PEARLS (perls), (Heb. 1:r;;!, gaw-beesh'). It is doubtful that pearls are mentioned in the Old Testament. The word gabish, rendered 'pearl' in Job xxviii:18 appears to mean crystal ; and the word 7.'2";.',75en-ee-neenz, which our version trans lates by 'rubies' is now supposed to mean coral (See CORAL). But in the New Testament the pearl is repeatedly mentioned.
In Matt. xiii :45, 46, a merchant (traveling jew eler) seeking goodly pearls, finds one pearl of great price, and to be able to purchase it sells all that he has—all the jewels he had previously secured. In Tim.ii :9, and Rev. xvii :4, pearls are mentioned as the ornaments of females ; in Rev. xviii :12-16, among costly merchandise; and Rev. xxi :2t, the twelve gates of the heavenly Jerusa lem are 'twelve pearls.' These intimations seem to indicate that pearls were in more common use among the Jews after than before the captivity, while they evince the estimation in which they were in later times held (Plin. Hist. Nat. ix, 54 ; xii, 41; Aninz. x, 13; comp. Ritter Erdkunde, 164). The island of Tylos (Bahrein) was especially renowned for its fishery of pearls (Plin. vi. 32; comp. Strabo, xvi. p. 767; Athen. iii. 93) ; the Indian ocean was also known to produce pearls (Arrian, Indica, p. 194; Plin. ix. 54; xxxiv. 48; Strabo, xv. p. 717)• Heeren feels assured that this indication must be understood to rzfer to the strait between Tapro bana, or Ceylon, and the southernmost point of the mainland of India, Cape Comorin, whence Europeans, even at present, derive their principal supplies of these costly natural productions. This
writer adds, 'Pearls have at all times been es teemed one of the most valuable commodities of the East. Their modest splendor and simple beauty appear to have captivated the Orientals, than the dazzling brilliancy of the dia mond, and have made them at all times the favor ite ornament of despotic princes. In the West, the passion for this elegant luxury was at its height about the period of the extinction of Ro man freedom, and they were valued in Rome and Alexandria as highly as precious stones. In Asia this taste was of more ancient date, and may be traced to a period anterior to the Persian dy nasty ; nor has it ever declined. A string of pearls of the largest size is an indispensable part of the decorations of an Eastern monarch. It was thus that Tippoo was adorned when he fell before the gates of his capital ; and it is thus that the present ruler of the Persians is usually decorated' (Ideen, i. 2. 224).
FiguratiVe. Pearl is used to signify a thing of great value and as a symbol of the kingdom of God (Matt. xiii :45, 46). To "cast pearls before swine," is to preach the gospel to malicious per secutors; apply the promises and privileges proper to saints, to men really wicked; to dispcnse sac raments to persons notoriously profane; or to ad minister reproof to obstinate scoffers (Matt. vii: 6). (Brown, Bib. Diet.)