Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

Meat, Meal Offering

The general Hebrew word for a gift, whether to God (Genesis 4:3) or to man (Genesis 32:13) is Minchah, (מנחה ); it is also the word which our translators have rendered meat-offering - 'meat' being here used in its old sense of 'food,' and not signifying 'flesh.' The LXX has θυσία (sacrifice) for it in 140 places, and δω̂ρον (a gift) in 32 places [The Assyrian word is manitu. The LXX also occasionally reproduces the original word in the form μαναά. The Vulgate adapts munus and oblatio as renderings; and Luther has Opfer and Spcisopfer. Meat is literally that which we chew or grind.] Minchah is the word used of the offerings of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:3-5, in which passage it is not restricted to its Levitical use as an unbloody sacrifice; it is first rendered 'meat-offering' in Leviticus 2:1, where it is described as a mixture of flour, oil, and frankincense - the flour being the essential part, the oil and frankincense being added that it might burn with a sweet savour. The word is used of the 'jealousy-offering' in Numbers 5:15; Numbers 5:18; Numbers 5:25-26. It is also to be found in the following passages: - Numbers 16:15, 'Respect thou not their offering.' 1 Samuel 2:17, 'Men abhorred the offering of the Lord;' verse 29, 'Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice, and at mine offering?' 1 Samuel 3:14, 'The iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever.' 1 Samuel 26:19, 'If the Lord have stirred thee up against me. Let him accept (or smell) an offering.' 1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalms 96:8, 'Bring an offering, and come before him.' Psalms 20:3, 'Remember all thy offerings.' Isaiah 43:23, 'I have not caused thee to serve with an offering.' Isaiah 66:20, 'They shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations . as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.' Jeremiah 41:5, 'There came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense (or rather frankincense) in their hand, to bring them to the house of the Lord.' Amos 5:25, 'Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and of offerings in the wilderness forty years?' Zephaniah 3:10, 'From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughters of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.' Matthew 1:10, 'Neither will I accept an offering at your hand;' see also verse 11, ' in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering.' Matthew 3:3-4, 'He shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old.'

Minchah is rendered gift in Psalms 45:12; sacrifice in 1 Kings 18:29; 1 Kings 18:36, the time of the offering of the (evening) sacrifice; [The word evening is inserted in italics both here and in some other places. (Compare 2 Kings 16:16; Psalms 141:2; Ezekiel 9:4-5; Daniel 9:21.) Reference is supposed to be made to the offering of a lamb every evening, prescribed in Numbers 28:8. The lamb itself was an olah, but no doubt it was accompanied by a minchah.] Psalms 141:2, 'Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice;' oblation in Isaiah 1:13; Isaiah 19:21; Isaiah 66:3, Jeremiah 14:12.

The minchah, which was closely connected with the olah, must be regarded as a token of love, gratitude, and thanksgiving to God, who is :Himself the giver of all good gifts. It was an acknowledgment on the part of man that 'the earThis the Lord's and the fulness thereof.' Part of it was called the 'memorial,' [The meaning is plain from Psalms 20:3, ' (God) remember all thy minchahas.'] and was burnt with fire, and the rest was eaten by the priest and his family, not by the offerer.