LIBNEH (lib'neh), (Heb. ;1.#?, lib-neh'), occurs in two places of Scripture, viz., Gen., xxx:37; Hos. iv:t 3, and is supposed to indicate either the white poPlar or the stora.r tree.
The libneh is first mentiored in Gen. xxx :37, as one of the rods which Jacob placed in the water ing troughs of the sheep ; the /Jaz (the almond) and armon (the Oriental plane) being the two others ; he 'pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.' In Hos. iv :13 reference is made to the shade of trees and the burning of incense:—'They sac rifice upon the top of the mountains, and burn in cense upon the hills. under oaks (allon, "terebinth tree") and poplars (libneh). because the shadow of them is good.' This poplar is said to be called white, not on account of the whiteness of its bark, but of that of the under surface of its leaves. It may perhaps be so designated from the white ness of its hairy seeds, which have a remarkable appearance when the seed covering first bursts. The poplar is certainly common in the countries where the scenes are laid of the transactions re lated in the above passages of Scripture.
Others, however, have been of opinion that libneh denotes the storax tree rather than the white poplar. Thus, in Gen. xxx :37, the Sep
tuagint has lidpov o-TvpaKivny, 'a rod of sty rax ;' and the Greek translation of the Pentateuch, according to Rosentntiller, is more ancient and of far greater authority than that of Hosea. From the description of Dioscorides, and his compar ing the leaves of the styrax to those of the quince, there is no doubt of the same tree be ing intended: especially as in early times, as at the present day, it yielded a highly fragrant bal samic substance which was esteemed as a medi cine, and employed in fumigation. From the simi larity of the Hebrew name /ibneh to the Arabic lubne, and from the Septuagint having in Genesis translated the former by styras, it seems most probable that this was the tree intended. It is capable of yielding white wands as well as the poplar ; and it is also well qualified to afford complete shade under its ample foliage, as in the passage of Hos. iv :13. We may also suppose it to have been more particularly alluded to, from its being a tree yielding incense. 'They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn in ccnse upon the hills, under the terebinth and the storax trees, because the shadow thereof is good.' (See POPLAR.) j. F. R.