Coral: Heb. ramoth, meaning "heights;" i.e., "high-priced" or valuable
things, or, as some suppose, "that which grows high," like a tree
(Job 28:18; Ezekiel 27:16) according to the Rabbins, red coral, which was
in use for ornaments. The coral is a cretaceous marine product, the
deposit by minute polypous animals of calcareous matter in cells in
which the animal lives. It is of numberless shapes as it grows, but
usually is branched like a tree. Great coral reefs and coral islands
abound in the Red Sea, whence probably the Hebrews derived their
knowledge of it. It is found of different colours, white, black, and
red. The red, being esteemed the most precious, was used, as noticed
above, for ornamental purposes.
