StrongerBible

yitshar

יִצְהָר

HebrewH3323oil, fresh oil, ...

Appears 23 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Num 18:12Deu 7:13Deu 11:14Deu 12:17Deu 14:23Deu 18:4Deu 28:512Ki 18:322Ch 31:52Ch 32:28Neh 5:11Neh 10:37(38)Neh 10:39(40)Neh 13:5Neh 13:12Jer 31:12Hos 2:8(10)Hos 2:22(24)Jol 1:10Jol 2:19Jol 2:24Hag 1:11Zec 4:14
Root family
Word studyyits-HAHRnoun

What yitshar means

fresh oil: the newly pressed olive oil of the harvest, counted among a land's staple produce with grain and new wine

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Fresh oil is the oil that runs from the olive press at harvest, gathered in while it is new. Almost every time the word appears it stands in a fixed trio with new grain and new wine: the three crops that summed up the yield of the land, what a household lived on, what filled the storehouses, and what was owed to God as firstfruits and tithe.

Because it names the produce of a good year, the word tracks the covenant. When God blesses, the grain, new wine, and fresh oil overflow; when he judges, they wither in a drought or are carried off by an enemy. So the word is less about oil as a substance than about oil as a sign of a fruitful land and a people at peace with God.

This one everyday meaning is stretched once, in a vision of the prophet Zechariah, where two leaders are called sons of the fresh oil. There the harvest word is chosen instead of the ordinary word for anointing oil, marking the two men as freshly supplied and set apart for God's work.

Nuances

1afresh olive oil as a staple of the harvest, named with new grain and new wine among the year's produce, firstfruits, and tithes
Num 18:12Deu 7:13Deu 11:14Deu 12:17Deu 14:23Deu 18:4Deu 28:512Ki 18:322Ch 31:52Ch 32:28Neh 5:11Neh 10:37(38)
1bthe sons of the fresh oil: a title for the two anointed leaders in Zechariah's vision
Zec 4:14

What scholars say about yitshar

יִצְהָר denotes fresh, unprocessed olive oil, distinguished from שֶׁמֶן, the general term for oil that also covers prepared, cosmetic, and anointing oil. It occurs almost exclusively within the agricultural triad דָּגָן / תִּירוֹשׁ / יִצְהָר (grain, new wine, fresh oil), the stock summary of a land's staple yield across Deuteronomy, the eighth-century and exilic prophets, and post-exilic tithe legislation in Nehemiah and Chronicles. HALOT and BDB connect it to a root associated with pressing out or shining. The sole figurative use, בְּנֵי הַיִּצְהָר in Zechariah 4:14, is generally read as the two anointed ones, Joshua and Zerubbabel; Meyers and Meyers note the deliberate substitution of יצהר for the expected שמן of anointing.

Sources

  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. יִצְהָרlexicon
  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. יִצְהָרlexicon
  • DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. יִצְהָרlexicon
  • Carol L. Meyers and Eric M. Meyers, Haggai, Zechariah 1-8, Anchor Bible (1987), on 4:14commentary

All attested forms of יִצְהָר

m s absolute

יִצְהָר, יִּצְהָר

Num 18:12, Deu 28:51, 2Ki 18:32, 2Ch 31:5, 2Ch 32:28, Neh 10:37, Jer 31:12, Jol 1:10

m s construct

יִצְהָרֶךָ

Deu 7:13, Deu 11:14, Deu 12:17, Deu 14:23, Deu 18:4