mivḥar

The lexicons are unanimous on the sense. BDB, HALOT, and DCH all give מִבְחָר as "choicest, best", a nominal formation on the root בחר with a locative-instrumental prefix, and they organize the twelve attestations by what is selected: things (Gen 23:6; Isa 22:7; 37:24; Jer 22:7; Ezek 24:4, 5; 31:16) and persons, chiefly elite military personnel (Exod 15:4; Jer 48:15; Ezek 23:7; Dan 11:15). Deut 12:11, מִבְחַר נִדְרֵיכֶם, is normally grouped with the material uses but is functionally cultic: the vowed offering brought to the central sanctuary is to be the pick of the worshipper's holdings. The near-homonym מִבְצָר "fortress" stands in the same clause at Dan 11:15 and the two are occasionally confused in the versions. Seebass, in the TDOT article on בחר, stresses that the nominal derivatives of the root retain the note of deliberate selection and, unlike the verb, are never used of divine election; מִבְחָר is a quality term throughout. On Dan 11:15 the phrase וְעַם מִבְחָרָיו (the only plural, and the only form with a suffix) is syntactically awkward; Collins and Montgomery treat it as designating the Ptolemaic king's picked troops, in parallel with the preceding "arms of the south", while a minority of translations render it as the people at large. Zimmerli's treatment of the cauldron oracle in Ezek 24:4-5 notes the deliberate accumulation of "best" language (נֵתַח טוֹב, מִבְחַר עֲצָמִים, מִבְחַר הַצֹּאן) as an ironic build-up before the pot is condemned.