Psalm 45/Notes/Grammar.v. 9.390548

v. 9 – The list of descriptors for the king's clothes, מֹר־וַאֲהָל֣וֹת קְ֭צִיעוֹת, aside from מֹר "myrrh," contains two very rare words in the Bible. The word אֲהָלוֹת "agarwood tree, aloe" (SDBH) appears only here and in Song of Songs 4:14 (though the masculine plural form אֲהָלִים is also found in Prov 7:17). Although it is claimed that this is a loan word from Sanskrit aguru (BDB, HALOT), which would justify the agarwood suggestion, the reception of "g" as Hebrew "he" has never been satisfactorily explained, and the aloe sense is much more likely due to the words which typically accompany אֲהָלוֹת/אֲהָלִים in its few instantiations, which include מֹר and קְצִיעוֹת here and in Song 4:14, לְבֹנָה "frankincense," too, in Song 4:14, while Prov 7:17 also includes קִנָּמוֹן "cinnamon," all of which are native to the Horn of Africa, and from where the loanword probably originated (Noonan 2019, 44). Further, although the LXX renders אֲהָלוֹת here as στακτή "oozing drops... trickling" (LSJ), translated as myrrh oil in the NETS (cf. Jerome's stacta), Song 4:14 is read as ἀλώθ, probably a by-form (perhaps following the Hebrew morphology) of ἀλόη "aloe," from which subsequent forms of the word were derived in Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Latin (Noonan 2019, 44).

The second rare term is קְ֭צִיעוֹת, appearing only here in the Bible. The ancient versions are consistent in rendering this term as some form of their received "cassia," presumably cinnamomum cassia (so SDBH). Nevertheless, "Classical sources unequivocally state that the spice denoted by κασία and casia comes from Ethiopia and Arabia, and they clearly describe a spice other than C. cassia (e.g., Dioscorides, Mat. med. 1.13; Theophrastus, Hist. plant. 9.5.1–3; Pliny, Nat. 12.43.95–97). Therefore, Hebrew קְצִיעָה as well as Greek κασία and Latin casia must refer to a cassia-like spice found in Ethiopia or Arabia, not true cassia... Without doubt this word originates from Ethiopia or Arabia, exactly where Classical sources say this plant comes from. The contextual mention of myrrh, ivory, and Ophir (Ps 45:9–10), all connected with the Red Sea region between Ethiopia and Arabia, confirms this loan hypothesis" (Noonan 2019, 196-197).