רֵיחַ
fragrance
also: scent, aroma, odour fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-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
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
3 verses where H7381 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Song of Solomon. 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.
Song of Solomon
- Song of Solomon 1:3 לְ/רֵ֨יחַ֙ prep + n c ms Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured forth, Therefore the virgins love you.
- Song of Solomon 2:13 רֵ֑יחַ n c ms The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom; They give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, And come away. Lover
- Song of Solomon 7:13 רֵ֗יחַ n c ms The mandrakes give forth fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, Which I have stored up for you, my beloved.
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.
ריח (rêyach) is a Hebrew noun most often rendered “fragrance.” Its English rendering has broadened — “savour” classically, “aroma” (Berean Standard Bible) and “scent of” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 55 verses in 9 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. Numbers dominates its distribution — 18 of 55 verses. It also covers “scent”, “aroma”, and “odour”, alongside “fragrance” — see its full sense range. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7381 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 →
- 55
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 55 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #658
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 658 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 55 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Numbers 18 verses 33%
- Leviticus 17 verses 31%
- Song of Solomon 7 verses 13%
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 55 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 41 verses · 75%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 8 verses · 15%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 11%
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: Savour 44×, Smell 8×
- American Standard Version: Savor 42×, Smell 4×, Fragrance 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Aroma 40×, Fragrance 8×, Incense 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Scent of 26×, Aroma of 11×, Scent 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7381 across 58 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7381 across 58 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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 H7381 across 56 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7381 across 60 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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.
- 1. scent, odour, of plants and fields Gn 27:27 (JE) Ct 1:12; 2:3; 4:11; 7:14 Ho 14:7, of ointments Ct 1:13; 4:10, of pers. and garments Gn 27:27(×2) (JE) Ct 4:11; 7:9, of water Jb 14:9; fig. of influence, reputation Ex 5:21 (J) Je 48:11. e.g. Genesis 27:27
- 2. term. techn., רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ odour of soothing (to God), tranquillizing odour (of ascending sacrifices, v. נִיחֹחַ) Gn 8:21 (J), elsewhere Ez 6:13; 16:19; 20:28, 41 and P: Ex 29:18, 25, 41 Lv 1:9 + 16 times Lv, Nu 15:3 + 17 times Nu. e.g. Genesis 8:21
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
n.m. Je 48:11 scent, odour (proposes breath);—abs. Ct 2:13 +, usually cstr. Gn 8:21 +; sf. רֵיחוֹ Je 48:11 Ct 1:12, רֵיחֵנוּ Ex 5:21;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from רוח (rûwach) (H7306) — to smell.
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.
רִיחַ
- (b. h.) to breathe, waft, blow.—Denom. רוּחַ.
- to scent, smell. Gen. R. s. 34 הלך וַהֲרִיחָהּ (not וריחה) he went and smelled of it. Ib. (ref. to Gen. VIII, 21) ה׳ ריחו של אברהם וכ׳ he smelled the savor of Abraham, our father, rising from the fiery furnace (foresaw the self-sacrifice of Abraham); ה׳ דורו של שמד he smelled the savor of the generation of persecution (foresaw their martyrdom). Snh. 11ᵃ ה׳ ריח שום he perceived the smell of garlic. Zeb. 62ᵃ הֵרִיחוּ ריח קטרת they smelled the savor of frankincense (at the place where the Temple had stood). Nidd. 58ᵇ כל המוללו מֵרִיחַ בו whoever crushes it, smells its odor. Snh. 109ᵃ לערב באין ומְרִיחִין אותו וכ׳ in the evening they came and scented it (the balsam) like a dog. Yoma VIII, 4 עוברה שהֵרִיחָה וכ׳ a woman with child that smelled (a dish on the Day of Atonement, and has a morbid desire for it) must be given to eat, until she feels restored. B. Bath. 146ᵃ bot. ריח צנון אני מריח בגליל I smell a radish in Galilee (have a strong appetite for a Galilean radish); a. fr. e.g. Genesis 8:21
רִיחַ ²
- Af. אָרִיחַ, אָרַח same.—Part. מְרִיחַ, מוֹרַח, מָרַח. Targ. Gen. XXVII, 27. Targ. Ex. XXX, 38. Targ. Job XXXIX, 25; a. fr.—Sot. 49ᵃ מוֹרְחִינָא ריחא וכ׳ I smell &c., v. דַּהֲנוּנִיתָא. B. Bath. 73ᵇ ומוֹרַח ביה, v. עַפְרָא. Snh. 93ᵇ (ref. to Is. XI, 3, sq.) במשיח כתיב דמורח ודאין of the Messiah it is written that he smells (of a man) and judges (of his guilt or innocence); ניחזי אנן אי מרח ודאין let us see whether he (Bar Koziba) smells &c.; כיון דחזיוהו דלא מריח וכ׳ when they saw that he could not judge by the scent, they killed him; Yalk. Is. 284. Ber. 43ᵇ האי מאן דמורח באתרוגא וכ׳ he that smells an Ethrog …, must say the benediction &c. Yoma 82ᵇ ההיא עוברא דאָרְחָא a woman with child that smelled, v. preced. Sabb. 110ᵃ דמורח ריחא וכ׳ (not דמירח) when it (the snake) smells it &c.; a. e. e.g. Isaiah 11:3
רֵיחַ
- preced.) flavor, scent, odor; sense of smell. Ber. 43ᵇ (ref. to Ps. CL, 6) איזהו דבר … זה הר׳ what is the thing which the soul enjoys and from which the body has no material benefit? It is smell. Ib. עתידים … שיתנו ר׳ וכ׳ in the future the young men of Israel shall give forth sweet savor (of purity) like the Lebanon (ref. to Hos. XIV, 7). Lev. R. s. 30; a. v. fr.—Trnsf. (cmp. אָבָק) slight resemblance, a suspicion of. Gitt. 86ᵇ אף ר׳ הגט אין בו it has not even the slightest resemblance to a letter of divorce (by which the woman concerned might be precluded from marrying a priest); Y. ib. IX, 50ᵇ top אפי׳ ר׳ פסול אין בה there is not a suspicion of disqualification in her case. Y. Sot. I, 16ᵈ top מר׳ ערוה נגעו בה something of the odor of incest has touched her (the rival wife of a faithless woman); a. e.—Pl. ריחוֹת. Cant. R. to I, 3 כל … ר׳ היו וכ׳ all the songs which the ancients recited before thee were merely sweet savors, but we (say), ‘oil that is poured forth is thy name’; כל המצות … ר׳ היו וכ׳ all the pious deeds … were merely flavors, but &c.; a. e. e.g. Psalms 150:6
רֵיחַ ²
- Targ. Gen. XXVII, 27; a. e.—Ab. Zar. 66ᵇ רֵיחֵיה חלא וכ׳ if a liquid has the smell of vinegar and the taste of wine. Ib., a. e. ר׳ מילתא היא, v. מִילְּתָא. Pes. 76ᵇ משום דקשיא לר׳ וכ׳ because it is bad for a bad-smelling breath and for leprosy. Sot. 49ᵃ, v. דַּהֲנוּנִיתָא; a. fr.—Trnsf. pride. Zeb. 96ᵇ, v. אַלְקַפְטָא.
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 23 distinct written forms H7381 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 H7381, 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
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 55 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 55 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
- Genesis 8:21
- Exodus 5:21
- Leviticus 1:9
- Numbers 15:3
- Job 14:9
- Song of Solomon 1:3
- Jeremiah 48:11
- Ezekiel 6:13
- Hosea 14:6
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.
