θυμιάω
to burn incense
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Tense
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
Mood
- Infinitive
- A verbal noun (“to write”), unmarked for person or number.
Every verse where G2370 appears — 1 distinct verse across 1 book. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Luke 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, θυμιαω (thymiáō) means “to burn incense.” It is rare — just 1 verse in the entire Greek New Testament. Its uses cluster heavily in Luke (100% of all occurrences). Scripture uses it exactly once, at Luke 1:9. From the same root come θυω, θυελλα and θυινος. Dig into 1-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2370 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 1
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 1 distinct verse.
- 1 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 1 of 27 New Testament books.
- #3,503
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Greek words (rank 3,503 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 1 occurrence in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Luke 1 verse 100%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 1 distinct verse.
- Gospels 1 verse · 100%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 1 verse · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Was to burn incense 1×
- American Standard Version: Burn incense 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Burn incense 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Burn incense 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2370 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2370 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G2370 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G2370 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Senses in Thayer's
The 1 sense Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- to burn incense
Word origin
Derived from θυω (thýō) (G2380) — to sacrifice.
From a derivative of G2380 (in the sense of smoking ); to fumigate that is offer aromatic fumes : - burn incense.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G2370, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- θυελλα thýella G2366 tempest
- θυινος thýïnos G2367 citrus tree
- θυμος thymós G2372 anger
- θυσια thysía G2378 sacrifice
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word θυμιαω appears 45 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 43 verses in 9 books.
- 45
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 43
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Exodus 30:7 θυμιάω
- 1 Samuel 2:15 θυμιάω
- 1 Kings 3:2 θυμιάω
- 2 Chronicles 2:3 θυμιάω
- Song of Solomon 3:6 θυμιάω
- Isaiah 65:3 θυμιάω
- Jeremiah 7:9 θυμιάω
- Hosea 11:2 θυμιάω
- Habakkuk 1:16 θυμιάω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2370) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Exodus 30:7 θυμιάω Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it.
- Exodus 30:8 θυμιάω When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations.
- Exodus 40:5 θυμιάω You shall set the golden altar for incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the screen of the door to the tent.
- Exodus 40:27 θυμιάω and he burnt incense of sweet spices on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- 1 Samuel 2:15 θυμιάω Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw.
- 1 Samuel 2:16 θυμιάω If the man said to him, They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires; then he would say, No, but you shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.
- 1 Kings 3:2 θυμιάω Only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of Yahweh until those days.
- 2 Chronicles 2:3 θυμιάω Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house in which to dwell, [even so deal with me].
- 2 Chronicles 2:5 θυμιάω The house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods.
- 2 Chronicles 13:11 θυμιάω and they burn to Yahweh every morning and every evening burnt offerings and sweet incense: the show bread also [set they] in order on the pure table; and the lampstand of gold with the lamps of it, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of Yahweh our God; but you have forsaken him.
- 2 Chronicles 26:16 θυμιάω But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.
- 2 Chronicles 26:18 θυμιάω and they withstood Uzziah the king, and said to him, It pertains not to you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for you have trespassed; neither shall it be for your honor from Yahweh God.
- 2 Chronicles 26:19 θυμιάω Then Uzziah was angry; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense.
- 2 Chronicles 28:4 θυμιάω He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
- 2 Chronicles 28:25 θυμιάω In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger Yahweh, the God of his fathers.
- 2 Chronicles 29:7 θυμιάω Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.
- 2 Chronicles 29:11 θυμιάω My sons, don't be negligent now; for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn incense.
- 2 Chronicles 30:14 θυμιάω They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook Kidron.
- 2 Chronicles 32:12 θυμιάω Has not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, You shall worship before one altar, and on it shall you burn incense?
- 2 Chronicles 34:25 θυμιάω Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.
- Song of Solomon 3:6 θυμιάω Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all spices of the merchant?
- Isaiah 65:3 θυμιάω a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks;
- Isaiah 65:7 θυμιάω your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says Yahweh, who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills; therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom.
- Jeremiah 7:9 θυμιάω Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,
- Jeremiah 11:12 θυμιάω Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
- Jeremiah 11:13 θυμιάω For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.
- Jeremiah 11:17 θυμιάω For Yahweh of Hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have worked for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal.
- Jeremiah 18:15 θυμιάω For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;
- Jeremiah 19:4 θυμιάω Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they didn't know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,
- Jeremiah 19:13 θυμιάω and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of the sky, and have poured out drink-offerings to other gods.
- Jeremiah 31:35 θυμιάω Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar; Yahweh of hosts is his name:
- Jeremiah 51:3 θυμιάω Against [him who] bends let the archer bend his bow, and against [him who] lifts himself up in his coat of mail: and don't you spare her young men; destroy you utterly all her host.
- Jeremiah 51:5 θυμιάω For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Yahweh of Hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
- Jeremiah 51:8 θυμιάω Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
- Jeremiah 51:15 θυμιάω He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:
- Jeremiah 51:17 θυμιάω Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
- Jeremiah 51:18 θυμιάω They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
- Jeremiah 51:19 θυμιάω The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and [Israel] is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Hosts is his name.
- Jeremiah 51:21 θυμιάω and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
- Jeremiah 51:23 θυμιάω and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke [of oxen]; and with you will I break in pieces governors and deputies.
- Jeremiah 51:25 θυμιάω Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain, says Yahweh, which destroy all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.
- Hosea 11:2 θυμιάω They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, And burned incense to engraved images.
- Habakkuk 1:16 θυμιάω Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2370) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.