Good News Translation and others place verse 12 in parentheses to show that this is an interruption of the description and naming of the four rivers. Some languages are able to signal where parenthetical material starts and ends without using parentheses.

Good News Translation translates gold … is good as “pure gold.” Good as a description of gold means that there is very little other metal mixed with the gold, and therefore it is “pure, high quality.”

Bdellium and onyx stone are there: bdellium is mentioned in Num 11.7, where manna is compared to it in appearance. It is a fragrant gum obtained by making cuts in the bark of a bush grown principally in South Arabia. It was used as a perfume and said to have soothing medical properties. Onyx, a precious stone or gem, is a type of quartz with bands of many colors. In Job 28.16 it is ranked with gold. In 1 Chr 29.2 onyx heads the list of precious stones used in the Temple.

In many languages it will be necessary to translate bdellium by a general term or phrase; for example, “fragrant resin,” or “rare perfume” as in Good News Translation. Onyx may be translated as “precious stone” or “gem.” Some translators may prefer to keep the names and say “a perfume called bdellium” and “a precious stone called onyx.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .