Significantly, the jasper and the carnelian are the first and last of these twelve stones (cf. Ex. 28:17–21). The jasper represented Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob. The carnelian represented Benjamin, the youngest of Jacob’s twelve sons. In other words, these two stones represented the first and the last, and therefore may be regarded as including all the other stones in between; that is, the whole of the covenanted people.
