Box-tree

תאשור , Isa 41:9; Isa 60:13; Eze 27:6; 2Es 14:24, where the word appears to be used for tablets. Most of the ancient, and several of the modern, translators, render this word the buxus, or “box tree;” but from its being mentioned along with trees of the forest, some more stately tree must be intended, probably the cedar.

Box-tree (Isa 60:13; Isa 41:19). It is not very certain that the box-tree is really denoted by the Hebrew and so translated: but nothing more probable has been suggested, and it agrees well enough with the indications afforded by the texts in which the name occurs.

The box is a native of most parts of Europe. It grows well in England, as at Boxhill, etc. while that from the Levant is most valued in commerce, in consequence of its being highly esteemed by wood-engravers. Turkey box is yielded by Buxus Balearica, a species which is found in Minorca, Sardinia, and Corsica, and also in both European and Asiatic Turkey, and is imported from Constantinople, Smyrna, and the Black Sea. Box is also found on Mount Caucasus, and a species extends even to the Himalaya Mountains. It is much employed in the present day by the wood-engraver, the turner, carver, mathematical instrument maker, and the comb and flute maker.

The box-tree, being a native of mountainous regions, was peculiarly adapted to the calcareous formations of Mount Lebanon, and therefore likely to be brought from thence with the coniferous woods for the building of the temple, and was as well suited as the fir and the pine trees for changing the face of the desert.

A well-known beautiful evergreen, growing in many parts of Europe and Asia. Its wood is highly prized by engravers. The word employed in Isa 60:13, is thought by many to have been a species of cedar. It is used as an emblem of the abiding grace and prosperity of the church of God.\par

represents, in the Auth. Vers., the Heb. תְּאִשּׁוּר, teihsshur’, which occurs in three places in Scripture, but great uncertainty has always existed respecting its true meaning (Celsius, Hierobot. ii, 153). The old versions and interpreters express it variously by that of the cedar, poplar, and fir; the Vulgate (so buxus in 2 [4] Esd. 14:24), the Chaldee paraphrase (אשׁכרועין; see Maimon. ad Chelim, 12:8; Bartenora ad Negaim, ii, 1), and several Hebrew commentators, render it by box-tree, which view our translators have adopted.

There is no philological proof of this conclusion, but yet there is nothing in the tree indicated unsuitable to the several contexts. Thus, with reference to the future Temple, it is said (Isa 60:13), "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pinetree, and the box (Sept. κέδρος) together;" and at Isa 41:19, "I will set in the desert the fir-tree, and the pine, and the box (Sept. confounds with several interpolated kinds) together." Further, in Eze 27:6, in the account of the arts and commerce of Tyre, we read’ "Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars, and the benches of the rowers are made of ashur-wood (אֲשׁוּר ashur’; Sept. translates unintelligibly; Engl. Vers. "Ashurites" [q.v.]), inlaid with ivory," as it is now usually interpreted. The ashur-wood, moreover, is said to have been brought from the isles of Chittim, that is, of Greece. According to most, however, who argue from the derivation of the word (from אשִׁר, ashar’, to be erect), the teishshur is a species of cedar called sherbin (so the Syriac), to be recognised by the small size of the cones and the upward tendency of the branches (see Niebuhr’s Arab. p. 149). Robinson, in his latest volume of Researches in Palestine, mentions a grove near el-Hadith which only the natives speak of as Arez (Heb. אֶרֶז, erez, cedar), though the tree bears a general resemblance to the cedar, and is probably the sherbin (see Celsii Hierob. i, 74, 79; Freytag, Lex. ii, 408; Robinson, 3:593). SEE CEDAR.

The box (Buxus semperirens) is an evergreen, which in our gardens is generally seen only as a dwarf shrub. In the East, however, its native country, it attains the size of a forest-tree, and often forms a very beautiful feature in the landscape. It is a native of most parts of Europe. It grows well in moderate climates, while that from the Levant is most valued in commerce, in consequence of being highly esteemed by wood-engravers. Turkey box is yielded by Buxus Balearica, a species which is found in Minorca, Sardinia, and Corsica, and also in both European and Asiatic Turkey, and is imported from Constantinople, Smyrna, and the Black Sea. Box is also found on Mount Caucasus, and a species extends even to the Himalaya Mountains. Hence it is well known to Asiatics, and is the shumshad of the Arabs. It is much employed in the present day by the wood-engraver, the turner, carver, mathematical instrument-maker, and the comb and flute maker. It was cultivated by the Romans, as described by Pliny (xvi, 33). Virgil (En., 10:135) alludes to the practice of its being inlaid with ivory (comp. Theocrit. 24:108; Athen. v, 207; Pliny, 16:66; Virg. Georg. ii, 449; Juv. 14:194). The box-tree, being a native of mountainous regions, was peculiarly adapted to the calcareous formations of Mount Lebanon, and therefore likely to be brought from thence with the coniferous woods for the building of the Temple, and was as well suited as the fir and the pine trees for changing the face of the desert (see Penny Cyclopcedia, s.v. Btxus). SEE BOTANY.

Box Tree. Isa 41:19. A small evergreen tree, either the same with or closely resembling the shrubby box of our gardens.

What tree is referred to under the name teashshur is not known: the ancient versions translate it ’cedar, fir, poplar,’ etc. It is probably a species of cedar, called sherbin in the East. Isa 41:19; Isa 60:13.

(Hebrew, ):

By: Morris Jastrow, Jr., W. Max Muller

Judging by Isa. lx. 13, the box-tree (A. V. "box") is a tree of the Lebanon, promised for the rebuilding of the Temple, together with the "fir-tree and pine." In Isa. xli. 19 there is a prophecy that the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree (R. V., margin, "cypress") would flourish in what was then the desert. In Ezek. xxvii. 6 the Revised Version, adopting a better division of the consonants, translates "boxwood from the isles of Kittim" as parallel to fir, cedar, and oak, used for ship-building. In Ezek. xxxi. 3 Ewald emends "the Assyrian" () to read "a box-tree" () ("Behold a box-tree was in Lebanon"). Compare Cornill's Ezekiel, ad loc.

The tree in question is called "te'ashshur," a word occurring only in Hebrew. That Aquila and Theodotion simply transliterate the word throws a suspicion on the tradition; likewise that the Septuagint ("cedar," Isa. lx.) evidently makes a poor guess. Symmachus, as well as the Vulgate, wavers between the renderings "box-tree" (Isa. xli.) and "pine" (Isa. lx.). Peshiṭta (shurbinta) and Saadia understand that the sharbin-tree of modern Arabic is meant. This seems to be the shurmenu of the Assyrians, which, according to a geographical list (Delitzsch, "Wo Lag das Paradies?" p. 101), was the characteristic tree of the Lebanon. At present the sharbin of the Lebanon (called a cypress by some, a kind of juniper by others) is a pine-tree, extending its branches widely at a small angle with the stem, and bearing very small fruit-cones (Seetzen, "Reisen," i. 167). I. Löw ("Aramäische Pflanzennamen," pp. 387-388) distinguishes this Juniperus oxycedrus or Phœnicea from Syriac sharwaina, Cupressus sempervirens (Targumic shurbina, Syriac shurbinta, a differentiation which is followed at present by few writers). Hoffmann ("Ueber Einige Phönikische Inschriften," p. 21) tries to assimilate the Hebrew "te'ashshur" with the word "shurbin" by a series of emendations. But for the testimony in form of the traditional view furnished by the Hexaplar, this identification would be acceptable. The identification with the box-tree, on the other hand, is supported by Theodotion and the Targumic eshkero'a, which, after the Syriac eshkar'a, is the Buxus sempervirens (Löw, ib. p. 63); not the Buxus longifolia, which, besides being too low, is a shrub, and does not occur in Phenicia. The fact that it came from Kittim (Cyprus) does not help toward the solution of the difficulties involved. Possibly both branches of the tradition rest only on the graphic similarity; but with the scanty material at disposal no decision between the two explanations is possible. See Cypress.

BOX-TREE (teashshûr, Isa 41:19; Isa 60:13, Eze 27:6).—Whether the teashshûr was the box-tree (Buxus longifolia) or the sherbin, mod. Arab. [Note: Arabic.] for the cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), as RV [Note: Revised Version.] adopts, or, as others propose, a kind of juniper, is quite unsettled. So good an authority as Post rejects the first as improbable.

E. W. G. Masterman.

box´trē (תּאשׁוּר, t^e’ashshūr; Isa 41:19; Isa 60:13, “boxwood” Eze 27:6): A tree of uncertain identity, which must once have been common in the forests of Lebanon. According to Post (HDB, I, 313), “The only species of box found in Bible lands is Buxus longifolia, which is a shrub from 2 to 3 ft. high. It does not grow South of Mt. Cassius and it is unlikely that it did in historical times.”

As an alternative to the box the cypress, Cupressus sempervirens - known in Arabic as Sherbı̄n - has been suggested. It is a fine tree and was probably once plentiful, but as it seems to answer to the b^erosh (see FIR), it cannot well be the t^e’ashshūř. There is nothing certain to go upon.

Box Tree. A tree of very hard wood and glossy leaves, which grew to a height of about 6 meters (20 feet). A native of northern Palestine and the Lebanon mountains, the box tree was well suited to beautify the Temple ( Isa 60:13). The box tree was used since Roman times for wood engravings and musical instruments. Isaiah symbolically used the box tree, along with other trees, to remind the Hebrews of God’s perpetual presence ( Isa 41:17-20).

Some scholars have suggested that the box tree of Scripture may instead be the cypress or plane. Also see Chestnut.