behold: Ezekiel 1:15-17
as the: Daniel 10:6; Revelation 21:20
a beryl: Tarshish: is generally rendered by the LXX and the Vulgate the chrysolite, so called by the ancients (from χρυσος: (χρψσος:) strong:G5557, gold, and λιθος: strong:G3037, a stone), because of its fine gold yellow colour. It is now called by the moderns the topaz; is a very beautiful and valuable gem in its pure and perfect state, though very rarely found so; and the finer pieces of it are in hardness second only to the diamond. The Vulgate, however, in Ezekiel 1:16, renders, quasi visio maris: "as the appearance of the seas," i.e., azure; and Dr. Geddes (on Exodus 28:10) says, that, with Abarbanel, he believes the beryl to be intended. It is a pellucid gem, called by our lapidaries, aqua marina: of a sea or bluish green colour, found in the East Indies and about the gold mines of Peru. The genuine beryl never receives any other mixture of colour; and in its perfect state approaches the hardness of garnet.