“... Aristeas even mentions “the oracle” (logion, Hebrew hoshen) that the High Priest “wears upon his breast” (97). That never took place in the Second Temple period and relates to Exod. 28:23, 26. In fact, Ps.-Aristeas continues to paraphrase Exodus story (the tabernacle and the priests’ vestments). He even mentions 600,000 men who had received allotments in Judea (116). That evidently refers to the number that went up from Egypt (Exod. 12:37). In two points the fragment exceeds the borders of the Book of Exodus. It mentions mines of copper and iron (Deut. 8:9) and contains an allusion to Isaiah’s prophesy (Isa. 2:2). ...”

“... The reason for these two paragraphs on the mines of Arabia is not particularly clear. As the conclusion to Ps.-Aristeas’s description of Judea, we should probably connect the mines with Judea as well, even though they are “nearby” in Arabia. The resources of iron and copper might be a reference to Deut 8:9, part of the description of the plenty of the land, “a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper.” The location in Arabia, however, might also hark back to Greek descriptions of that country, which according to Agatharcides (apud Diodorus Siculus 3.12), had many large mines that produced enormous quantities of gold. ...”