His hands [are as] gold rings set with the beryl: his belly [is as] bright ivory overlaid [with] sapphires.
Ver. 14. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl.] Or, Chrysolite; Heb., Tarshish, whence our word turkeis, as it may seem, a precious stone, of colour blue like the sky, or, as others say, green like the sea. Asher was graven upon this stone, who dwelt near the sea. Exo 28:20 Some write, that in former times this stone was most usually set in such rings as lovers did use to give one to another, or in marriage rings; because of the power that was thought to be in it to procure and continue love and liking one of them towards another. Whatsoever stone it is, whether a beryl, chrysolite, carbuncle, hyacinth, onyx (for all these ways it is rendered), the Church's meaning is, that all the works of Christ, whether in the state of humiliation or of exaltation - for redemption we have by his abasement, application of it by his advancement - are most rare, dear, precious, and glorious, as numbers of rings filled with all manner of costly stones; they are acceptable and hononrable before God and man. And like as great men are known by their rings and rich jewels, so is Christ by his saints, the work of his hands. Isa 64:8
His belly is as bright ivory, overlaid with sapphires.] Heb., His bowels, in the dual - meaning his breast and belly, and there the heart and lights, those seats of the will and affections; here, the liver, stomach, entrails, which serve for nutrition and generation. By all this we may well understand Christ's inward affections outwardly manifested. These are true and sincere, as bright and white "ivory"; they are also hearty and heavenly, as "sapphires"; various also and manifold, sicut sapphiri caeruleae sunt, his bowels yearn towards his afflicted people, his heart is turned within him, his "repentings are kindled together"; Hos 11:8 so the poet,
“ Ingemuit miserans graviter, dextramque tetendit. ” - Virg.