Exodus 30:31

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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מִשְׁחַת

mishchâh

H4888

“anointing oil of”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct

Appears 26× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 25:6

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H4886

TWOT: 1255a , 1255b

consecrated portion, anointing oil, portion, ointment, anointing portion - ointment (used to consecrate by anointing) - anointing portion

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

12: words
11: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מִשְׁחַת anointing oil H4888 occurs in 24 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
6 nouns
1 pronoun
2 prepositions

Verb forms

תְּדַבֵּ֣ר Piel · Imperfect
לֵאמֹ֑ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
יִהְיֶ֥ה Qal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 21 words from the Hebrew and 22 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 12 Hebrew tokens and 17 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Exodus 30:31 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 37:29 He made the holy anointing oil and the pure incense of sweet spices, after the art of the perfumer.
Leviticus 8:12 He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.
Leviticus 21:10 "'He who is the high priest among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, nor tear his clothes;
Psalms 89:20 I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil,

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Exodus 30:31 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאֶל בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל תְּדַבֵּ֣ר לֵאמֹ֑ר שֶׁ֠מֶן מִשְׁחַת קֹ֨דֶשׁ יִהְיֶ֥ה זֶ֛ה לִ֖י לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶֽם

You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 30:31 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁ υἱός ἰσραήλ λαλέω λέγω ἔλαιον ἄλειμμα χρίσις ἅγιος εἰμί τοῦτο σύ εἰς ὁ γενεά σύ

And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, This shall be to you a holy anointing oil throughout your generations.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְעִם בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל תְּמַלֵל לְמֵימָר מְשַׁח רְבוּת קוּדְשָׁא יְהֵי דֵין קֳדָמַי לְדָרֵיכוֹן:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְעִם בְּנֵי יִשְרָאֵל תְּמַלֵּיל לְמֵימָר מְשַׁח רְבוּת קוּדְשָׁא יְהֵי דֵין קֳדָמַי לְדָרֵיכוֹן

And speak thou to the sons of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil before Me unto your generations.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Exodus 30:31 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

31. throughout your generations] See on Exo_12:14.

31–33. The oil thus prepared to be reserved exclusively for the sacred purposes thus specified.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And thou shall speak unto the children of Israel,.... When he was come down from the mount, and gave the instructions about the making and using of this oil:

saying, this shall be an holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations; Abarbinel, and other Jewish writers, conclude from hence, that this same oil, which was made by Moses, lasted throughout the generations to the times of Josiah, when it was hid with other things; but this, notion is justly exploded by Aben Ezra; it is not probable, that so small a quantity that was now made, which is supposed by some to be no more than a gallon and a half of wine measure, should suffice so long: it does not seem to be more than what was sufficient for present use; for the anointing of so many persons, and things as were anointed, and much less to be sufficient for the anointing of priests and kings in after times, until that period. This cannot be supposed without a miraculous interposition, to which the Talmudists (z) fly, and observe, that there were many miracles in this affair; but there is no need to have recourse to them, since, for aught that is said, it might be made again in like manner for sacred uses, which is meant by the phrase "unto me"; though it might not be made for any other use, private or profane.

(z) Massachet Cerithot, fol. 5. 2. & Horayot, fol. 11. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Holy unto me, or set apart for the persons and things employed in my service. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

i.e. Reserved for my service alone, not employed to any profane or civil use, as it follows.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

oil

Anointing oil, type of the Holy Spirit for service Act 1:8.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

לדרתיכם THROUGHOUT YOUR GENERATIONS — From here our Rabbis derived that it (the oil of anointment) was miraculously preserved in its entirety for the time to come (for the Messianic days) (Horayot 11b).

זה has the numerical value of 12, alluding to the 12 “logs” which was the measure for the oil of anointment (Horayot 11b; cf. Rashi v. 24).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 12 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mishchâh (“anointing oil”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word mishchâh carries the sense “anointing oil.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Exodus 25:6, which shares the word «anointing oil», read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«תְּדַבֵּ֣ר» is a Piel Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 12 Hebrew ↔ 17 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 12 words in this verse.