אָהָל

From the study of Numbers 24:6

Range of meaning

An aromatic tree or its fragrant wood, used for perfume and incense. It is usually identified with eaglewood or agarwood (Aquilaria). Elsewhere it appears as a luxury scent alongside myrrh and cinnamon (Ps 45:8; Prov 7:17; Song 4:14).

Against the English

KJV's "lign aloes" ("wood aloes") was precise in 1611. Modern "aloes" makes readers think of aloe vera, a succulent unrelated to this tree.

How it drifted

English "aloe" has come to mean mainly the medicinal succulent. The perfume wood of antiquity is little known today.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 45:8 (royal garments fragrant with myrrh and aloes), Prov 7:17, Song 4:14. The Greek Septuagint reads the consonants as "tents" (skēnaí) here.

From the study of Psalm 45:8

Range of meaning

Fragrant wood or resin used as perfume and incense. Hebrew has both a masculine plural (ahalim, Num 24:6; Prov 7:17) and a feminine plural (ahalot, here and Song 4:14). Most botanists and lexicons (HALOT, Zohary) identify it as eaglewood, also called agarwood or aloeswood (Aquilaria species). Its heartwood fills with dark, sweet-smelling resin, and it was traded from India and Southeast Asia.

Against the English

Every major English version says 'aloes'. Today that word makes people think of aloe vera, the succulent whose gel soothes sunburn. That plant has a bitter, medicinal smell and is the wrong picture. The English 'aloes' comes through Greek aloē and Latin aloe, and those words already covered both the bitter drug and the fragrant wood.

How it drifted

Two quite different products shared one name in Greek and Latin. When aloe vera became common in medicine and cosmetics, the everyday meaning moved to the plant, and the old meaning 'perfumed wood' dropped out of ordinary speech.

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 7:17: the seductress perfumes her bed with 'myrrh, aloes and cinnamon', the same set of luxury scents. Song 4:14 lists aloes among the bride's spice-garden aromas. Num 24:6 ('like aloes the LORD has planted') is a poetic comparison, and some take it to mean a different tree. The Septuagint here renders it staktē (liquid myrrh), which shows that even ancient translators were unsure. Sanskrit aguru and Greek agallochon are probably related names for agarwood.