Balm of Gilead

COURTESY ZOHAR AMAR

Zori is mentioned six times in the Bible as a prestigious and well-known medical product. Often translated “balm,” it was a prized product of the biblical lands, especially the region of Gilead (Genesis 37:25; Jeremiah 8:22). Its importance is reflected by its appearance at the top of a list of medicines and perfumes called “the choice produce of the land” (Genesis 43:11).

But what exactly is zori?

There is no doubt that the biblical text reflects an authentic product, since zori also appears in a 14th-century BCE letter from the well-known Amarna archive: The queen of Ugarit sent a small jug of zori as tribute to the queen of Egypt.¹ Much later, in the Roman period, it became a term for the “balsam of Judah,” a perfume shrub. In earlier periods, though, it referred to something else entirely.

I think that the resin of the Atlantic pistachio tree (Pistacia atlantica) is the best candidate for biblical zori. The Atlantic pistachio, also called Atlantic terebinth, is a large tree with a thick central trunk and extensive foliage. Its small, edible fruits are rich in oil and probably the “nuts” (Hebrew: botnim) mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 43:11). The tree is common to the dry regions of the southern Levant, and, to this day, there are a few very large, old pistachio trees on the eastern bank of the Jordan River above the mountains of Gilead in Jordan.

In 2019, I visited the village of Jalad (Gilead) and was informed that the trees had been used to produce resin, but the practice stopped completely around 2000. The residents said that it is still customary to pick the fruits of the terebinth tree (Pistacia terebinthus), a relative of the Atlantic pistachio tree, at the end of summer.

© THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM/ART RESOURCE, NY

The identification of biblical zori with the resin of the Atlantic pistachio tree is supported by historical sources. The tree and its medicinal properties were described by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, Roman philosopher Pliny, and Greek physician Dioscorides. The latter names the city of Petra, the capital of the Nabateans, who were known as traders in perfumes, as another locale for zori:

The resin is brought out of Arabia Petraea…The preferred resin is most clear, white, a glassy color and inclining to an azure [blue], fragrant, and smells like terminthos…Now all resin has a soothing, warming, dispersing, cleansing quality; good for coughs and consumption [wasting disease] taken in syrups (either by itself or with honey), purging what should be purged out of the chest. It is also diuretic, helps digestion, softens the intestines, and is good for retaining hair on the eyebrows…For ears which run with filthy matter it is applied with oil and honey, and it is effective for itching genitals.

(On Medical Material 1.91)

There is also archaeological evidence for the export of large quantities of this resin from Canaan in the Late Bronze Age. In the cargo hold of a 14th-century BCE shipwreck at the site of Uluburun, off the coast of Turkey, remains were found of various raw materials and foods. These included dozens of Canaanite amphorae with hundreds of pounds of harvested resin from pistachio trees. From about the same time, pistachio tree resin was found in Canaanite amphorae and bowls at the site of Amarna in Egypt.

Another corroboration is the preservation of the name zori in the ancient Arabic name (darw) for Atlantic pistachio tree resin. This name appears in the Sabaic script in the lists of incense, spices, and perfumes engraved on many incense altars found in southern Arabia (modern Yemen). In the Persian polymath Al-Dinawari’s (d. 895) ancient book of plants, a description of the Atlantic pistachio tree is given under the names butum and darw.

To learn more about how zori may have been harvested, my student Elron Zabatani and I reconstructed the traditional method of extracting the resin of the Atlantic pistachio from 80 trees in several different regions of Israel: the coastal plain, the Jerusalem hills, and the Golan. We based our method on the extraction of lentisk (Pistacia lentiscus) resin on the island of Chios in Greece and the method of extracting Atlantic pistachio resin in Iraqi Kurdistan. In these areas, the production of resin is a family business passed down from generation to generation and harvested every summer.

In the first step, the trees are cut with a spike or crowbar. After about a month, the sticky liquid resin is scraped off and collected, and over time it dries and crystallizes. A more efficient way to collect the resin is to attach a clay bowl under the cut made in the tree trunk. The resin slowly drips into the bowl, and then the liquid is siphoned into a collecting basin.

According to our calculations, 50 trees can produce about 33 pounds (15 kg) of resin per season. The amount of resin obtained from our experiment was more than from any other tree growing in the area of Israel and Syria. We found that large Atlantic pistachio trees could produce about 1 pound of resin. Although it is not possible to estimate how much resin was actually collected every year and how many people were involved in the process, the large amounts of resin we obtained confirm that this was indeed a profitable industry in the past.

Pistachio resin is still sold today in many countries in the region, including Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. It is used for various medicinal purposes, such as relieving throat infections, lowering cholesterol, treating stomach ulcers, alleviating stress, and more. After collection, the resin is cooked in water until it becomes a white liquid to dissipate the bitterness. Then wax is added to create a consistency that is easy to chew and is known as alka.

For millennia, the resin of the Atlantic pistachio tree was produced by the inhabitants of the southern Levant and exported to many other regions. Our study not only sheds light on this important economic industry but also connects it with biblical zori, the famed balm of Gilead.

Zori is mentioned six times in the Bible as a prestigious and well-known medical product. Often translated “balm,” it was a prized product of the biblical lands, especially the region of Gilead (Genesis 37:25; Jeremiah 8:22). Its importance is reflected by its appearance at the top of a list of medicines and perfumes called “the choice produce of the land” (Genesis 43:11). But what exactly is zori? There is no doubt that the biblical text reflects an authentic product, since zori also appears in a 14th-century BCE letter from the well-known Amarna archive: The queen of Ugarit sent a small […]