משחה
anointing oil
also: consecrated portion, portion, ointment, anointing portion fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
18 distinct verses where H4888 appears in the Absolute state, across 3 books. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew 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 Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Exodus 11 verses
- Exodus 25:6 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,
- Exodus 29:7 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Then you shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head, and anoint him.
- Exodus 29:21 הַ/מִּשְׁחָה֒ ptcl def.art + n c fs You shall take of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be made holy, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.
- Exodus 29:29 לְ/מָשְׁחָ֣ה prep + n c fs "The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to be consecrated in them.
- Exodus 31:11 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֛ה ptcl def.art + n c fs the anointing oil, and the incense of sweet spices for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded you they shall do."
- Exodus 35:8 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,
- Exodus 35:15 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs and the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, the screen for the door, at the door of the tent;
- Exodus 35:28 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs and the spice, and the oil for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.
- Exodus 37:29 הַ/מִּשְׁחָה֙ ptcl def.art + n c fs He made the holy anointing oil and the pure incense of sweet spices, after the art of the perfumer.
- Exodus 39:38 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs the golden altar, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, the screen for the door of the Tent,
- Exodus 40:9 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs You shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the tent, and all that is in it, and shall make it holy, and all its furniture: and it will be holy.
Leviticus 5 verses
- Leviticus 8:2 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֑ה ptcl def.art + n c fs "Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bull of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread;
- Leviticus 8:10 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and sanctified them.
- Leviticus 8:12 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.
- Leviticus 8:30 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֗ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Moses took some of the anointing oil, and some of the blood which was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, and on his sons, and on his sons' garments with him, and sanctified Aaron, his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.
- Leviticus 21:10 הַ/מִּשְׁחָה֙ ptcl def.art + n c fs "'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;
Numbers 2 verses
- Numbers 4:16 הַ/מִּשְׁחָ֑ה ptcl def.art + n c fs "The charge of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be the oil for the light, the sweet incense, the continual meal offering, and the anointing oil, the charge of all the tabernacle, and of all that is in it, the sanctuary, and its furnishings."
- Numbers 18:8 לְ/מָשְׁחָ֛ה prep + n c fs Yahweh spoke to Aaron, I, behold, I have given you the charge of my heave-offerings, even all the holy things of the children of Israel; to you have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to your sons, as a portion forever.
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.
The Hebrew noun משחה centers on the idea of “anointing oil.” Exodus dominates its distribution — 14 of 24 verses. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 24 verses — uncommon. Its earliest occurrence is Exodus 25:6. Alongside “anointing oil” the lexicon also lists “consecrated portion”, “portion”, and “ointment” — part of its full sense range. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4888 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 24
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 24 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,251
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,251 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 24 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 24 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 24 verses · 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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Anointing 22×
- American Standard Version†: Anointing 20×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Anointing 19×, Some of the anointing 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Anointing 18×, Anointment of 4×, The 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4888 across 26† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4888 across 26† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4888 across 25† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4888 across 30† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 2 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
משחה I 1. ointment
- 1. ointment, the holy oil used in the consecration of the Aaronic priests, only in P; שֶׁמֶן הַמִּשְׁחָה Ex 25:6; 29:7, 21; 31:11; 35:8, 15, 28; 37:29; 39:38; 40:9; Lv 8:2, 10, 12, 30; 21:10; Nu 4:16; שׁ׳ מִשְׁחַת קֹדֶשׁ Ex 30:25(×2), 31; שׁ׳ מ׳ יהוה Lv 10:7; שׁ׳ מ׳ אֱלֹהָיו 21:21. e.g. Exodus 25:6
- 2. consecrated portion, of Aaron and his sons Lv 7:35(×2) (P). e.g. Leviticus 7:35
משחה II consecrated portion (Ew§ 238 a poss. error of pointing)
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. n.f. 1. ointment; 2. consecrated portion;—abs. מ׳ Ex 25:6 +; cstr. מִשְׁחַת Ex 30:25 +;—
I. n.f. consecrated portion (Ew§ 238 a poss. error of pointing);—Nu 18:8 (P).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from משח (mâshach) (H4886) — to anoint.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
מָשְׁחָה
- official distinction, official emoluments. Y. Bicc. II, 64ᵈ (ref. to Num. XVIII, 8) למ׳ לגדולה למ׳ וכ׳ l’moshḥa means for official distinction, for anointing (the body) &c., v. הַדְלָקָה; Zeb. 28ᵃ, a. e. למ׳ לגדולה וכ׳ l’moshḥa means for distinction, as kings eat. e.g. Numbers 18:8
מִשְׁחָה
- v. preced.)
- 1. anointing, official installation; שמן המ׳ the oil used for installation. Hor. III, 4; Meg. I, 9, v. מָשַׁח I. Tosef. Sot. XIII, 1 גנז … וצנצנת של שמן המ׳ (Josiah) removed out of sight the Ark … and the bottle of the oil of installation (made by Moses). Hor. 11ᵇ ש׳ המ׳ … היו שולקין וכ׳ in the oil of installation which Moses prepared, they boiled the roots of spices. Ib. נמעול מש׳ המ׳ Ms. M. (ed. omit המ׳) dare we desecrate the sacred oil (by using it for non-Davidic kings)? Ib. 12ᵃ ומי הוה ש׳ המ׳ did any oil for the installation exist (in the days of Joahaz)?; a. v. fr.—הר המ׳ (= b. h. הר הזיתים) Mount of Olives. R. Hash. II, 4; Tosef. ib. II (I), 2; a. fr.—[Sabb. 56ᵇ, quot. fr. II Kings XXIII, 13 הר המ׳, Ms. M. המשחית.] e.g. 2 Kings 23:13
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 14 distinct written forms H4888 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4888, 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
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 19 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 24 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
