Coral

Coral (Hebrew rāmôt) was a precious material in the ancient world, harvested from the Red Sea and Mediterranean and prized for jewelry and decorative use. It appears twice in the Old Testament. In Job 28:18, within the great poem on wisdom's inaccessibility and price, coral and crystal are mentioned among the things whose value cannot compare to wisdom — wisdom is beyond price, beyond rubies, beyond coral. The passage locates coral in the category of the beautiful and costly things that money can purchase, which yet fall infinitely short of wisdom's worth.

In Ezekiel 27:16, coral appears in the catalogue of Tyre's trading partners and their commodities: Aram traded in Tyre's markets, bringing emeralds, purple, embroidery, fine linen, coral, and rubies. This places coral among luxury trade goods that moved through Tyre's commercial network in the sixth century BC, reaching the Levantine coast from the Red Sea and possibly the Indian Ocean trade routes. Coral's consistent association with gems, precious metals, and fine cloth confirms its status as a prestige commodity throughout the biblical period.