Cassia

Cassia is an aromatic spice — closely related to cinnamon — used in Israel for the holy anointing oil and named in two later passages as a perfume of royalty and an article of long-distance trade. The three references frame it on three registers: sanctuary, palace, and market.

In the Anointing Oil

Cassia is one of the four aromatics measured into the anointing oil compounded for the tabernacle: "and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin" (Ex 30:24). The five-hundred-shekel weight is the largest of the four spice measures in the formula.

On the Royal Garments

The royal Psalm pictures cassia as part of the perfume on the king's robes: "All your garments [smell of] myrrh, and aloes, [and] cassia; / Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad" (Ps 45:8). Here cassia stands beside myrrh and aloes as an emblem of the bridegroom-king's splendor.

In the Trade of Tyre

Tyre's market-list in Ezekiel names cassia among the imported wares: "and the earthenware wine jars of Izalla, for your wares: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among your merchandise" (Eze 27:19). Paired with calamus — the other aromatic in the anointing-oil formula — cassia surfaces here as a luxury commodity moving along the same trade routes that supply the sanctuary.