StrongerBible

sal

סַל

HebrewH5536basket

Appears 15 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 40:16Gen 40:17 (2×)Gen 40:18Exo 29:3 (2×)Exo 29:23Exo 29:32Lev 8:2Lev 8:26Lev 8:31Num 6:15Num 6:17Num 6:19Jdg 6:19
Root family
Word studysahlnoun

What sal means

a basket: a woven, open container for carrying food, most often bread

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is an ordinary household basket, the kind woven from twigs or reeds and carried by hand or balanced on the head. Its defining job in the Bible is holding food, and above all bread. In Joseph's prison, the baker dreams of three of them stacked on his head, the top one full of baked goods the birds are eating (Genesis 40:16-18). Gideon lays out a young goat's meat in one for his guest (Judges 6:19).

Most of its appearances, though, are in one specific setting: the basket that carries the unleavened bread for a sacred meal or offering. It holds the loaves and wafers for the ordination of the priests (Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8) and for the completion of a Nazirite's vow (Numbers 6). Because those ceremonies are described in detail and repeated, this single word for a common basket ends up clustered in the ritual chapters of the law.

The word never shades into a second meaning. Whether it holds a baker's pastries, a hunter's meat, or a priest's holy bread, it is the container, not its contents, that the word names. English "basket" carries it fully; the only thing a reader might miss is how tied to bread and to worship its actual uses are.

Related but distinct baskets have their own words: the טֶנֶא that carries the firstfruits to the sanctuary, and the כְּלוּב that can be a fruit basket or a bird cage.

Gen 40:16Gen 40:17 (2×)Gen 40:18Exo 29:3 (2×)Exo 29:23Exo 29:32Lev 8:2Lev 8:26Lev 8:31Num 6:15Num 6:17Num 6:19

What scholars say about sal

The lexica are unanimous that סַל denotes a basket, specifically a light woven or wicker container, and most commonly one carrying bread (HALOT; BDB; DCH). It is frequently connected with the root סלל, "to lift up, heap up," the basket being understood as something plaited or heaped, though the derivation is not certain and does not affect the settled sense. Of its fifteen occurrences the majority fall in the priestly ordination narratives (Exodus 29; Leviticus 8) and the Nazirite legislation (Numbers 6), where it holds the unleavened bread of the offering; the remaining instances (Genesis 40; Judges 6:19) show the same ordinary object in non-cultic use. Standard treatments note no semantic ambiguity.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. סַלlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. סַלlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. סַלlexicon

All attested forms of סַל

m s absolute

סַּל, סָּל, סַל

Gen 40:17, Gen 40:17, Num 6:19, Jdg 6:19, Exo 29:3, Exo 29:32, Exo 29:3

m s construct

סַל, סַּל

Lev 8:2, Lev 8:31, Num 6:15, Num 6:17, Exo 29:23, Lev 8:26

m p absolute

סַּלִּים

Gen 40:18

m p construct

סַלֵּי

Gen 40:16