Bible Dictionaries

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Adamant

ADAMANT is twice ( Ezekiel 3:9 , Zechariah 7:12 ) used in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] as tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of shâmir , which is elsewhere rendered either ‘brier’ ( Isaiah 5:6; Isaiah 7:23-25; Isaiah 9:18; Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 27:4; Isaiah 32:13 ) or ‘diamond’ ( Jeremiah 17:1 ). ‘Diamond,’ which arose from ‘adamant’ by a variety of spelling (‘adamant,’ or ‘adimant,’ then ‘diamant’ or ‘diamond’), has displaced ‘adamant’ as the name of the precious stone, ‘adamant’ being now used rhetorically to express extreme hardness.