Liquidambar (Oriental sweetgum, storax)
Plants and Trees in the Bible
The liquidambar tree grows to 10 meters (33 feet) tall, and has deeply incised leaves with five points and round yellow flowers on a 4 centimeter (2 inch) stalk. The fruits are prickly. The sticky gray-brown gum is produced by making cuts in the trunk of the tree.
Pictures
In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
צֳרִי tsori · 6 verses
נָטָף nataf · 1 verse
στακτή staktē · 1 verse
What it stands for
The Jeremiah and Ezekiel references indicate that tsori was medicinal. We conclude from that it was aromatic. shows that it was highly valued in trade with Egypt.
More about it
The Hebrew word tsori (“balm”) may be the basis for the word “storax,” which Zohary takes to be a name for the dried resin of the Liquidambar Liquidambar orientalis, a tree that is also called kataf or nataf in Hebrew. FFB and The Anchor Bible Dictionary (ABD) suggest that tsori is Balanites aegyptiaca, which grows in both Palestine and Egypt, but this position raises a question: Why would the Ishmaelite (or Midianite) traders carry it to Egypt if it is already plentiful there? It is more likely that the word is generic and could cover all kinds of medicinal spices.
The Hebrew word nataf does not occur outside of in the Bible. The Septuagint renders it staktē, which RSV transliterates as “stacte.” According to Zohary, nataf is a synonym of tsori (= storax), which is found six times in the Bible. Hepper concedes this as possible but suggests that nataf may also be the opobalsamum (see 4.2.4 Opobalsamum (balsam, balm)), which Zohary calls “balm.” The liquidambar (or storax) is a tree that used to grow widely in the Middle East and Turkey. It is quite a different tree from the streamside styrax (see 1.22 Styrax).
Also in Ointment and balm (medicinal plants)
Sources
Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema