Cassia
(1.) Hebrew kiddah', i.e., "split." One of the principal spices of the holy anointing oil (Ex. 30:24), and an article of commerce (Ezek. 27:19). It is the inner bark of a tree resembling the cinnamon (q.v.), the Cinnamomum cassia of botanists, and was probably imported from India. (2.) Hebrew pl. ketzi'oth (Ps. 45:8). Mentioned in connection with myrrh and aloes as being used to scent garments. It was probably prepared from the peeled bark, as the Hebrew word suggests, of some kind of cinnamon.
Automatically connected
Related study
These teachings share Scripture, study subjects, or Strong’s references.
Dictionary
Cinnamon
Heb. kinamon, the Cinnamomum zeylanicum of botanists, a tree of the Laurel family, which grows only in India on the Malabar coast, in Ceylon, and China. There is no trace of it in Egypt, and it was unknown in Syria. The inner rind when dried and rolled into cylinders forms the cinnamon of commerce. The fruit and coarser pieces of bark when boiled yield a fragrant oil. It was one of the principal ingredients in the holy anointing oil (Ex. 30:23). It is mentioned elsewhere only in Prov. 7:17; Cant. 4:14; Rev. 18:13. The mention of it indicates a very early and extensive commerce carried on between Palestine and the East.
Dictionary
Calamus
The Latin for cane, Hebrew Kaneh, mentioned (Ex. 30:23) as one of the ingredients in the holy anointing oil, one of the sweet scents (Cant. 4:14), and among the articles sold in the markets of Tyre (Ezek. 27:19). The word designates an Oriental plant called the "sweet flag," the Acorus calamus of Linnaeus. It is elsewhere called "sweet cane" (Isa. 43:24; Jer. 6:20). It has an aromatic smell, and when its knotted stalk is cut and dried and reduced to powder, it forms an ingredient in the most precious perfumes. It was not a native of Palestine, but was imported from Arabia Felix or from India. It was probably that which is now known in India by the name of "lemon grass" or "ginger grass," the Andropogon schoenanthus. (See [90]CANE.)
Dictionary
Chestnut tree
(Heb. 'armon; i.e., "naked"), mentioned in connection with Jacob's artifice regarding the cattle (Gen. 30:37). It is one of the trees of which, because of its strength and beauty, the Assyrian empire is likened (Ezek. 31:8; R.V., "plane trees"). It is probably the Oriental plane tree (Platanus orientalis) that is intended. It is a characteristic of this tree that it annually sheds its outer bark, becomes "naked." The chestnut tree proper is not a native of Palestine.
Dictionary
Myrrh
Heb. mor. (1.) First mentioned as a principal ingredient in the holy anointing oil (Ex. 30:23). It formed part of the gifts brought by the wise men from the east, who came to worship the infant Jesus (Matt. 2:11). It was used in embalming (John 19:39), also as a perfume (Esther 2:12; Ps. 45:8; Prov. 7:17). It was a custom of the Jews to give those who were condemned to death by crucifixion "wine mingled with myrrh" to produce insensibility. This drugged wine was probably partaken of by the two malefactors, but when the Roman soldiers pressed it upon Jesus "he received it not" (Mark 15:23). (See [427]GALL.) This was the gum or viscid white liquid which flows from a tree resembling the acacia, found in Africa and Arabia, the Balsamodendron myrrha of botanists. The "bundle of myrrh" in Cant. 1:13 is rather a "bag" of myrrh or a scent-bag. (2.) Another word lot is also translated "myrrh" (Gen. 37:25; 43:11; R.V., marg., "or ladanum"). What was meant by this word is uncertain. It has been thought to be the chestnut, mastich, stacte, balsam, turpentine, pistachio nut, or the lotus. It is probably correctly rendered by the Latin word ladanum, the Arabic ladan, an aromatic juice of a shrub called the Cistus or rock rose, which has the same qualities, though in a slight degree, of opium, whence a decoction of opium is called laudanum. This plant was indigenous to Syria and Arabia.
Dictionary
Pine tree
Heb. tidhar, mentioned along with the fir-tree in Isa. 41:19; 60:13. This is probably the cypress; or it may be the stone-pine, which is common on the northern slopes of Lebanon. Some suppose that the elm, others that the oak, or holm, or ilex, is meant by the Hebrew word. In Neh. 8:15 the Revised Version has "wild olive" instead of "pine." (See [490]FIR.)
Dictionary
Plane tree
Heb. armon (Gen. 30:37; Ezek. 31:8), rendered "chesnut" in the Authorized Version, but correctly "plane tree" in the Revised Version and the LXX. This tree is frequently found in Palestine, both on the coast and in the north. It usually sheds its outer bark, and hence its Hebrew name, which means "naked." (See [497]CHESTNUT.)