incense: the sweet fragrant smoke of a burning offering, especially the sacred spice blend burned to God in worship
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
This word names a smell turned into worship. It comes from a root meaning to send up smoke, and it covers both the aromatic material that is burned and the rising column of fragrant smoke that the burning produces. In almost every case it is tied to the place where God is approached, so its center of gravity is the holy spice blend that Israel was commanded to burn before God morning and evening.
The same word can stretch in two directions from that center. It can name the sweet smoke that goes up from an animal sacrifice on the altar, where the fragrance, not a spice mixture, is the point. And once, in everyday life, it names ordinary sweet-smelling perfume that makes a person glad. What holds all of these together is the single idea of a pleasing fragrance rising into the air.
Because the holy blend belonged to God alone, this word also marks the line between worship he accepted and worship he refused. The prophets use it for incense offered in the wrong spirit or to other gods, where the very thing meant to please God becomes offensive to him. The fragrance is the same; the heart behind it is not.
Nuances
1athe sacred incense blend burned to God in worship, on the golden altar of incense in the tabernacle and temple
overwhelmingly refers to a sacred offering burned before God, not a scent worn or kept for personal pleasureExo 30:7
Both
both can name a sweet aromatic that simply makes a person gladPro 27:9
Only perfume
perfume in English suggests a fragrance applied to the body or used to please people, with no religious weight
“sweet smoke”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How qetoret differs from similar Hebrew words
לְבוֹנָהfrankincense, a single sweet resin that was one ingredient in the holy blend, where this word names the finished aromatic mixture and its smoke as a whole
Names the finished, blended incense that is set alight before God, the burnt product itself rather than any one ingredient that went into it.Exo 30:35Exo 30:8Lev 16:13
Extends to the rising cloud of smoke from the offering, so it can stand as a picture of prayer going up to God.Psa 141:2Ezk 8:11
Both
Both belong to the fixed sanctuary phrase "incense of spices," where the spice word names what the compound is made of and the incense word names the compound that is offered to God.Exo 30:7Num 4:16
Names the individual aromatic ingredients that are measured out and blended together, the raw components such as the drops of resin, onycha, and galbanum that go into the holy mixture.Exo 30:34
This is the fragrant incense of worship, a carefully compounded holy mixture burned to the Lord. Its recipe and its exclusive use were fixed by command, and it belonged only on the golden altar before God.Exo 30:1Exo 30:35
Offering it was a priestly privilege, guarded so closely that outsiders who dared to burn it were struck down. Nadab and Abihu died for bringing unauthorized fire with it, and Korah's company was tested by it.Lev 10:1Num 16:35
Its rising fragrance became a picture of prayer ascending to God and of acceptable devotion, the sweet smell that pleased him.Psa 141:2Pro 27:9
Both
Both name real smoke that visibly climbs into the air, whether the column that went up from a burning city or the thick cloud that rose from a censer of incense.Jos 8:21Lev 16:13
This is the smoke of destruction and judgment, the sign of a city or an enemy going up in flames. When Joshua burned Ai and when the men of Gibeah were destroyed, the rising smoke was the visible proof that the place was finished.Jos 8:20Jdg 20:40
It marks the terrifying presence of God, the smoke that pours out when the mountain shakes or when his anger burns. At Sinai the mountain smoked because the Lord came down on it in fire, and the same imagery pictures smoke rising from his nostrils in wrath.Exo 19:18Psa 18:8
It is a stock picture of what is fleeting and about to vanish. The wicked melt away like smoke driven off, and the heavens themselves will one day pass away in the same way.Psa 37:20Isa 51:6
It even names smoke as an irritant, something unpleasant that stings and annoys, the way a lazy messenger grates on the one who sent him.Pro 10:26
qetoret in the other biblical languages
θυμίαμαGreek“incense”the Greek word for incense used in the temple and pictured rising with the prayers of God's people
What scholars say about qetoret
The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) derive qetoret from the root qtr, denoting smoke or the smoke of sacrifice, and gloss it as incense, the smoke of sacrifice, and the prescribed incense compound. The dominant referent is the cultic incense of the tabernacle and temple: the holy blend of Exodus 30:34-38 burned on the golden altar morning and evening (Exodus 30:7-8) and brought within the veil on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:12-13), a priestly prerogative whose usurpation is judged in Numbers 16 and 2 Chronicles 26. A minority of occurrences extend the term: Psalm 66:15 uses it of the fragrant smoke ascending from burnt offerings of rams, and Proverbs 27:9 of ordinary perfume that gladdens the heart. The prophetic polemic (Isaiah 1:13;Ezekiel 8:11; 16:18; 23:41) applies the same word to incense rendered detestable by hypocrisy or idolatry. Milgrom (Leviticus, AB) and the entries in TDOT and NIDOTTE treat the legitimate and illegitimate uses as one lexeme distinguished by context rather than as separate senses of the word.
Sources
BDB, s.v. קְטֹרֶתlexicon
HALOT, s.v. קְטֹרֶתlexicon
DCH, s.v. קְטֹרֶתlexicon
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible)commentary