אַחְלָמָה

The word "אַחְלָמָה" (achlama) appears in the Bible as one of the stones in the breastplate (hoshen) worn by the High Priest (Exodus 28:19), in the third row. The origin of the word is not clear, but some connect it to the root ch-l-m, which indicates healing or dreaming, perhaps due to ancient beliefs about the healing properties of the stone. In the Septuagint Greek translation, the word "achlama" was translated as "amethystos" (ἀμέθυστος), the source of the modern word "amethyst." The Greek word itself is composed of the negating prefix "a-" and the word "methystos" (drunk), meaning "not-drunk," because the Greeks believed that the stone protects against drunkenness. Throughout the generations, the identification of "achlama" as amethyst, a purple gemstone, was accepted, and this is the accepted name for this stone in Modern Hebrew. As with the other biblical gemstones, there is difficulty in determining with certainty their exact identity, but the identification with amethyst is considered relatively reliable due to the consistency in ancient translations.