odem, i.e. "the red stone" (with a yellow shade). [Exo 28:17]; [Exo 39:10]; [Eze 28:13]. Much used by the ancients for seals, as being tough yet easily worked, beautiful, and susceptible of high polish; the best stone for engraving. Josephus (the best authority, being a priest, therefore having often seen the high priest’s breast-plate) calls it the sardonyx, the first stone in the high priest’s breast-plate, in Ant. 3:7, section 5, but the sard or sardine, B.J. 5:5, section 7. Both sardine and sardonyx are varieties of agate. He on the heavenly throne "was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine" ([Rev 4:3]). As the jasper (or else diamond) represents the divine brightness or holiness, so the red sardine (our cornelian) His fiery wrath; the same union as in [Eze 1:4]; [Eze 8:2]; [Dan 7:9]. Named from Sardis in Lydia, where it was first found. The Hebrew got their high priest’s sardines in Arabia, and from Egypt ([Exo 12:35]).
