OBRIZUM. The Gold call’d Obrizum is often mention’d in Scripture. For Example, 2 Chron. iii. v. Laminas auri obrizi. Job xxviii. 15. Non dabitur aurum obrizum pro sapientia. And xxxi. 24. Si obrizo dixi, fiducia mea. And Isai. xiii. 12. Pretiosior erit vir auro, & homo mundo obrizo. And Dan. x. 5. Renes ejus accincti auro obrizo. Pliny says1, that they call Obrizum the Gold that has been several times purify’d in the Fire. Auri experimento ignis est ut simili colore rubeat quo ignis; atque ipsum obrizum vocant. But the Hebrew Text, which is translated by Obrizum, is not always the same. For in the Passage quoted out of the Chronicles, the original Text2 only reads good Gold, and the Septuagint pure Gold. In Job xxviii. 15. Chetem of Ophir, or fine Gold of Ophir. And c. xxxi. he says only Chetem, which signifies fine or purify’d Gold. And in Isai. xiii. 12. I will take a Man more precious than the Phaz, and than the fine Gold of Ophir. And in Daniel, his Reins were girded with the pure Gold of Ophaz. But the Gold of Ophir and the Gold of Phaz or Ophaz, is probably that which was brought from the Country of Ophir, and the River Phasis, or Phison in Cholchis. Abriz in Arabick or Persian signifies fine Gold without Mixture, which the Greeks and Latins call Obrizum.
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