Jacinth

Jacinth is a red transparent variety of zircon used as a gemstone. Jacinth is also a flower of a reddish blue or deep purple (hyacinth), and hence a precious stone of that colour (Revelation 21:20). It has been supposed to designate the same stone as the ligure (Hebrew leshem) mentioned in Exodus 28:19 as the first stone of the third row in the high priest's breast-plate, the Hoshen. In Revelation 9:17 the word is simply descriptive of colour.

Additional recommended knowledge

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"Jacinths" are mentioned as decorating the city of Iram in Richard Francis Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson used the word 'jacinth' in his epic Morte D'Arthur, describing the jewelled hilt of Excalibur:

"There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,

And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,

Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth

And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:

For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,

Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth work

Of subtlest jewellery."

J.R.R. Tolkien used the word 'jacinth' to describe the deep-blue wall of space in his poem, The Happy Mariners:

"Past sunless lands to fairy leas

Where stars upon the jacinth wall of space

Do tangle burst and interlace"