Elamur Dictionary⌕
☰
dictionaries / English / H / hyssop

hyssop

noun

«hyssop» in the English dictionary: in Jewish tradition — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

In Jewish tradition

It is used with cedar-wood and scarlet in purifying rituals, such as cleansing a leprous person or house and the red heifer. Its leaves made a brush for sprinkling.

Interpretation. The rabbis took the hyssop to be a small, lowly plant, and some read in it a lesson about humility and cleansing. The Hebrew ezov is often thought to be a type of marjoram, though the exact plant is debated.

Meaning

A small bushy plant with fragrant leaves, used in old times as a herb and for sprinkling. tree →

Examples

  • And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. (Torah LEV.14.49, JPS 1917) tree →
  • And the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. (Torah NUM.19.6, JPS 1917) tree →
  • then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. (Torah LEV.14.4, JPS 1917) tree →
  • Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Writings PSA.51.9, JPS 1917) tree →
  • And he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. (Prophets 1KI.5.13, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

A record of the Judaism dictionary, written from the corpus.

On Mova

This page in Markdown → https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/hyssop/