Aloes

How Nave’s arranged it

• Used as perfume So 4:14Psalms 45:8Proverbs 7:17
• In embalming the deadJohn 19:39
• Lign-aloesNumbers 2:1–6

The passages, in Bible order (4)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 4 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Numbers 2:1–6

   Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron:

   ›Commentary on Numbers 2:1–61 voice

   “And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,.... Very probably after the number of the children of Israel was taken, of which in the preceding chapter, and when the congregation of Israel with the tabernacle were about to set forward on their journey; and therefore directions are here given for their orderly and regular proceeding in it, in what form and manner they should both encamp and march: saying: as follows.

   Everything gathered on Numbers 2:1–6→

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2. Psalms 45:8

   All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces of ivory the harps make you glad.

   ›Commentary on Psalms 45:82 voices

   “Ver. 8. All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. The divine anointing causes fragrance to distil from the robes of the Mighty Hero. He is delightful to every sense, to the eyes most fair, to the ear most gracious, to the spiritual nostril most sweet. The excellences of Jesus are all most precious, comparable to the rarest spices; they are most varied, and to be likened not to myrrh alone, but to all the perfumes blended in due proportion.

   “The sweet odor of Christ gives forth the fragrance of myrrh because of his passion, and of aloes because he did not remain motionless and inactive for three days and three nights but descended to the lower world to distribute the graces of the resurrection.… And it breathes forth the fragrance of cassia, a very delicate and fragrant bark, … because of the suffering of the cross undertaken in kindness to every creature.

   Everything gathered on Psalms 45:8→

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3. Proverbs 7:17

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

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 7:172 voices

   “With a provocative movement of a prostitute, with a disrupted gait through delights, with wandering eyes, and with playful darting of her eyelids, she captures the precious souls of young men (for the eye of a prostitute is a snare of a sinner), and with doubtful perception, she accosts anyone passing by in the corner of her house, with charming words, causing the hearts of young men to flutter, restless at home, wandering in the streets, prodigal with kisses, cheap in modesty, rich in attire, painted cheeks.

   “I have scented my bed with myrrh, etc. They promise that they have such fragrances of heavenly virtues, by which they consecrate their hearts and those of their followers as if in beautiful bedchambers; so that they may say with the Apostle: For we are …

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 7:17→

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4. John 19:39

   Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

   ›Commentary on John 19:392 voices

   “And there came also Nicodemus,.... To the cross, at the same time as Joseph did; who, whether they were brethren, as some conjecture, and met here by consent, since one prepared one thing, and another, for the interment of Christ, is not certain. This Nicodemus is thought to be the same with Nicodemus ben Gorion, the Talmudists speaks of, who, they say (u), was one of the three rich men in Jerusalem; as this appears to be a rich man, from the large quantity of myrrh and aloes he brought with him, and which must be very costly.

   “Nicodemus - See on Joh 3:1 (note), etc. Myrrh and aloes - Which drugs were used to preserve bodies from putrefaction. Calmet says that the aloes mentioned here is a liquor which runs from an aromatic tree, and is widely different from that called aloes among us. Some have objected that a hundred pounds’ weight of myrrh and aloes was enough to embalm two hundred dead bodies; and instead of ἑκατον, a hundred, some critics have proposed to read ἑκατερων - a mixture of myrrh and aloes, of about a pound Each. See Bowyer’s Conjectures.

   Everything gathered on John 19:39→

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