Carbuncle (gemstone) used by the Greek to translate the Hebrew נֹפֶךְ ("nōphek") in two of its four occurrences in the Old Testament. The etymology of the Hebrew term is uncertain, though Koehler-Baumgartner suggests a connection to פּוּךְ ("phook"), used in the Old Testament as a term for eye makeup, and probably implying a colored powder most likely made from a crushed mineral. For נֹפֶךְ ("nōphek") itself they suggest the gloss "semi-precious stone" (of uncertain color). Carbuncle (gemstone) A carbuncle is any red gemstone, most often a red garnet. The word occurs in four places in many English translations of the Bible. The
Garnet been called "hessonite" from the Greek meaning inferior. Grossular is found in contact metamorphosed limestones with vesuvianite, diopside, wollastonite and wernerite. Grossular garnet from Kenya and Tanzania has been called tsavorite. Tsavorite was first described in the 1960s in the area of Kenya, from which the gem takes its name. Uvarovite is a calcium chromium garnet with the formula CaCr(SiO). This is a rather rare garnet, bright green in color, usually found as small crystals associated with chromite in peridotite, serpentinite, and kimberlites. It is found in crystalline marbles and schists in the Ural mountains of Russia and Outokumpu, Finland.