Topic
Adamant
9 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Ezekiel 3:9Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave A flint
As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
- Zechariah 7:12Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave A flint
Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.
- Jeremiah 17:1Easton · Smith · ISBE
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
- Isaiah 5:6ISBE
And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
- Isaiah 7:23–25ISBE
And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become…
- Isaiah 9:18ISBE
¶ For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
- Isaiah 10:17ISBE
And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
- Isaiah 27:4ISBE
Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
- Isaiah 32:13ISBE
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 3 references
(Heb. shamir), Ezek. 3:9. The Greek word adamas means diamond. This stone is not referred to, but corundum or some kind of hard steel. It is an emblem of firmness in resisting adversaries of the truth (Zech. 7:12), and of hard-heartedness against the truth (Jer. 17:1).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 3 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 9 references
ad'-a-mant (shamir (Eze 3:9; Zec 7:12)): In the passages cited and in Jer 17:1, where it is rendered "diamond" the word shamir evidently refers to a hard stone. The word adamant ("unconquerable") is used in the early Greek writers for a hard metal, perhaps steel, later for a metal-like gold and later for the diamond. The Hebrew shamir, the Greek adamas (from which word "diamond" as well as "adamant" is derived) and the English adamant occur regularly in figurative expressions. All three are equally indefinite. Adamant may therefore be considered a good translation for shamir, though the Septuagint does not use adamas in the passages cited. There is a possible etymological identification of shamir with the Greek smyris (smeris or smiris), emery, a granular form of corundum well known to the ancients and used by them for polishing and engraving precious stones. Corundum in all its forms, including the sapphire and ruby, is in the scale of hardness next to the diamond. In English Versions of the Bible Isa 5:6; 7:23-25; 9:18; 10:17; 27:4; 32:13, shamir is translated "brier". See also STONES, PRECIOUS.
Alfred Ely Day
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.