MARBLE

A crystalline limestone (calcium carbonate) of close grain that varies in color, texture and crystal structure, and which is capable of taking a high polish. Its color ranges from snow-white to numerous shades of gray, brown, yellow, red, green and black. Streaks or veins are due to impurities of metal oxides and carbonaceous matter.

It is uncertain whether Solomon made use of marble in his building program. Josephus says “white stone” was used, but the Hebrew word usually translated “marble” at 1 Chronicles 29:2 probably denotes “alabaster” and is thus rendered in some translations. (JB, NW) This is in agreement with A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Brown, Driver and Briggs, 1952, page 1010, and Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros by Koehler & Baumgartner, 1953, page 966.

Marble apparently was not found in Palestine. Lebanon, however, produced a variety of marbles; but the choicest specimens were found in the Aegean island of Paros and in Arabia. The Shulammite maiden, in describing her beloved shepherd companion to the ladies-in-waiting at the court of King Solomon, said: “His legs are pillars of marble based on socket pedestals of refined gold.” (Song of Sol. 5:15) The Persian palace at Shushan in the days of Queen Esther had marble Pillars, and its pavement in part was made of black marble. (Esther 1:6) Marble is also listed as one of the precious commodities of “the traveling merchants of the earth” who weep over the downfall of Babylon the Great.—Rev. 18:11, 12.