the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Aloes
The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia
or Translation of 
, occurring four times in the Old Testament (Numbers 24:6, Psalms 45:8, Proverbs 7:17, Song of Solomon 4:14), and of á¼Î»Ïη in the New(John, 19:39). In all these passages, with the exception of the first, it signifies a perfume used upon garments or a bed. It was the gum of the Aloexylon and Aquilaria ovata of Malacca and of A. agallochum of Bengal (Toy, "Proverbs," p. 153, in "International Critical Commentary"), and not the wood itself. It was distinct from the common bitter aloe used in medicine and from the American aloe ("Encyc. Bibl."). In Numbers 24:6 the word indicates a tree; but that a tree of southeastern Asia should be known to an eighth-century Israelitish poet sufficiently to be used in a simile is more than doubtful. In the Septuagint, in the passage in question, the word is rendered "tents"; but the occurrence of "gardens" before it and of "cedars" after it compels us to look for a tree of some kind. Dillmann (Com. to Numbers 24:6,2d ed., p. 157) conjectures that the word was originally 
(compare Exodus 15:27, Genesis 14:6). 
signifies also terebinth (compare Septuagint to Genesis 14:6), and this would accord with the context quite as well.
These files are public domain.
Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Aloes'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/a/aloes.html. 1901.
