LIBNEH (r1)1) occurs in two places of Scrip ture, viz. Gen. xxx. 37 ; Hosea iv. 13, and is supposed to indicate either the white poplar or the storax tree.
Libneh, in the passage of Hosea, is translated Adrob • white poplar,' in the Septuagint, and this translation is adopted by the majority of inter preters. The Hebrew name libneh, being sup posed to be derived from 12 (album esse), has been considered identical with the Greek XEL%1C71, which both signifies white,' and also the white poplar,' Populus alba, 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 related in the above passages of Scripture (Belon, Obs, ro6). Rauwolf mentions the white poplar as abundant about Aleppo and Tripoli, and still called by the ancient Arabic name haur or hor which is the word uscd in the Arabic translation of Hosea. That poplars are common in Syria has already been mentioned under the head of BACA.
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 bapSoa a-rapathnv, a rod of styrax ;' and the Greek translation of the Pentateuch, ac cording to Rosenmidler, is more ancient and of far greater authority than that of Hosea. So R. Jonah, as translated by Celsius, says of libneh, Dieitur lingua Arabum Lubna ; and in the Arabic trans ilation of Genesis • /tbne is employed as the Cr:54) representative of the Hebrew libneh. Lubne, both in Arabic and in Persian, is the name of a tree, and of the fragrant resin employed for fumigating, which exudes from it, and which is commonly known by the name of Storax. This resin was well
known to the ancients, and is mentioned by Hip pocrates and Theophrastus. Dioscorides describes several kinds, all of which were obtained from Asia Minor ; and all that is now imported is believed to be the produce of that country. But the tree is cultivated in the south of Europe, though it does not there yield any storax. It is found in -Greece, and is supposed to be a native of Asia Minor, whence it extends into Syria, and probably farther south. It is therefore a native of the country which was the scene of the transaction related in the above passage of Genesis.
From the description of Dioscorides, and his comparing the leaves of the styrax to those of the quince, there is no doubt of the same tree being intended : especially as in early times, as at the present day, it yielded a highly fragrant balsamic substance which was esteemed as a medicine, and employed in fumigation. From the similarity of the Hebrew name libneh to the Arabic htbne, and from the Septuagint having in Genesis translated the former by styrax, it seems most probable that this was the tree intended. It is capable of yield ing white wands as well as the poplar ; and it is also well qualified to afford contplete shade under its ample foliage, as in the passage of Hosea iv. 13. We may also suppose it to have been more particularly alluded to from its being a tree yield ing incense. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and bum incense upon the hills, under the terebinth and the storax trees, because the shadovt• thereof is good.'—J. F. R.