A bright yellow metallic element, the most precious of all metals, the most easily shaped or drawn of all metals, and one of the heaviest.
They did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wire, to work it into the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.
Exod. 39:3
Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined.
Job 28:1
Gold is the most famous of earth's elements. Though widely distributed, sizable concentrations are rare. Occurring in nature in the "native" state, it was probably the first metal known to man. Pure gold has a characteristic yellow color which does not tarnish and goes through fire without color change caused by oxidation.
Since man's earliest contact with gold many interesting facts have been learned. Gold usually occurs in threads from fine to thick, as scales, grains, and occasionally in masses called nuggets. When it is found in its original location, one of the two general ways it occurs, it is said to be “in situ”. In this case it is usually found in quartz veins, though it does occur in several types of rocks. When the matrix in which gold occurs weathers away, the gold frequently washes into stream beds to be concentrated in sands or gravels even in sea beaches. This is called placer gold (the second main type) and is usually mined by washing, a process known as placer mining.
Placer gold from alluvial deposits was the first and usual source for the gold seeker. Egyptian monuments of the first dynasty, around 2900 B.C., depict the washing of gold ore. From classical mythology comes the legend of Jason and his Argonauts who set sail in their ship Argo (ca. 1200 B.C.) in search of the Golden Fleece. This famous adventure had as its goal the seizure of the extremely fine gold dust caught in sheepskins by the mining inhabitants of Colchis (later known as Armenia).
Placer gold is found from fine dust to large nuggets. A nugget of 161 pounds was found in California, but even larger ones have been found in Australia. One famous nugget, the Welcome Stranger Nugget, weighed more than 190 pounds, but the largest found in the Australian gold rush days of 1851 was the Holtermann Nugget, weighing more than 200 pounds.
The leading gold producing mine in the United States is the Homestake Mine at Lead, South Dakota, a lode mine. It produces about 600,000 ounces of gold each year and has been a producing mine for almost a century. Since 1877, the Homestake has produced 27,333,000 ounces of gold. (Figured at $360 per ounce, this would be $9,839,880,000). The richest gold region is the Rand area in South Africa, where the deepest mines are located. The district around Johannesburg has yielded more than ($12 trillion) since the discovery of gold there in 1886. Some of the air conditioned mines are more than 9,000 feet deep.
Gold is the most malleable of all metals. A bit of gold smaller than the size of a pinhead, weighing one grain, can be beaten into gold leaf only 1/250,000 of an inch thick which covers an area of 56 square inches. Gold is also an extremely ductile metal. The same amount of gold can be drawn into a wire nearly 500 feet long.
Palestine had no known sources of gold, but the Hebrews were familiar with mining operations from observing the Egyptians in their ventures in Sinai. Biblical descriptions of mining attest to this fact. Gold was imported from foreign sources: the land of Havilah, the sand land (possibly near Damascus); Parvaim Uphaz; Tarshish (the high country); and perhaps from Egypt, Midian, Sheba (Arabia), Africa, and Ophir (believed to be on the west coast of India, though the location is uncertain). In early days Arabia was mentioned as the source of much gold which was brought to Tyre from Sheba and Rama by Arabian merchants. The questionable Tarshish might be identified as an area in Spain. In the first book of the Maccabees, gold and silver mines are mentioned,
Now Judas heard of the fame of the Romans . . . and what they had done in the country of Spain, for the winning of the mines of silver and gold which is there.
Macc. 8: 1, 3
The art of working gold is of great antiquity. Most ancient peoples were skilled in mining, smelting, refining, and fabricating the metal. In the royal tombs of Ur, excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley, fabulous items of jewelry and personal adornment were found. An exquisite crown of delicately wrought leaves, garters of gold and lapis lazuli, and dainty cosmetic boxes were uncovered. One box is shaped like a fragile golden shell, while a paint cup with an intricate inlay of lapis lazuli and carnelian has an edging of tiny ostrich eggs of gold. Only the golden tomb of Tutankhamen equals the fabulous collection of golden artifacts found at Ur, with the Sumer tombs preceding the Egyptian one by about a thousand years.
Numerous methods of working the precious metal were practiced: beating or hammering (Exod. 25: 18 ); plating or overlaying (Exod. 25:11; I Kings 6:20); and soldering (Isa. 41:7). Casting, pouring melted metal into a shaped mold, is implied by the molten image (Num. 33:52). A clear distinction seems to have been made between the graven image and the molten image (Nah. 1:14; II Chron. 34:3-4).
Gold and its sister mineral, silver, were refined by melting, separating the dross from the pure metal and hastening it by adding an alkali flux. Many utensils of the goldsmith hammer, tongs, chisel, anvil, graving tools, crucible, bellows, and melting oven are mentioned in the Scriptures.
Like other nations of that time, the Hebrews esteemed gold highly. Solomon acquired enormous amounts of gold for decorating the Temple through his naval expeditions. Contributions of gold for the Temple were made by the Queen of Sheba and Hiram of Tyre. David, at his death, left to Solomon a tremendous supply of the precious metal, amassed as spoils of war. The Old Testament account (I Chron. 18: 10-11) relates that David brought gold from Edom, Ammon, Philistia, and other victorious campaigns which he dedicated "unto the Lord." Tremendous amounts of gold changed hands as a result of military defeats and the levying of tribute and ransom.
Solomon dispatched a number of ships, manned by his servants and experienced sailors lent by King Hiram of Tyre, from Ezion-geber at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Their destination was Ophir. Returning from the lengthy voyage, they delivered 420 talents of gold to Solomon. Since the ancient Hebrew talent of gold had an estimated value of more than $32,000, this cargo was worth well in excess of $151.2 million (I Kings 9:26 28).
Gold was plentiful in the reigns of David and Solomon, and it was used lavishly. In the Tabernacle, the ark cherubims, tables, candlesticks, altar, and many vessels were made of it. The Temple and king's palace were overlaid or gilded with the precious metal-even the wails, doors, floors, and roof.
Methods of soldering were used, and references indicate that Hebrew workmen were proficient in smoothing and polishing gold. They knew how to plate; though the exact manner is unknown, it might have been "overlay" in earliest eras. In the second millennium B.C. many objects were covered with thin sheets of gold. The sheets, or leaf, were made much as they are today. Gold was cast in small blocks, then rolled into thin plates. These were placed between skins and beaten with stone hammers. Gold sheets were cemented to wooden surfaces with gesso, a whitish plaster with some type of glue added. With its hard surface, gesso would permit the gold to be burnished Even some bronze vessels were gilded, the thin gold surface put on with an adhesive gum.
Coinage was unknown to the Hebrews until after the Exile, though gold was used as a medium of exchange in the time of Abraham (ca. 2000 B.C.) by weight. Then wedges, bars, rings, and round flat disks were used. Even ear and finger rings were used as money. Bars or ingot circulated as money generally conformed to a standard, though ordinarily the bars were not weighed unless large or precise amounts were involved. Coinage really began in Palestine about the time of Ezra (536 B.C.).
Many examples of the handiwork of ancient goldsmiths which have been found illustrate their knowledge of gold's malleable and ductile qualities. One artifact of hammered gold is believed to have been made as early as 3500 B.C. Exquisite examples of drawn and hammered gold jewelry made millenniums before Christ are housed in museums throughout the world. Small threads, cut from extremely thin gold sheets, were woven into rare and costly cloth (Exod. 2, 8:6). This was likely the thread with which Aaron's vestments were embroidered.
They did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wire, to work it into the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.
Exod. 39:3
If a person had six names one might suspect him of being of royal descent. Gold certainly qualifies in this respect! It is truly a royal mineral, the leader of all others. In the Hebrew, it actually had at least six names: segor -carefully preserved; kethem -the preserved thing; paz -purified; beser -broken off; charutz -dug out; and zahab. The word zahab had several qualifying prefixed terms referring to characteristics and the many attributes of gold.
Crystals, Gems & Minerals of the Bible, Ruth V. Wright and Robert L. Chadbourne, pp. 64-68
