Take also unto you the finest spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet-smelling cane two hundred and fifty shekels,
All Commentaries on Exodus 30:23 Go To Exodus 30
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Spices. Perfumes were probably first invented in Arabia and Egypt. Ovid makes Bacchus the author of bloody sacrifices, and of incense offered to Jupiter. (Fast. 3.)
Myrrh. Hebrew, "the head of the myrrh of liberty "or such as flowed freely and was most excellent, free from any mixture. Sudant sponte.stacten dictam. (Pliny, xii. 15.) (Calmet)
Stacte takes its name from distilling. (Menochius)
Sicles; this is not expressed in the Hebrew, as this measure is commonly meant.
Cinnamon, a plant extremely rare. Matthcole assures us, that it is not now to be found in Arabia, no more than balm in Judea.
Calamus. Hebrew adds the epithet sweet-smelling both to cinnamon and calamus, or cane, the latter of which grows in the Indies. (Dioscor. i. 17.) That which druggists sell, under this name, is not a proper ingredient for ointments.
