Spices

Aromatic resins, gums, barks, and oils move through scripture in two directions: into the sanctuary, where they fund the worship of Yahweh; and across the trade routes, where they fund the wealth of kings. The same substances can perfume a wedding song, sweeten a corpse, ride into Jerusalem on the Queen of Sheba's camels, or smolder on a golden altar. The biblical witness to spices threads these uses together into a single picture of how a fragrant economy intersects with the worship and the dying of God's people.

The Sacred Compound

The sanctuary opens with spices on its inventory list. When the people are summoned to bring offerings for the tabernacle, the gift includes "oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense" (Ex 25:6); the freewill summons in the next book repeats it almost word for word: "oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense" (Ex 35:8). Two parallel preparations follow — an oil and an incense — and both are formulated by exact weight.

The anointing oil takes "the chief spices: of flowing myrrh five hundred [shekels], and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty" (Ex 30:23), and "of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin" (Ex 30:24). Four spices, weighed to the shekel of the sanctuary, suspended in olive oil. The incense formula is given to Moses in the same chapter: "Take to you sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each there will be a like weight" (Ex 30:34). Equal portions, four spices again, frankincense as the named binding agent.

Frankincense in the Offerings

Frankincense functions as the sanctuary's signature aromatic. It rides on the bread of the Presence — "you will put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh" (Le 24:7) — and it accompanies acceptable meal-offerings. Its absence is doctrinally legible. The poor man's sin-offering carries no frankincense: "he will put no oil on it, neither will he put any frankincense on it; for it is a sin-offering" (Le 5:11). The jealousy meal-offering carries none either: "he will pour no oil on it, nor put frankincense on it; for it is a meal-offering of jealousy, a meal-offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance" (Nu 5:15). When the offering remembers sin, the fragrance is withheld.

Isaiah turns the same logic against the people. Yahweh has not been honored with sacrifices, "I haven't burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense" (Is 43:23) — the spice that ought to have ascended has not. Sirach reverses the picture: "And as frankincense give forth a sweet odor, And put forth flowers as a lily; Spread forth a sweet smell, and sing a song of praise; Bless⁺ the Lord for all his works" (Sir 39:14). The aromatic and the song are one work of praise.

Custody in the Temple

The first temple's furnishings carry the same materials forward. Among the Levitical assignments at the restoration, "Some of them also were appointed over the furniture, and over all the vessels of the sanctuary, and over the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices" (1Ch 9:29). Spices are listed alongside flour and wine and oil — a sanctuary stock managed by named custodians, not an occasional gift.

Caravans from Gilead and Sheba

The trade picture begins with a caravan crossing Joseph's brothers' line of sight: "they lifted up their eyes and looked, and noticed a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt" (Ge 37:25). The same triple — spicery, balm, myrrh — reappears when Jacob assembles a present for the unrecognized vizier: "take of the choice fruits of the land in your⁺ vessels, and carry down to the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spicery and myrrh, nuts, and almonds" (Ge 43:11). Gilead exports; Egypt receives.

A second axis runs from the south. The Queen of Sheba "came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones" (1Ki 10:2), and she gave Solomon "a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon" (1Ki 10:10). Jeremiah names the same southern source in a complaint about empty worship: "To what purpose does frankincense from Sheba come to me, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your⁺ burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your⁺ sacrifices pleasing to me" (Jer 6:20). The frankincense is Sabaean; the calamus comes from a far country; neither rescues a corrupt offering. Isaiah issues the parallel charge: "You have bought me no sweet cane with silver, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened me with your sins" (Is 43:24).

The Marketplaces of Tyre and Babylon

Ezekiel's lament over Tyre catalogs a global spice market. "The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were your traffickers; they traded for your wares with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold" (Eze 27:22). Within the same trade list: "Judah, and the land of Israel, they were your traffickers: they traded for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm" (Eze 27:17), and "the earthenware wine jars of Izalla, for your wares: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among your merchandise" (Eze 27:19). Cassia and calamus, the same spices weighed for the anointing oil, are tradable bulk goods at Tyre.

Revelation extends the picture forward to a doomed Babylon, whose merchants have no buyers left for "cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep; and [merchandise] of horses and chariots and slaves--even souls of men" (Re 18:13). The aromatic trade and the trade in souls share one inventory.

Hezekiah's Treasure House

When Babylon's envoys arrive, Hezekiah opens the storehouses. "And Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures" (2Ki 20:13). Spices stand among silver and armor — a state asset.

Balm of Gilead

One spice acquires a distinct medical and lamenting voice. Jeremiah asks of his people, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then hasn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" (Jer 8:22). The balm exists; the question is why the wound persists. He calls Egypt to seek the same remedy uselessly: "Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain you use many medicines; there is no healing for you" (Jer 46:11). And of Babylon: "Babylon has suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed" (Jer 51:8). The spice is real and the remedy may be tried; the prophet's verdict is that the wound has gone past it.

Perfume in the Royal House and the Wedding Song

Spices crowd the Song of Songs and the wedding psalms. "All your garments [smell of] myrrh, and aloes, [and] cassia; Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad" (Ps 45:8). The bride approaches: "Who is this that comes up from the wilderness Like pillars of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all powders of the merchant?" (SS 3:6). The garden the bridegroom names is itself a spice list: "Spikenard and saffron, Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices" (SS 4:14). And the love itself is fragrant: "How fair is your love, my sister, [my] bride! How much better is your love than wine! And the fragrance of your oils than all manner of spices!" (SS 4:10).

The same vocabulary turns up in the cosmetics of the seductress in Proverbs: "I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon" (Pr 7:17). And in the Persian harem: "for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, [to wit,] six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors and with the things for the purifying of the women" (Es 2:12). Daniel records spices misdirected: "Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, and worshiped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors to him" (Da 2:46) — the substances that belong on Yahweh's altar offered to a man.

Anointed for Burial

Spices accompany death from kings to Christ. Asa is buried in a bed "filled with sweet odors and diverse kinds [of spices] prepared by the perfumers' art: and they made a very great burning for him" (2Ch 16:14). The perfumer's craft is its own profession, and a royal funeral commands its full inventory.

In the gospels the same craft attends Jesus. A woman at Bethany "having an alabaster cruse of ointment of pure nard very costly; [and] she broke the cruse, and poured it over his head" (Mr 14:3); the parallel scene at the home of Lazarus has Mary taking "a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment" (Jn 12:3). On the cross "they offered him wine mingled with myrrh: but he did not receive it" (Mr 15:23). And after the Sabbath the women come back with what the burial required: "And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the [mother] of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him" (Mr 16:1); the synoptic parallel preserved at the head of Luke 24 carries the same clause: "And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the [mother] of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb" (Lu 24:1).

The spices reach the tomb. The body is not there.

Sweet Odors as Prayer

A last image folds the whole subject back into worship. The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fall before the Lamb, "each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Re 5:8). The aromatic that funded the sanctuary, perfumed the wedding, and dressed the corpse for burial is finally identified with a fragrance that has no physical substance at all.