Meaning of CORAL

Heb.: "Ra'moth." This substance was classified among the most precious (Jb. 28:18). Aramaean merchants brought coral to the markets of Tire (Ez. 27:16).

It was extracted from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and necklaces and amulets were made with it. Coral is the calcareous skeleton of ooze polyps. These are zoophytes with a mouth with tentacles.

The polyp fixed to the rock multiplies and forms polymers, analogous to small trees made of half-separated and half-attached zoophytes.

The calcium carbonate that makes up the coral skeleton comes from water. Often, coral takes on the appearance of a beautiful branching tree, or a bush, hence its name zoophyte (animal with the appearance of a plant).

Some species form large reefs. The heb. "peninim" seems more uncertain. In Lm. 4:7 the King James Version translates “chorale,” along with most other versions.

Some, however, translate "rubies"; The same King James Version translates this term as "precious stones" in Prov. 3:15.