GOLD (Heb. זָהָב, H2298, בֶּ֫צֶר֒, H1309, חָרוּצ֒, H3021, כֶּ֫תֶם, H4188, סָגוּר, H6034, פַּז, H7058; Gr. χρυσος). One of the precious metals which has a bright-yellow color, high density (19.3) and high melting point (1063oC). It is the most ductile and malleable of metals and can be beaten into leaves of less than 0.0001 mm. in thickness. Gold usually occurs in the native state but sometimes as gold tellurides. Native gold is generally alloyed with 10-15% silver (q.v.), sometimes with copper (q.v.), and also with iron, platinum, palladium and rhodium. The more silver present, the whiter the color, while the presence of copper makes the color orange-red. The natural alloy containing 15-45% silver was used for many early coins and is called electrum. This word in Gr. also means amber, while in ancient Egypt the term asem was used, Like silver and copper, the crystal structure of gold is a face-centered cubic lattice in which each atom has twelve neighboring atoms touching it.
Gold is widely distributed in the earth’s crust, but generally only in small amounts, with the average proportion in the crust being one part per thousand million. It is found in various igneous rocks, particularly those containing quartz, and their metamorphic derivatives, including the Precambrian Aqaba Granite Complex which occurs on either side of the Red Sea and from which much of the sedimentary rocks of the Holy Lands were derived. Gold also occurs in many such sedimentary rocks, particularly those resulting from deposition in river channels and along old shore lines. The gold used in ancient times largely or entirely came from alluvial deposits. These occur on the slopes of hills not too far distant from the source of gold-bearing veins or as sands and gravels deposited by rivers in regions with auriferous bed rock; e.g. rich gold deposits were known in the valley of the River Pactolus in Lydia, Asia Minor. In such deposits, the gold is separated from the sand and gravel using a current of water which carries off the particles of lower density leaving the high-density gold flakes, which sink. The gold is then separated from any remaining material by amalgamation with mercury. The gold-mercury amalgam is then heated to vaporize the mercury leaving a crude bullion (see Metals and Metallurgy).
Even in pre-dynastic times the Egyptians made use of gold to embellish stone vessels and to make the handles of flint knives. The washing of gold ores is depicted on Egypt. monuments of the 1st dynasty (2900 b.c.) with gold occurring in Egypt between the Nile and the Red Sea (Mine, Mining, q.v.). Gold also occurs in Arabia (Gen 2:11; cf. 1 Kings 10:2) and was imported by Solomon from Ophir (1 Kings 10:11). While this locality is often considered to be in Arabia, in the time of Solomon it was thought of as an overseas Eldorado (cf. Ps 45:9; Isa 13:12) to which joint Heb.-Phoen. expeditions sailed in the “ships of Tarshish.” Punt in Somaliland, Zimbabwe in Rhodesia and Surparaka in India have been suggested as possible locations. Rich gold deposits were also known in ancient times in Lydia, in the lands of the Aegean and in Persia. Later, deposits were worked in Italy, Sardinia and Spain while in the time of the Rom. empire the chief source of supply appears to have been Transylvania.
Gold ornaments and utensils have been used since the Bronze Age, with the Sumerians c. 3000 b.c. using gold for domestic and ritual vessels and objects and for personal ornament. Corresponding use of gold is recorded for Biblical times (e.g. 2 Chron 9:20; Exod 25:11; Gen 41:42, respectively). However the main use of gold has been, and still is, in relation to money and wealth (e.g. Gen 13:2; Judg 8:26; 1 Kings 10:14). It is taken as the representation of the most valuable of man’s material possessions (cf. Ps 19:10; 1 Pet 1:7) while visions of things referring to the new Jerusalem speak of pure gold (Rev 21:18).
Bibliography E. S. Dana, A Textbook of Mineralogy, 4th ed. (revised by W. E. Ford) (1932), 401-403; J. R. Partington, A Text-book of Inorganic Chemistry, 6th ed. (1950), 745-747; E. M. Blaiklock (ed.), The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Atlas (1969), 438-443; R. D. Barnett, “Ophir,” E Br 16 (1970), 991, 992.