Hebrew word · H7076

קִנָּמוֹן

vekinemon-

cinnamon

Cinnamon, the aromatic bark of a Cinnamomum tree. It occurs only here, in Proverbs 7:17 and in Song 4:14.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) cinnamon

1a) fragrant bark used as spice

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Exodus 30:23

Range of meaning

Cinnamon, the aromatic bark of a Cinnamomum tree. It occurs only here, in Proverbs 7:17 and in Song 4:14.

Against the English

All major versions say 'cinnamon'. Modern readers picture the baking spice in their cupboard, which is often actually cassia. The ancient product was a perfume material and was rare and expensive.

Used elsewhere in the period

Herodotus (3.111) says the Greeks learned the word kinnamōmon from the Phoenicians, and he repeats fantastic stories about how Arabians obtained it, which shows how distant and mysterious its source was. The trees grow natively in South Asia (Sri Lanka, South India), so the bark reached the Levant through long trade networks. Chemical analysis has reported cinnamaldehyde, the main compound in cinnamon, in small Phoenician flasks from Israel dated around the 11th–9th centuries BCE (Namdar et al. 2013). That suggests cinnamon was traded in the region early, though the finding has had limited follow-up.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 30:23 וְקִנְּמָן־ and cinnamon of

    “Take the finest spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half that amount (250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane,

    Here: Cinnamon bark, a long-distance luxury import. It is named only three times in the Hebrew Bible, each time among extravagant perfumes (also Proverbs 7:17; Song 4:14).

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 7:17 וְקִנָּמֽוֹן׃ and cinnamon

    I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 4:14 וְקִנָּמ֔וֹן and cinnamon

    with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.