# Almug wood



## B Rogers (Nov 9, 2021)

I was reading my devotion today and a verse from 1 Kings 10:11 mentioned almug wood. “Also, the ships of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought great quantities of almug wood and precious stones from Ophir.” Solomon had it imported. Any idea what this is? I researched a little and see where some think it could be red sandalwood, narra, etc.


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## Arn213 (Nov 9, 2021)

This was covered at a guitar forum in short:





Almugwood? - The Acoustic Guitar Forum


Almugwood? General Acoustic Guitar Discussion




www.acousticguitarforum.com





It is also known as “algum”.

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## Sprung (Nov 9, 2021)

Bryson, I'm quarantined at home right now with COVID. I should be able to get back in my office on Monday, which includes having access to all my Hebrew language resources (in both book and digital forms). I will forget by Monday, but if you remind me early next week, I will look this up and see what I can find.

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## B Rogers (Nov 9, 2021)

Thank you both. It kinda peaked my interest when I read it. I figure if Solomon utilized it, it must be pretty good stuff.  I think some of the ambiguity stems from uncertainty on the location of Ophir. I’ve read some think it’s Philippines, others India and likely a few other suggestions.


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## 2feathers Creative Making (Nov 9, 2021)

At the same time, we know exotic wood in one country is often mundane in the country of origin. There was always a shortfall of timber/beam sized trees in arid regions. And desert trees are not known for easy carving... 
Many writers believe it to be sandalwood. 
If so, there is no doubt of its value.

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## B Rogers (Nov 9, 2021)

Good points


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## Mr. Peet (Nov 9, 2021)

B Rogers said:


> I was reading my devotion today and a verse from 1 Kings 10:11 mentioned almug wood. “Also, the ships of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought great quantities of almug wood and precious stones from Ophir.” Solomon had it imported. Any idea what this is? I researched a little and see where some think it could be red sandalwood, narra, etc.


_Pterocarpus santalinus_ comes up in the database search that Paul's site has. As kids, we were told a type of 'Sandalwood' or other aromatic. As kids, that meant nothing.

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## Lou Currier (Nov 10, 2021)




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## JerseyHighlander (Nov 10, 2021)

Interesting topic. Before I finished reading the original post, my mind was going to woods that supplied incense or resin. Sandalwood goes back into ancient history as a prized wood for meditation and/or religious ceremony. It's a favorite of mine for meditation. Many of the gums & resins were not only used for incense but as powerful medicinals as well. i.e. Myrrh & Frankincense.


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## 2feathers Creative Making (Nov 10, 2021)

Yeah, in the passage quoted, it was being used to make posts for the palace and temple


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## Mike Hill (Nov 10, 2021)

In chapter 5 cedar and fir was bought from King Hiram for the Temple. in chapter 6 - describes the construction of the Temple - Lebanese cedar was mentioned as being used for beams and planks. Olive wood and juniper was described for making cherubim and doors. No mention of almugwood. In the chapter, I think 8, where the construction of Solomon's palace is described - only cedar was mentioned. Red sandalwood is opined due to the gold and wood coming from Ophir. Where Ophir is - no one knows. But because the people of ancient India were known for sending trading shops abroad - even POSSIBLY even to the eastern Mediterranean sea - it is often speculated that Ophir is India. Red sandalwood is native to only a part of india. I certainly have my doubts. To have a close port to Jerusalem and the City of David it would mean a trip around the south most of Africa and back up to the Straits of Gibraltar and onto the far side of the Med. sea. 

2 Chronicles 2 says that Solomon sent for cedar, juniper, and almug from Lebanon. Unless almug became extinct in Lebanon since mid 900 bc, then it is likely not red sandalwood. It does not grow in Lebanon - only India.

1 kings says the height of the Temple was to be 50 - 60 foot tall. However 2 chronicles says the columns on the front of the Temple were 35 cubits long with a 5 cubit capital - approximately 60 to 70 feet (depending on what cubit is used. Now red sandalwood is a smallish tree - only about 15 to 24 foot tall max. and probably not too big of a diameter, I don't see how it could be used as pillars on a heavy tall building.

There are many Hebrew scholars that say the phrase is not Lebanon but The Lebanon - because of passages in Dueteronomy, Joshua and the like they say the phrase The Lebanon means "the promised land". 2 Chronicles 2:16 basically says the Cedars will be floated as rafts to Joppa. This makes sense as King Hiram was from Tyre (Tyre was within "the promised land" - barely - but in the tribe of Asher's portion) in what is now the country Lebanon and North of Joppa (now Joffa) and Jerusalem and the City of David. They would float the logs south along the Eastern Med. coast until they reached Joppa and then somehow get them "up" to Jerusalem over land. 

Isaiah prophesied this in Isaiah 41:19 (this is speaking of what God will do) - (NIV - but similar in other translations) "I will put in the desert
the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,". Other translations might have elm, plane, box, pine, white poplar, oil-tree, thorn and shittah. But I don't know what to make of this as Isaiah's time was 200 years after Solomon's. Sometime in my life I will know the book of Isaiah better!

I R a corntractor!

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## Mr. Peet (Nov 11, 2021)

Wonder if 'Almug' might have been a term for 'scented' or 'smelly'. If that was so, dozens of woods, could have been used. As for the columns, only a few woods could have readily been used. Next question, if 'Almug' was made into an oil, and the oil was used to coat another wood (like a stain or varnish), could that wood also be called 'Almug'?

It was done in hope chests a century and a half ago in the US, a non-scented pine, lathered in cedar oil, and the chest sold as a "cedar" chest. In the 19 teens, the adds changed a bit to say cedar scented chest, a little less misleading.


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## JerseyHighlander (Nov 11, 2021)

I checked King's American Dispensatory, 1898, and a couple other very old materia medica, no mention of it in any of them, at least not by that name. Could be a term or translation that's been lost to the ages.

EDIT: Found it.

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## Mike Hill (Nov 11, 2021)

Good idea about the materia medica. Wish we still had all of ours - we had a couple of hundred very early ones until we sold em. My wife and daughter are both in the medical field.


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## JerseyHighlander (Nov 11, 2021)

Mike Hill said:


> Good idea about the materia medica. Wish we still had all of ours - we had a couple of hundred very early ones until we sold em. My wife and daughter are both in the medical field.


I wish I had more of them in book form but I have a substantial collection of them that have been digitized and put out on the internet for free download by some very generous people.





King's American Dispensatory, 1898. | Henriette's Herbal Homepage







www.henriettes-herb.com





The pages above came from this book. 








All the plants of the Bible : Walker, Winifred : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive


244 pages 25 cm



archive.org

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## JerseyHighlander (Nov 11, 2021)

The confusion continues. 
Same book, wanted to see what it said about Juniper that I spotted in the contents and found this.

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## DWasson (Dec 14, 2021)

Wow, this is a great conversation. My dad is a retired pastor and a woodworker. I have to share this with him.

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## Mike Hill (Dec 14, 2021)

Sprung said:


> Bryson, I'm quarantined at home right now with COVID. I should be able to get back in my office on Monday, which includes having access to all my Hebrew language resources (in both book and digital forms). I will forget by Monday, but if you remind me early next week, I will look this up and see what I can find.


@Sprung - have you been able to look this up. Strongs not too helpful - says probably a transliteration of a foreign word, but no real definition except possibly sandalwood - but no reason why they say that.


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## wade (Dec 14, 2021)

Very interesting topic

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## Sprung (Dec 14, 2021)

Mike Hill said:


> @Sprung - have you been able to look this up. Strongs not too helpful - says probably a transliteration of a foreign word, but no real definition except possibly sandalwood - but no reason why they say that.



I'll admit that I completely forgot about looking this up. COVID hit me pretty hard and I was down for a while. Once I was back to things, I was focused on getting caught up on everything that had to sit for the three weeks I was out. I'll look it up later, if I remember!

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## Sprung (Dec 14, 2021)

Had a chance to do a little looking this evening. My study didn't really turn up anything new.

My Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB) doesn't suggest anything for almug.

One of my study Bibles has a note that reads, "Its identity is unknown, though some suggest it is juniper."

One interesting thing to note though is a connection with 2 Chronicles 2:8 and 2 Chronicles 9:10-11, with the building of the temple being chronicled there as well. These verses mention algum wood. That swapping of those two letters also occurs in the Hebrew text. Keep in mind that these ancient scrolls would have been hand copied and occasionally copying errors would get missed. Some of the copying would even be done with one person reading from a scroll and a room full of people writing down what was read to them. This could lead one down the path of studying variants in texts, etc.

For algum, my BDB only mentions sandalwood - "perh. sandal-wood". Which is what Strong's Concordance also suggests.

In 2 Chronicles 9:11 echoes 1 Kings 10:12 and it's said that the algum wood was made into steps (could also mean supports), but also into lyres and harps. As steps or supports - both sandalwood and juniper are rot resistant (though perhaps not so much of a concern in the dry climate of Jerusalem as it would be somewhere with a wet climate), though juniper would've yielded larger pieces of timber - important, depending on where and how it was used in construction. As tone woods - juniper can be a tone wood and a search for sandalwood instruments suggests that it can also be used in musical instruments.

Considering that almug and algum are both used to refer to the exact same thing in different accounts, it's certain that these two words refer to the same wood. 

To be honest, I'm not sure we can say for certain which wood is being referenced - juniper or sandalwood - or if it could even be another wood. Both of these woods would have been fitting for use in the building of the Lord's house and for instruments in use there. No expense was spared in searching out the best for the building of the temple and, since suitable wood for the endeavor did not exist in the area of Jerusalem or in Israel, such wood had to be imported.

So, in the end, a long post to say that, after doing some study, I don't know and have no suggestions, beyond what has already been given, as to which wood is being spoken of.  A case could be made for it being either wood.

This post brought to you by the following printed resources, as well as a few digital resources:





Now back to work! I needed to grab these off the shelf tonight anyways - tonight I'm working on preparing a sermon on Psalm 73:23-26 for a funeral on Thursday.

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## B Rogers (Dec 14, 2021)

Sprung said:


> Had a chance to do a little looking this evening. My study didn't really turn up anything new.
> 
> My Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB) doesn't suggest anything for almug.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your input and study on this. I appreciate it.

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## Gonzalodqa (Dec 15, 2021)

Most likely almug is a general term for scented woods


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## Mike Hill (Dec 15, 2021)

My 1619 KJV has the passage this way. "And the nauie also of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir, great plentie of Almug trees, and precious stones. And the king made of the Almug trees, pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the Kings house, Harpes also and Psalteries for singers: there came no such Almug trees, nor were seene vnto this day"

John Wycliff - the first to translate the Bible into English, I think he used the Vulgate rather than original greek and hebrew, and translated it this way in 1382-1384 (handwritten bible) - "But also the schip of Hiram, that brouyte gold fro Ophis, brouyte fro Ophir ful many trees of tyme and preciouse stoonys. And kyng Salomon made of the trees of tyme vndir settyngis of the hows of the Lord, and of the kyngis hows, and harpis, and sitols to syngeris; siche trees of tyme weren not brouty nether seyn, til in to present dai." To say he and his translation was not liked by the religious authorities of the time is not an understatement. He died of a stroke while saying mass in 1384. 44 years later he was declared a heretic and tthe Pope of the time, had his body exhumed, burned and the ashes cast into a river. 

William Tyndale was the first to print the NT into English in 1534. He was in process of translating the OT, but was executed (strangled and burned at the stake) for the heresy of translating the Bible into something more people could read. Myles Coverdale and John Roger continued the OT work of Tyndale and published a Bible. This is how the Cloverdale Bible (1535) has the passage - "And Hirams shippes, which caried golde out of Ophir, broughte maruelous moch costly tymper and precious stones from Ophis. And of that costly tymber the kynge caused to make pilers in the house of the LORDE, and in ye kinges house, and harpes and Psalteries fro the Musicians. There came nomore soch costly tymber, nether was it sene vnto this daye."

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