Genesis 2:12
And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
And the gold of that land is good,.... Arabia was famous for gold: Diodorus Siculus {x} speaks of gold in Arabia, called "apyrus", which is not melted by fire out of small filings, as other; but as soon as dug is said to be pure gold, and that in the size of chestnuts, and of such a flaming colour, that the most precious stones are set in it by artificers for ornament: and in Colchis and Scythia, as Strabo {y} relates, there are rivers which produce gold; and from whence came the fable of the golden fleece, the Argonauts went to Colchis for:
there is the bdellium, and the onyx stone; the first of these is either an aromatic gum; the tree, according to Pliny {z}, is black, and is of the size of an olive tree, has the leaf of an oak, and its fruit is like capers; it is found in Arabia, India, Media, and Babylon; but the best, according to him, is in Bactriana, and, next to that, the bdellium of Arabia: or else it is a precious stone, and which the Jewish writers {a} commonly take to be crystal; and, according to Solinus {b}, the best crystal is in Scythia. Bochart {c} would have it that the pearl is meant, because of its whiteness and roundness, for which the manna is compared to it, Numbers 11:7 and the rather because of the pearl fishery at Catipha, taking Havilah to be that part of Arabia which lies upon the Persian gulf. The latter, the onyx, is a precious stone, which has its name from its being of the colour of a man's nail; and, according to Pliny {d}, the onyx marble is found in the mountains of Arabia, and the ancients thought it was nowhere else; and he speaks elsewhere of the Arabian onyx precious stone, and of the sardonyx, as in the same country {e}; and some think that is here meant; though the word is sometimes by the Septuagint rendered the emerald; and the best of these, according to Solinus {f} and Pliny {g}, were in Scythia.
(After the global destruction of Noah's flood, it is doubtful that the location of these places could be determined with degree of certainty today. Ed.)
{x} Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 133.
{y} Geograph. l. 1. p. 31. & l. 11. p. 344.
{z} Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 9.
{a} Jarchi in Numb. xi. 7. David de Pomis Tzemach David, fol. 8. 3.
{b} Polyhistor. c. 25.
{c} Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 5. p. 675, &c.
{d} Nat. Hist. l. 36. c. 7.
{e} lb. l. 37. c. 6.
{f} Polyhistor. ut supra. (c. 25)
{g} Ut supra, (Nat. Hist. l. 36.) c. 5.