And the LORD said unto Moses,
Take unto you sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be the same amount:
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Bede
AD 735
“You shall not offer upon it incense of another composition.” Later in this book the spices from which this incense was to be composed are specified by name: stacte, and onycha, galbanum of pleasing fragrance, and the purest frankincense. It is obvious that all of these signify the eternal goods which we ought to seek from the Lord before anything else. Consequently upon the altar of gold they were not supposed to offer incense of any composition other than that which the Lord had decreed, because when we pray we ought to seek from the Lord nothing other than that which he himself has commanded and has promised to give us. And we ought to believe nothing concerning him other than that which he himself has taught. On the Tabernacle, at Exodus :.
Onycha. An aromatic root, shining like "the nail "or perhaps the bdellium of Arabia, which is clearer than that of the Indies. (Dioscor.; Galen Medic.) It distills from a tree. Others affirm, that it is the shell of a fish which feeds on spikenard (spica nardi) in the watery places of India.
Galbanum, an unctuous gum, of a strong but not very agreeable smell when alone.
Frankincense, is a juice proceeding by incision from the trees of Saba.
Weight. The Rabbins say 70 or 74 pounds of each.
