JuniperJuniperus oxycedrus and Other Species

I have chosen juniper for the translation of these two Hebrew terms. Both have been translated as “box,” or boxwood, a species of Buxus, in each of the two verses in Isaiah in the KJV. Although boxwood cannot be ruled out, this tree is not found in most of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges (see Algum). The wood was valued, but the tree would not be familiar tomost of the original hearers of these verses. Cypress, berosh, is included in each of the verses, indicating that a different wood is intended.

Juniperus oxycedrus is a wide-ranging gymnosperm in the Middle East. It is a shrub that fits both teashur and tidhar. Like true boxwood, it is evergreen. There are extensive stands of it on Mount Lebanon, which is consonant with Isaiah 60:13: “The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine [teashur] to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious” (ESV).

A species of Juniperus could be the plant intended for algum and almug (see Algum, Almug), particularly J. excelsa, which is a valued timber tree (Farjon, 2005) growing at higher elevation in the Lebanon and Amanus ranges. This was a valued timber item in both the Levant (Meiggs, 1982) and Mesopotamia (Moorey, 1999) and was known to Bible writers.