StrongerBible

ishshah

אִשֶּׁה

HebrewH0801“fire offering, food offering, ...”

Appears 65 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 29:18Exo 29:25Exo 29:41Exo 30:20Lev 1:9Lev 1:13Lev 1:17Lev 2:2Lev 2:3Lev 2:9Lev 2:10Lev 2:11Lev 2:16Lev 3:3Lev 3:5Lev 3:9Lev 3:11Lev 3:14Lev 3:16Lev 4:35Lev 5:12Lev 6:17(10)Lev 6:18(11)Lev 7:5Lev 7:30Lev 7:35Lev 10:12Lev 10:13Lev 10:15Lev 21:6Lev 21:21Lev 23:18Num 15:10Num 15:13Num 15:14Num 28:2Num 28:8Num 28:24
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeish-SHEHnoun

What ishshah means

a gift handed over to God at the altar: the technical priestly term for what is presented to him as his portion

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

This is a specialized worship word, used almost entirely in the laws of Leviticus and Numbers and only a handful of times anywhere else. It names a particular class of what the people bring to God at the sanctuary: the portion that becomes his.

For centuries it was rendered "fire offering" or "offering made by fire," on the assumption that it was built from the ordinary word for fire and meant whatever was burned on the altar. Most scholars now think that reading does not fit the evidence. The same word is used for gifts that are never burned at all (the wine poured out as a drink offering, the bread of the presence that the priests eat, the breast and thigh of a fellowship offering that go to the priests as their share), and it is withheld from at least one offering that clearly is burned. So the term does not track "what goes into the flames"; it tracks "what is given over to God," some of which rises to him as smoke and some of which he passes on to his priests.

From there the meaning is steady across every passage. Whether the gift is burned whole, partly burned, poured out, or set aside for the priests to eat, it is one thing: a present formally transferred to God. Modern translations capture this with "food offering" or "food gift," picking up the related description of the offerings as "the food of God." The picture is less an altar as a furnace and more a table at which God is hosted with a gift.

Exo 29:18Exo 29:25Exo 29:41Exo 30:20Lev 1:9Lev 1:13Lev 1:17Lev 2:2Lev 2:3Lev 2:9Lev 2:10Lev 2:11

What scholars say about ishshah

The traditional derivation takes אִשֶּׁה as a denominative from אֵשׁ ("fire"), hence "offering made by fire," a reading canonized by Gesenius and BDB and defended in modern times by Levine on the strength of the formula אִשֵּׁה רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ ("a pleasing aroma"), which presupposes rising smoke. Hoftijzer (1967) broke with this, connecting the noun instead to a Semitic root for "gift" (proposing Ugaritic ʾiṯt), and Milgrom (Anchor Bible Leviticus, 1991) supplied the decisive distributional argument: the term is used of unburned gifts (the wine libation of Num 15:10, the priestly prebend of Lev 7:30-36, the showbread of Lev 24:7-9) and withheld from a burned offering (the חַטָּאת, e.g. Num 15:24-25), so it tracks "what is given" rather than "what burns." The three non-Priestly attestations (Deut 18:1; Josh 13:14; 1 Sam 2:28) describe what the priests eat, reinforcing the "portion / gift" semantics. The word is roughly 94% Priestly and absent from Ezekiel's parallel cultic material, which Hurvitz and Milgrom read as evidence it was an archaic priestly technical term. The semantic case for "food gift" is widely judged stronger than its etymology; the Ugaritic cognate is real but sparsely attested as a sacrificial term, so Averbeck (NIDOTTE) and Wenham (who prefers a different cognate) remain hedged, and Willi-Plein and Eberhart still defend a connection to fire, at least as the Priestly writers' own understanding.

Where scholars disagree about ishshah

Whether the word basically means "offering made by fire" (from the word for fire) or "gift / food gift" (the portion given over to God, whether or not it is burned).

  • majorityIt means a gift or food gift handed over to God: it is used of unburned offerings (wine, showbread, priestly portions) and withheld from a burned offering, so it tracks what is given rather than what burns. This is now the reading of most critical commentaries and modern translations.; Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible 3, 1991), 161-162; Jan Hoftijzer, "Das sogenannte Feueropfer," in Festschrift Walter Baumgartner (VTSup 16, 1967), 114-134
  • minorityIt means an offering made by fire, a Hebrew-internal formation from the word for fire: the recurring formula calling it a pleasing aroma to the LORD presupposes the rising smoke of combustion.; Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), 7-8; Christian A. Eberhart, Studien zur Bedeutung der Opfer im Alten Testament (WMANT 94, 2002), 42-48
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible 3, Doubleday, 1991), 161-162commentary
  • Jan Hoftijzer, "Das sogenannte Feueropfer," in Festschrift Walter Baumgartner (VTSup 16, Brill, 1967), 114-134article
  • Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), 7-8commentary
  • Richard E. Averbeck, "אִשֶּׁה," NIDOTTE 1:540-549lexicon
  • Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (NICOT, Eerdmans, 1979), 56 n. 8commentary
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner-Stamm, ET 1994-2000), s.v. אִשֶּׁהlexicon
  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs, 1906), s.v. אִשֶּׁהlexicon
  • Christian A. Eberhart, Studien zur Bedeutung der Opfer im Alten Testament (WMANT 94, 2002), 42-48monograph
  • Avi Hurvitz, A Linguistic Study of the Relationship Between the Priestly Source and the Book of Ezekiel (CRB 20, Gabalda, 1982), 59-63monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of אִשֶּׁה

m s absolute

אִשֶּׁה

Exo 29:18, Exo 29:25, Exo 29:41, Exo 30:20, Lev 2:11, Lev 2:16, Lev 3:3, Lev 3:9

m p construct

אִשֵּׁי

Lev 2:3, Lev 2:10, Lev 4:35, Lev 5:12, Lev 6:18, Lev 7:30, Lev 7:35, Lev 10:12

m s construct

אִשֵּׁה

Lev 1:9, Lev 1:13, Lev 1:17, Lev 2:2, Lev 2:9, Lev 3:5, Lev 23:18, Num 15:10

m p construct

אִשַּׁי, אִשָּׁי

Num 28:2, Lev 6:17