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* Yahalom ( in the masoretic text ) / Onychion ( in the Septuagint )-in some other places the Septuagint instead has Beryllios where the masoretic reads Yahalom.

The word Yahalom appears to be connected with the Hebrew meaning strike hard, and possibly with the word hallamish meaning flint ; hallamish is connected to the Assyrian word elmeshu, referring to a precious stone which was hard, and possibly white, or at least with an insignificant colour, and from which whole rings were sometimes made.

A few scholars have suggested that Yahalom may refer to diamonds, owing to their hardness, though the skill of cutting diamonds had not been discovered before the classical era.

Although the Septuagint's Onychion is the Greek term for Onyx, Onyx was not mined prior to the era of classical Greece.

Onyx is derived from the Greek for fingernail, due to the pink-white veining.