I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones: Three more parts of the city’s physical structure are mentioned—its pinnacles, gates and wall. The LORD will rebuild each part using precious stones. The language is highly poetic and figurative, referring to the enormous value of the rebuilt city. As noted above, it is meant to encourage the exiles.

Your pinnacles refers to the towers found at intervals around the city wall. For “tower” see the comments on 2.15 even though a different Hebrew word is used there. Your gates refers to more than just the city’s gates, but also its gateways (see the comments on 3.26). Your wall refers to the surrounding defensive wall of the city (see the comments on 2.15). It may be rendered “your walls.”

The identity of the precious stones for making the towers and the gates is uncertain. Most modern versions render agate as “rubies,” which are red in color. Revised English Bible has “red jasper.” The Hebrew term rendered carbuncles refers to something that sparkles or shines, so New International Version has “sparkling jewels,” and Good News Translation has “stones that glow like fire.” Other translations are “garnet” (Revised English Bible), “jewels” (New Revised Standard Version), and “crystal” (Bible en français courant). Precious stones is literally “stones of delight/pleasure,” which is a general expression. Translators may choose precious stones that are known in the receptor language, or else use general descriptive expressions; for example, “rubies” may be referred to as “beautiful red stones,” and carbuncles as “shiny stones.” An alternative rendering for precious stones is “stones of high value.”

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• I will build your towers with rubies,
your gateways with sparkling crystal,
and your whole wall with jewels.

• Your towers I will rebuild with rubies,
your gateways with sparkling stones,
and all your walls with gems.

In languages where naming precious stones in verses 11-12 is a major problem, a possible rendering that combines these two verses is:

• O you afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,
behold, I will use very beautiful, smooth and shiny stones
to build your foundations, your towers, your gates, and all your walls.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .