A kind of tree or wood, which Hiram brought from Ophir for the use of Solomon in making pillars for the temple and his own house, and also musical instruments, 1Ki 10:11; 2Ch 2:8. The rabbins call it coral; but it could not be this. It was more probably the tree, which furnishes what is now commonly called Brazil wood, which is also a native of the East Indies, Siam, the Molucca islands, and Japan, and has several species. Its wood is very durable, and is used in fine cabinet work. It yields also a dye of a beautiful red color, for which it is much used. Its resemblance in color to coral may have given occasion for the name almug, which in rabbinic still signifies coral; and thus the meaning of the name would be coral-wood.

(1Ki 10:11-12) = algum (2Ch 2:8; 9:10-11), in the Hebrew occurring only in the plural almuggim (indicating that the wood was brought in planks), the name of a wood brought from Ophir to be used in the building of the temple, and for other purposes. Some suppose it to have been the white sandal-wood of India, the Santalum album of botanists, a native of the mountainous parts of the Malabar coasts. It is a fragrant wood, and is used in China for incense in idol-worship. Others, with some probability, think that it was the Indian red sandal-wood, the pterocarpus santalinus, a heavy, fine-grained wood, the Sanscrit name of which is valguka. It is found on the Coromandel coast and in Ceylon.

This tree was imported by Solomon from Ophir (1Ki 10:11-12) and from Lebanon (2Ch 2:8) for staircases, balustrades, and musical instruments. There is nothing certain known of the nature of this wood, but as Jewish tradition states that it was a red wood, red sandal wood (Pterocarpus santalinus)

See ALGUM.