Exodus 30:34
And the Lord said to Moses: Take unto thee spices, stacte, and onycha, galbanum of sweet savour, and the clearest frankincense, all shall be of equal weight.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dixitque Dominus ad Moysen : Sume tibi aromata, stacten et onycha, galbanum boni odoris, et thus lucidissimum ; æqualis ponderis erunt omnia :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ εἶπεν Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν Λάβε σεαυτῷ ἡδύσματα, στακτήν, ὄνυχα, χαλβάνην ἡδυσμοῦ καὶ λίβανον διαφανῆ· ἴσον ἴσῳ ἔσται·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּאמֶר֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֶל מֹשֶׁ֜ה קַח לְךָ֣ סַמִּ֗ים נָטָ֤ף וּשְׁחֵ֨לֶת֙ וְחֶלְבְּנָ֔ה סַמִּ֖ים וּלְבֹנָ֣ה זַכָּ֑ה בַּ֥ד בְּבַ֖ד יִהְיֶֽה
Haydock's commentary
Onycha. An aromatic root, shining like "the nail," or perhaps the bdellium of Arabia, which is clearer than that of the Indies. (Dioscor.; Galen Medic.) It distills from a tree. Others affirm, that it is the shell of a fish which feeds on spikenard (spica nardi) in the watery places of India.
Galbanum, an unctuous gum, of a strong but not very agreeable smell when alone.
Frankincense, is a juice proceeding by incision from the trees of Saba.
Weight. The Rabbins say 70 or 74 pounds of each.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book II, Chapter XXIV. Folly of the arguments
3. For, choosing out of the law whatever things agree with the number adopted in their system, they thus violently strive to obtain proofs of its validity. But if it was really the purpose of their Mother, or the Saviour, to set forth, by means of the Demiurge, types of those things which are in the Pleroma, they should have taken care that the types were found in things more exactly correspondent and more holy; and, above all, in the case of the Ark of the Covenant, on account of which the whole tabernacle of witness was formed. Now it was constructed thus: its length was two cubits and a half, its breadth one cubit and a half, its height one cubit and a half; but such a number of cubits in no respect corresponds with their system, yet by it the type ought to have been, beyond everything else, clearly set forth. …