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476 Balm

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baltic

476

The margin of the A. V. in Ezek. xxvii. 17 reads "rosin." The six passages in which the word is found show that Balm was a useful article of com-

product of a Balsam tree or plant. The Balsam tree of Jericho is noted among ancient writers Theophrastus, Strabo, Pliny for its medicinal and highly

merce and presumably a product native in Palestine, especially in Gilead. Its first mention is (Gen. xxxvii. 25) in connection with the caravan of Ishmaelitish traders who were taking it, with spicery and myrrh, down to Egypt. The next mention (Gen. xliii. 11) gives it as one of the articles which formed the present that Jacob's sons carried to Joseph as Egyptian ruler, on their second journey in quest of food. Neither of the above references is determinative of the nature of Balm, beyond the fact that it was classed with spices, myrrh, honey, nuts, and almonds as an article of noteworthy value. The three passages in Jeremiah are of especial interest, in that they specify it as containing peculiar and

agreeable aromatic qualities. The so-called Mecca Balsam is generally conceded to be the product of the Balsamoclendron opobalsamum. It is reported that The the Balsam has disappeared from Jericho. product of the Balsam is known in Arabic as balasdn from a balasdn tree, from which balsamon (Greek), balsamum, balsam, and balm are probably derived. The so-called " balm of Gilead " made by the monks of Jericho and sold to travelers to-day is a product See Balm, of the Balanites JEgyptiaca.

In the first (ib. viii. the questions "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? " point both to its medicThe second (ib. inal properties and to its source. xlvi. 11), "Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured," conThe third (ib. li. firms both inferences of the first.

important healing properties. 22),

—

—

—

j.

—

jr.

I.

M.

P.

In Hellenistic and Rabbinical Literature Balm or Balsam (Aramean, Dd{>3, JIOD^a, IIDD^SK, J1DD1DS, and for opobalsamum )1DD731SK and (lDD^BISN). called by Pliny ("Naturalis Historia,"



suddenly fallen and destroyed howl for her pain, if so be she may be healed," testifies to the commcnly accepted healing value of this Balm. The last passage (Ezek. xxvii. 1?) specifies Balm simply as one of the products that were prominent in the commercial exchanges which Taken together, these Palestine made with Tyre. passages determine (1) that Balm was native in 8),

"

Babylon

for her; take

is



halm

Palestine, particularly in Gilead (2) that it was a valuable article of commerce and (3) that it possessed remarkable healing properties.



Now, what is the modern representative of this ancient article and what is the tree, if tree it was, that produced it? The R. V. of Gen. xxxvii. 25, margin, reads "mastic," which would he the resin yielded by the Pistaeia Zentiscus (Thiselton-Dyer, "Ency. Bibl." col. 465), a tree that flourishes on the

coast and lower mountains of western Palestine, but not on the east of the Jordan (Post, in Hastings' Tristram, however (in "Nat. Hist, "Diet. Bible"). of the Bible"), says that it is found to-day in all There is no evidence in the pasparts of Falestine. sages in O. T. above noted that the Balm was aromatic as well as medicinal (compare Post, I.e.). It may be that this Balm included (as hinted in Gese-

nius-Buhl, " WSrterb." 13th ed.) the gum which was exuded from the terebinth. In fact, Tristram (ib. p. 400) and Thomson (" The Land and the Book," ii. 20) state that the terebinth is to-day tapped for turpentine by the natives. There is another shrub, "zakkum" or "zOkom," from which the Arabs today manufacture an oil that they sell to pilgrims as of Gilead (Tristram, ib. p. 366); this, however, regarded merely as a modem substitute ("Ency.

Balm is

Bibl." I.e.). j. jr.

I.

BALSAM



Word

margin) of the Hebrew

Dt?3n

(ib.

"spice."

v.

An

13,

vi.

M. P.

used as the translation (R. V.

DB£

for

and of IW1JJ which the A. V. has

gum

or spice, probably the

2),

aromatic

(Cant. v. 1)

The Balsam Plant, Showing the Flower

(1)

and Fruit

(2).

53) "a plant which nature has bestowed only upon the land of Judea," was cultivated especially in what Pliny (I.e.) and Strabo (p. 763) call the royal gardens near Jericho (1ITT niDTlS, Tosef., Ar. ii. for 8), the juice obtained by incision being used xii.

medicinal purposes, and the

wood

for its fragrant

According to Diodorus Siculus (ii. 48, xix. 98), a certain hollow in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea was the chief home of the Balsam, which was " found nowhere else in the world. " Both statements are confirmed by Josephus, who relates that, according to popular belief, Queen Sheba brought the root from Arabia to King Solomon as a gift, and that the Balsam trees of Jericho yielded the most precious products of the land, the "only balsam in the world," thus making that part most valuable as a royal revenue; wherefore Antony took it away from the Jews and gave it to Cleopatra ("Ant." viii. 6, §6; xv. 4, §2; "B. J." i. 6, § 6; 18, § 5; iv. 8, §3). In'" Ant." ix. 1, § 2, he speaks of the opobalsamum that grows at Engedi. odor.