Coral

ראמות , Job 28:18; Eze 27:16; a hard, cretaceous, marine production resembling in figure the stem of a plant, divided into branches. It is of different colours—black, white, and red. The latter is the sort emphatically called coral, as being the most valuable, and usually made into ornaments. This, though no gem, is ranked by the author of the book of Job 28:18, with the onyx and sapphire. Dr. Good observes, “It is by no means certain what the words here rendered ‘corals and pearls,’ and those immediately, afterward rendered ‘rubies and topaz,’ really signified. Reiske has given up the inquiry as either hopeless or useless; and Schultens has generally introduced the Hebrew words themselves, and left the reader of the translation to determine as he may. Our common version is, in the main, concurrent with most of the oriental renderings: and I see no reason to deviate from it.”

Coral (Job 28:18; Eze 27:16), a hard, cretaceous marine production arising from the deposit of calcareous matter by a minute polypus animal, in order to form the cell or polypidom into whose hollows the tenant can wholly or partially retire. The corals thus produced are of various shapes, most usually branched like a tree. The masses are often enormous in the tropical seas, where they top the reefs and cap the submarine mountains, frequently rising to or near the surface so as to form what are called coral islands and coral reefs. These abound in the Red Sea; from which, most probably, was derived the coral with which the Hebrews were acquainted; but coral is also found in the Mediterranean. It is of different colors, white, black, red. The red kind was anciently, as at present, the most valued, and was worked into various ornaments.

A hard calcareous, marine production, produced by the labors of millions of insects, and often resembling in figure the stem of a plant, divided into branches. It is of various colors, black, white, and red. The latter is the most valuable. It is ranked by Job 28:18, and Eze 27:16, among precious stones. It abounds in the Red sea; and the islands of the South seas are often coral reefs, covered over with earth. The word "rubies" in Pro 3:15 ; 8:11; 20:15; 31:10, is thought by many to mean ornaments of coral.\par

Coral. Eze 27:16. A production of the sea, formed by minute animals called zoophytes. It is their shell or house. It takes various forms, as of trees, shrubs, hemispheres. The principal colors are red and white. It was used for beads and ornaments.

With regard to the estimation in which coral was held by the Jews and other Orientals, it must be remembered that coral varies in price with us. Pliny says that the Indians valued coral as the Romans valued pearls. Job 28:18.

More precious in ancient times than now, when it is more easily procured (Job 28:18; Eze 27:16). The red coral is the stony skeleton of a red zoophyte. In the Mediterranean, on the African coast off Tunis, attached to the rock at a considerable depth, and broken off from them by long hooked poles, and thus drawn out (Hebrew for "price," Job 28:18, is meshek, "the drawing out".) From Carthage (where Tunis now stands) the rough coral was imported to the mother city Tyre, and there manufactured into ornaments to be purchased by merchants for the women of Syria. Its tree-like growth is implied by its name ramoth, from raam "to be high"; others from the Sanskrit ramye, "pleasant."

is usually understood to be denoted by the word רָאמוֹת(ramoth’, literally heights, i.e. high-priced or valuable things, or from its upright growth; Sept. μετέωρα, but in Ezekiel ῾Ράμοθ), in Job 28:18; Eze 27:16; and this interpretation is not unsuitable (comp. Niebuhr, Beschr. p. 41), although the etymology is not well made out (Pareau, De immortalitatis notitiis Iob [Daventr. 1808], p. 321 sq.), and the dialects afford little support. According to the Rabbins, it means red corals. The ancient translators were evidently much perplexed to determine whether the word פְּנַינַים(peninim’, literally branches; rendered “rubies,” Job 28:18; Pro 3:15; Pro 8:11; Pro 20:15; Pro 31:10; Lam 4:7) meant corals or pearls. This will always be doubtful; but the text in Lam 4:7, by describing the article as red, suggests a preference of the former. It is scarcely credible, indeed, that such a product should have circulated under two different names (if ramoth also means coral); but surely there is no difficulty in conceiving that one word may have denoted coral generally, while another may have distinguished that red coral which was the most esteemed, and the most in use for ornament (see Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 1113, 1249).

Coral is a hard, cretaceous marine production, arising from the deposit of calcareous matter by a minute polypous animal, in order to form the cell or polypidom into whose hollows the tenant can wholly or partially retire. The corals thus produced are of various shapes, most usually branched like a tree. The masses are often enormous in the tropical seas, where they top the reefs and cap the submarine mountains, frequently rising to or near the surface, so as to form what are called coral islands and coral reefs (see Kitto, Pict. Bible, on Job 28:18). These abound in the Red Sea (Wellsted, Trav. 2:181; Ruppel, Abyssin. 1:140), from which, most probably, was derived the coral with which the Hebrews were acquainted; but coral is also found in the Mediterranean. The coral brought by the merchants of Syria to Tyre must have come from the Indian seas, by the Euphrates and Damascus (comp. Plin. 32:2). Coral was in higher esteem formerly as a precious substance than now, probably because the means of obtaining it in a fine state were not so efficacious as those now practiced. It is of different colors — white, black, red. The red was anciently, as at present, the most valued, and was worked into various ornaments (Plin. 32:11; comp. Hartmann, Hebr. 1:275 sq.).

For the scientific classification of corals, see the Penny Cyclopoedia, s.v. Polyparia. The red variety is the stony skeleton of a compound zoophyte, allied to the sea-apemones of our coasts. It forms a much-branching shrub, the beautiful scarlet stone constituting the solid axis, which is covered during life by a fleshy bark, out of which protrude here and there upon thesurface minute polypes with eight tentacles. It is found attached to the rocks at considerable depths, as from 20 to 120 fathoms. The demand for it has given rise to a fishery of some importance, about 180 boats being employed in it on the coast of Algeria, of which 156 fish in the neighborhood of Bona and Calla, obtaining 36,000 kilogrammes (about 720 cwt.) of coral; and this, selling at the rate of 60 francs per kilogramme, produces a return of $450,000. The mode by which it is obtained is the same which has always prevailed, and is rude and wasteful. A great cross of wood loaded with stones, and carrying at the end of each arm a sort of net formed of cords partly untwisted, is lowered from a boat, and dragged over the bottom. The branches of the corals are entangled in this apparatus, and, as the boat moves on, are torn off; at intervals it is pulled up, and the produce secured. Of course a great deal must be broken off which is not secured, but yet it is a profitable employment. A boat manned by nine or ten hands has been known to bring in 80 or 100 kilogrammes in a day, yielding $100 or $125; but such success is rare. The fishery is prosecuted from the 1st of April to the end of September, during which there may be on the average about 100 days in which the fishermen can work (Milne Edwards, Hist. des Corallines). SEE GEM.

The Hebrew word is ramoth, and occurs only in Job 28:18 and Eze 27:16: it signifies high priced or costly things. The Rabbis think it refers to red coral.

By: Emil G. Hirsch

A genus of polypus known to science as "coralligenous zoophytes"; also the hard structures secreted by these animals. The variety known as the red coral (Corallium rubrum) (Pliny, xxxii. 2, 11, and elsewhere) is found in the Mediterranean, and was greatly valued by the ancients. It was used for personal ornament, and also for talismans and amulets. It is not certain that the ancient Hebrews were familiar with the coral. The A. V. translates the Hebrew "coral" in Job xxviii. 18 and in Ezek. xxvii. 16, while in Prov. xxiv. 7 both the A. V. and R. V. give "too high" as an equivalent for the same Hebrew word.

In favor of a derivation from ("to be high") it might be urged that the red coral has a natural upward form of growth. According to Freitag ("Einleitung in das Studium der Arabischen Sprache," p. 332), the coral in use among the Arabs was white, not red. But he confounds glass beads with corals. In Job xxviii. 18 the Septuagint reads μετήωρο, Sym. ὑψηλά, Vulgate excelsa, showing the influence of the etymology from the word meaning "to be high." The Targum renders according to Cheyne = σαυδαράκη), which is entirely inapplicable here; Jastrow prefers "sardonyx," Levy "sandarachina." Rashi holds to be the name of a precious stone found in the water. Ibn Ezra gives no explanation, and Gersonides, with the Targum, the paraphrase "costly pearls."

Of modern commentators, Dillmann thinks that "ramoth" (Job xxviii. 18), which Luther simply transliterates, designates something less valuable than "peninim," mentioned in the second half of the verse. Friedrich Delitzsch (in his German translation of Job, 1902) translates it "pearl shells." In Ezek. xxvii. 16 the Septuagint (Alexandrine Codex) has the transliteration ραμμωΘ, the Vulgate sericum, and Targum "precious stones"; Luther, "sammet."

In Prov. xxiv. 7 "ramoth" suggests perhaps a play upon the word (= "too high"), but Bickell suggests a change into , the Septuagint having an altogether different reading. In the margin of R. V. (Lam. iv. 7) "corals," "red corals," and "pearls" are suggested as truer renderings for the Hebrew word "peninim" (Job xxviii. 18; Prov. iii. 15, viii. 11, xx. 15, xxxi. 10). Luther has this translation in Lam. iv. 7; Friedrich Delitzsch in Job xxviii. 18. Gesenius ("Th.") holds "peninim" to be the red coral, and "ramoth" to be another, probably the black, variety. The use of the word ("draft") in connection with "peninim" in Job xxviii. 18, appears to recall the method employed in coral-fishing. Coral is broken off from the rocks by long hooked poles, and "drawn out."

Of medieval Jewish lexicographers, Abu al-Walid, in his "Book of Roots," rejects the opinion that "ramoth" signifies "coral." Ḳimḥi, in his dictionary, explains it as a precious stone. See Menahem ben Saruḳ in "Maḥberet," and "Sefer ha-Parḥon."

CORAL.—See Jewels and Precious Stones.

kor´al (ראמות, rā’mōth, פנינים, p^enı̄nı̄m): The red coral or precious coral, Corallium rubrum, is confined to the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. It is the calcareous axis of a branching colony of polyps. It does not form reefs, but occurs in small masses from 40 to 100 fathoms below the surface. It differs totally in structure from the white corals which form coral reefs, belonging to the order of Octactinia or Eight-rayed Polyps, while the reef-building corals belong to the Hexactinia or Six-rayed Polyps.

Rā’mōth, apparently from r. rā’am, “to be high” (compare rūm, “to be high”), occurs in three passages. In Pro 24:7, EVV have “too high”: “Wisdom is too high for a fool.” In Job 28:12-19, where various precious things are compared with wisdom, English Versions of the Bible has “coral”(King James Version, margin “Ramoth”). It is mentioned here along with ṣ^eghōr, “gold” (the Revised Version, margin “treasure”); kethem, “gold of Ophir”; shōham, “onyx” (the Revised Version, margin “beryl”); ṣappı̄r, “sapphire”; zāhābh, “gold”; z^ekhūkhı̄th, “crystal” (the Revised Version (British and American) “glass”); pāz, “gold”; gābhı̄sh, “pearls” (the Revised Version (British and American) “crystal”); p^enı̄nı̄m, “rubies” (the Revised Version, margin “red coral” or “pearls”); piṭ^edhāh, “topaz.” While the real meaning of some of these terms is doubtful (see STONES, PRECIOUS), they all, including rā’mōth, appear to be precious stones or metals. In Eze 27:16, ה, rā’mōth occurs with nōphekh, “emeralds” (the Revised Version, margin “carbuncles”); ’argāmān, “purple”; riḳmāh, “broidered work”; būc, “fine linen”; kadhkōdh, “agate”(King James Version, margin “chrysoprase,” the Revised Version (British and American) “rubies”). Here the context does not require a precious stone or metal, and Vulgate (Jerome’s Latin Bible, 390-405 ad) has sericum, i.e. “Chinese material” or “silk.” Notwithstanding, therefore, the traditional rendering, “coral,” the real meaning of rā’mōth must be admitted to be doubtful.

P^enı̄nı̄m (from the root pānan, “to divide up,” “to separate”; compare Arabic fanan, “a branch of a tree”) occurs in Job 28:18; Pro 3:15; Pro 8:11; Pro 20:15; Pro 31:10; Lam 4:7. In all these passages English Versions of the Bible has “rubies” (Job 28:18, the Revised Version, margin “red coral” or “pearls”; Lam 4:7, the Revised Version, margin “corals”). Everywhere a precious substance is indicated, but nowhere does the context give any light as to the nature of the substance, except in Lam 4:7, where we have the statement that the nobles of Jerusalem “were more ruddy in body” than p^enı̄nı̄m̌. This and the etymology favor a branching red substance such as precious coral. The occurrence of p^enı̄nı̄m and rā’mōth together in Job 28:18 is, if we give the precedence to p^enı̄nı̄m, a further argument against rā’mōth meaning “coral.”

A hard, stone-like substance, usually

pink, red, or black, that is formed from

the skeletons of tiny sea animals and

covers the ocean floor in certain areas.

Coral is a hard substance that is made when tiny sea animals build protective outer shells (similar to the hard shells that protect snails). These shells are made of calcium, the same mineral that makes bones and teeth strong. When many of these small animals live and die in the same place, their shells build up to create large structures in the ocean.

Coral occurs in a variety of colors—red, white, and black. The red coral (Corallium rubrum) that grows in the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea has been especially valuable throughout history. People have used this red coral to make jewelry and medicine. While alive, it appears green and shrublike, resembling an underwater plant. It looks this way because the tiny coral animals attach themselves to one spot and cannot move around. Once out of water, it turns hard and red.

In ancient times, coral was used as currency, alongside gems, pearls, and gold. Some Bible scholars think that when the book of Lamentations 4:7 mentions something red and precious, it is talking about pearls instead of coral. However, Job 28:18 and Ezekiel 27:16 likely refer to red coral.

See also Animals; Minerals and Metals; Precious Stones.

Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.