate of a blueish white or red in it, and when on one or both sides of this white there appears a plate of a reddish colour, the jewellers call the stone a sardonyx.Ex 25:7Ex 28:9Ex 35:9Job 28:16Eze 28:13
ouches.{Mishbetzoth,} strait places, sockets, to insert the stones in, from {shavatz,} to straiten, enclose.
The word {yahalom} may mean the diamond, from {halam,} to beat, smite, because of its extreme hardness, by which it will beat to pieces the other stones. It is a fine pellucid substance never debased with any admixture of other matter; susceptible of elegant tinges from metal-line particles; giving fire with steel; not fermenting with acid menstrua; scarcely calcinable by any degree of fire; and of one simple and permanent appearance in all lights. It is the hardest and most valuable of all gems; when pure, perfectly clear and pellucid as the clearest water, and eminently distinguished from all other substances by its vivid splendour, and the brightness of its reflections.
fine.The word {Shesh} seems rather to mean cotton, than either fine linen or silk; called also {butz,} and by the Greeks, [byssos,] and Romans, {byssus.}
a girdle.{Avnet,} a belt or girdle, of the same kind as the eastern sash, which confines the loose garments about the waist; and in which their long skirts are tucked up when at work or on a journey.Ex 28:39