Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a fragrance word, and it turns up in three very different rooms. In Exodus 30, “sweet cinnamon” is one of the spices for the holy anointing oil. In the Song of Solomon it grows in a garden among “all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes.” In Proverbs 7 a woman trying to tempt a young man says, “I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.” The same sweet smell can serve worship, love or temptation. Proverbs 7 is a warning, and Exodus 30 shows the holy use.

3 verses

Exodus

Exodus 30:23

Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels,

Proverbs

Proverbs 7:17

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon 4:14

Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Heb. kinamon, the Cinnamomum zeylanicum of botanists, a tree of the Laurel family, which grows only in India on the Malabar coast, in Ceylon, and China. There is no trace of it in Egypt, and it was unknown in Syria. The inner rind when dried and rolled into cylinders forms the cinnamon of commerce. The fruit and coarser pieces of bark when boiled yield a fragrant oil. It was one of the principal ingredients in the holy anointing oil (Ex. 30:23). It is mentioned elsewhere only in Prov. 7:17; Cant. 4:14; Rev. 18:13. The mention of it indicates a very early and extensive commerce carried on between Palestine and the East.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

a well-known aromatic substance, the rind of the Laurus cinnamomum , called Korunda-gauhah in Ceylon. It is mentioned in (Exodus 30:23) as one of the component parts of the holy anointing oil. In (Revelation 18:13) it is enumerated among the merchandise of the great Babylon.