Genesis 2 · Verse 12

Genesis 2:12

And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
Genesis 2:12, King James Version

Genesis 2:12 in other translations

BSBAnd the gold of that land is pure, and bdellium and onyx are found there.
WEBand the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there.
ASVand the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
YLTand the gold of that land is good, there is the bdolach and the shoham stone;
DARBYAnd the gold of that land is good; bdellium and the onyx stone are there.
BBEAnd the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
WebsterAnd the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx-stone.

What does Genesis 2:12 mean?

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 12 There is bdellium (בדלח bedolach) and the onyx stone, אבן השהם eben hashshoham - Bochart thinks that the bedolach or bdellium means the pearl-oyster; and shoham is generally understood to mean the onyx, or species of agate, a precious stone which has its name from ονυξ a man's nail, to the color of which it nearly approaches. It is impossible to say what is the precise meaning of the original words; and at this distance of time and place it is of little consequence.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Genesis 2:8-14

The place fixed upon for Adam to dwell in, was not a palace, but a garden. The better we take up with plain things, and the less we seek things to gratify pride and luxury, the nearer we approach to innocency. Nature is content with a little, and that which is most natural; grace with less; but lust craves every thing, and is content with nothing. No delights can be satisfying to the soul, but those which God…

Read the full comment on Genesis 2:8-14 →

Genesis 2:12 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וּֽזֲהַ֛בu.za.Havand [the] gold ofH2091
הָאָ֥רֶץha.'A.retzthe landH776
הַהִ֖ואha.Hiv'<the> thatH1931
ט֑וֹבTov[is] goodH2896
שָׁ֥םsham[are] thereH8033
הַבְּדֹ֖לַחha.be.Do.lach<the> bdelliumH916
וְאֶ֥בֶןve.'E.venand [the] stone ofH68
הַשֹּֽׁהַם\׃ha.Sho.ham<the> onyxH7718

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Genesis 2:12

  • Ezekiel 28:13

    Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

  • Job 28:16

    It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

  • Exodus 28:20

    And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings.

  • Exodus 39:13

    And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper: they were inclosed in ouches of gold in their inclosings.

  • Numbers 11:7

    And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Bdellium is a transparent aromatic gum. The onyx is a precious stone, so called from a Greek word signifying a man's nail, to the colour of which it nearly approaches.
Nu 11:7
onyx.
Ex 28:20; 39:13; Job 28:16; Eze 28:13

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Genesis 2:11

    The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

  • Genesis 2:12

    And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

  • Genesis 2:13

    And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

Read all of Genesis 2

Genesis 2:12 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y el oro de aquella tierra es bueno: hay allí también bdelio y piedra cornerina.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Et l’or de ce pays-là est bon; là est le bdellium et la pierre d’onyx.
German
Elberfelder 1871		und das Gold dieses Landes ist gut; daselbst ist das Bdellion und der Stein Onyx.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		et aurum terræ illius optimum est; ibi invenitur bdellium, et lapis onychinus.