Aloes, Lign Aloes

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible on Aloes, Lign Aloes

The word Aloes is used four times in the UT and once in the NT. In Nu 24" tlie Ueb. word is c';™, the LXX aKripal, and the AV Lign-Aloes=Limum Aloes. In Ps 45" the Heb. is inS.iK, the LXX rraicHi, and the AV Aloes. In Pr 7" the Heb. is c^r.x, the LXX riy Si or/fo», and the AV Aloes. In Ca 4" the Heb. is ni'^ns;, the LXX dXiifl, and the AV Aloes (KV agrees with AV in all). It is clear that in the pa.ssages in Nu and Pr the LXX has followed a dill'erent reading from the MT, and has arbitrarily translated tho same word stacte in the Ps and alvth {tUoe) in Ca. In face of the [)ra<-tical identity of tlie words 'ahdlim and 'ahAlOln, it is fair to reject the various capri- cious renderings of the LXX, and assume that the word has the same meaning in all llie four OT passages. In the last three of these pa.ssages, and in the NT (Jn 19""), the reference is plainly to the aromatic. Celsius {Hierobot. i. 135) argues that this sub- stance is the Aquilaria Agullocha, the Lignum Aloes or Aloes Wood of commerce. This wood was well known to the ancients, and is described under its Arab, name 'Hd in…