Bdellium (Heb. Bedoloch) is mentioned in Genesis, ii, 12, as being
found along with gold and onyx in the land of Havilah, near the Garden
of Eden. The association with gold and onyx suggests that bdellium
was a precious stone. The Septuagint translates the word in Genesis,
anthrax, carbuncle; but renders the same Hebrew word in Numbers, xi, 7,
where the manna is likened to bdellium, by Krystallos, crystals. The
Greek bdellion described by Dioscorides and Pliny was the fragrant gum
from a species of Balsamodendron, and this word was almost certainly
derived from an Eastern source, and might easily have been originally
a generic term for pearls. Pearls would better than anything else fit
the reference in Numbers (“like coriander seed, and the appearance
thereof as the appearance of bdellium”), and this is the meaning
attached to the word in the rabbinical traditions. Some authorities
have conjectured that the “ד” (d) of bedolach may have been
substituted for “ר” (r) berolach, so that the beryl stone may
have been intended.