VI. Yahalom. [יַהֲלֹם] The sixth stone of the Septuagint version and of Josephus is the ἴασπις, probably green jasper, or jade, and this has been assumed to show that in the original Hebrew text _yashpheh_ was the sixth stone, in place of _yahalom_. The twelfth stone of the Greek version is the ὀνύχιον or “onyx,” and this seems to be the most probable equivalent of the Hebrew _yahalom_. Some Hebrew sources, however, render it “diamond,” and Luther in his German version of the Bible, as well as our own Authorized Version, translates it thus. This rendering is based upon the derivation of the word _yahalom_ from a verb meaning “to smite,” thus making the name of the stone signify “the smiter,” a designation not inappropriate for the diamond, which, because of its extreme hardness, has the power to cut, or “smite,” all other stones. However, for this purpose the emery corundum, or smiris-point _shamir_, mentioned in Zechariah, was most likely used. The diamond was certainly not used in this way in very early times, although it is possible that the stone was employed in engraving in the fifth century B.C. These considerations induce us to prefer the traditional interpretation of _yahalom_, and translate it “onyx.” In this case “the smiter” could be explained as denoting the use of the engraved onyx for sealing, as the engraved figure or letters were struck upon some soft material to make an impression. Zebulun was the tribal name inscribed on the _yahalom_. VII. Leshem. [לֶשֶׁם] No stone in the breastplate is more difficult to determine than this one. The Septuagint, Josephus, and the Vulgate all translate _ligurius_, an appellation sometimes applied to amber, a substance quite unfitted for use in the breastplate among the other engraved stones. Probably the original significance of _ligurius_ was amber, this name being used because Liguria, in northern Italy, was the chief source of supply for Greece and the Orient; amber which had been gathered on the shores of the Baltic being brought by traders to Liguria and forwarded thence to other lands. As, however, the Greeks had another name for amber, _electron_, the name _ligurion_ appears to have been applied later to a variety of the jacinth somewhat resembling amber in color, and then to other varieties of the same stone. The original form of the name was evidently _ligurion_, which was later changed to _lyncurion_, and was then explained as meaning the urine of the lynx (from λύγξ, and οὖρον, urine). This fanciful etymology gave rise to the story that the _ligurios_, or rather _lyncurius_, was the solidified urine of the lynx. The term _lyncurion_, as used by Theophrastus, may possibly have included the sapphire as well as the jacinth, since he lays especial stress upon the coldness of this substance, a quality characteristic of the sapphire, and also of the still denser jacinth. Hence, it appears that we have, even in the name _ligurius_, some justification for accepting the rendering