Biblical Reference

According to the Book of First Kings

Books of Kings

The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...

 (1 Kings 10:12), and the Second Book of Chronicles

Books of Chronicles

The Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible. In the Masoretic Text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim . Chronicles largely parallels the Davidic narratives in the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings...

 (II Chronicles 2:8; 9:10-11), it was used, together with cedar and pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

, in the construction of Solomon's Temple

Solomon's Temple

Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....

 including the crafting of musical instruments for use in the Temple. Likely the wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 was brought by the ships of Tarshish

Tarshish

Tarshish תַּרְשִׁישׁ occurs in the Hebrew Bible with several uncertain meanings:*One of the sons of Javan .* In the Bible Solomon set up a trade with Tarshish and received ivory, apes, and peacocks from Tarshish which are all native to the jungles in India. India's state bird for example is the...

, sent from the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

 port of Ezion-Giber, from the distant country of Ophir

Ophir

Ophir is a port or region mentioned in the Bible, famous for its wealth. King Solomon is supposed to have received a cargo of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and peacocks from Ophir, every three years.- Citations :...

, and was very valuable.

Botanical classification

The botanical

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 identity of algum is not known for certain, though some references suggest it may be juniper

Juniper

Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...

 (Juniperus). Several species of juniper occur in the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 region, including Juniperus excelsa

Juniperus excelsa

Juniperus excelsa is a juniper found throughout the eastern Mediterranean, from northeastern Greece and southern Bulgaria across Turkey to Syria and the Lebanon, and the Caucasus mountains. A subspecies, J. excelsa subsp...

(Greek Juniper), Juniperus foetidissima

Juniperus foetidissima

Juniperus foetidissima is a juniper native to southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, from southern Albania and northern Greece across Turkey to Syria and the Lebanon, the Caucasus mountains, the Alborz mountains of northern Iran, and east to southwestern Turkmenistan...

(Stinking Juniper), Juniperus phoenicea

Juniperus phoenicea

Juniperus phoenicea, the Phoenicean Juniper or Arâr, is a juniper found throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal east to Italy, Turkey and Egypt, south on the mountains of Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and in western Saudi Arabia near the Red Sea, and also on Madeira and the Canary...

(Phoenician Juniper), and Juniperus drupacea

Juniperus drupacea

Juniperus drupacea, the Syrian Juniper, is a species of juniper native to the eastern Mediterranean region from southern Greece , southern Turkey, western Syria, and Lebanon, growing on rocky sites from 800-1700 m altitude....

(Syrian Juniper). It is likely that the woods of these species, which are all very similar in woodworking properties, would have not been distinguished from each other in the wood trade. The difficulty in identifying this wood is due in part to uncertainty over the location of the Biblical city of Ophir. If Ophir is located in India, as some think, the wood likely would be red sandalwood

Sandalwood

Sandalwood is the name of a class of fragrant woods from trees in the genus Santalum. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and unlike many other aromatic woods they retain their fragrance for decades. As well as using the harvested and cut wood in-situ, essential oils are also extracted...

 or Pterocarpus santalinus

Pterocarpus santalinus

Pterocarpus santalinus , ; Red Sanders or Red Sandalwood) is a species of Pterocarpus native to India. It is only found in south India in Kadapa and Chittoor on the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh border....

.