Bdellium

Occurs only in Gen. 2:12, where it designates a product of the land of Havilah; and in Num. 11:7, where the manna is likened to it in colour. It was probably an aromatic gum like balsam which exuded from a particular tree (Borassus flabelliformis) still found in Arabia, Media, and India. It bears a resemblance in colour to myrrh. Others think the word denotes "pearls," or some precious stone.

בדלה, occurs Gen. ii, 12, and Num. xi, 7. Interpreters seem at a loss to know what to do with this word, and have rendered it variously. Many suppose it a mineral production. The Septuagint translates in the first place, ἀνθράκα, _a carbuncle_, and in the second, κρύϛαλλον, _a crystal_. The rabbins are followed by Reland in calling it a crystal; but some, instead of _bedolah_, read _berolah_, changing the ב into ר, which are not always easily distinguished, and are often mistaken by transcribers; and so render it the _beryl_, which, say they, is the prime kind of crystal. The _bedoleh_, in Genesis, is undoubtedly some precious stone; and its colour, mentioned in Numbers, where the manna is spoken of as of the colour of _bdellium_, is explained by a reference to Exod. xvi, 14, 31, where it is likened to hoar frost, which being like little fragments of ice, may confirm the opinion that the bdellium is the beryl, perhaps that pellucid kind, called by Dr. Hill the _ellipomocrostyla_, or beryl crystal.