The passages where aloes are mentioned clearly show that it was a highly odoriferous tree or wood, but it cannot be identified with certainty. Numbers 24:6; Psalm 45:8; Proverbs 7:17; Song of Solomon 4:14 . The ἀλόη was one of the perfumes which Nicodemus brought with which to embalm the body of our Lord. John 19:39 . The common aloes being of a disagreeable odour makes the identification of the above more difficult. The agallochum is the aloe-wood of more recent times.