What does רֵיחַ (rēyḥa) mean in the Bible?
The Hebrew noun rēyḥa names a smell, scent, fragrance, or aroma. Its range is broader than sacrificial language.
Hebrew · H7381
רֵיחַ
Odor (as if blown)
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רֵיחַH7381
Pronunciationrēyḥa
What does רֵיחַ (rēyḥa) mean in the Bible?
The Hebrew noun rēyḥa names a smell, scent, fragrance, or aroma. Its range is broader than sacrificial language.
Reader summary
Full entry for רֵיחַ (H7381) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H7381?
The BSB source-word alignment has 58 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include aroma (39), and the fragrance (2), incense (2), The fragrance (2), - (1).
Where does רֵיחַ (rēyḥa) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 8:21. Its strongest book concentrations include Numbers (18), Leviticus (17), Song Of Solomon (8), Exodus (4).
What This Word Actually Means
The Hebrew noun rēyḥa names a smell, scent, fragrance, or aroma. Its range is broader than sacrificial language. Exodus uses social disgust metaphorically when Israelite foremen accuse Moses and Aaron of making them a stench before Pharaoh. Genesis describes the Lord smelling Noah's offering and Isaac smelling clothing while Jacob impersonates Esau. Job imagines a cut tree budding at the scent of water, Song of Songs celebrates the fragrance of vines and lovers, Jeremiah compares Moab's unchanged character to wine whose aroma has not changed, and Hosea uses fragrance in a promise of Israel's restoration.
In offering texts, rēyḥa often combines with H5207 to form the expression pleasing aroma, but the nouns should not be treated as identical. Scent can convey attraction, recognition, reputation, vitality, stability, or reception according to context. It does not provide a code for discerning holiness, moral character, compatibility, illness, or divine presence.
Responsible teaching respects embodied sensory language while guarding people with allergies, sensory sensitivities, trauma associations, or limited sense of smell from spiritual judgment.
How the Bible Uses It
Rēyḥa ranges across hostile social reputation, sacrificial aroma, mistaken family recognition, water-sensing vitality, intimate poetry, settled national character, and promised restoration. Scent is concrete or figurative according to each setting.
- Exod.5.21
“May the Lord look upon you and judge you,” the foremen said, “for you have made us a stench before Pharaoh and his officials; you have placed in their hand a sword to kill us!”
Oppressed foremen use smell as a metaphor for ruined standing before Pharaoh after their labor conditions become more dangerous.
- Gen.8.21
When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
The scent noun participates in the pleasing-aroma expression after Noah's offering and within God's gracious promise concerning the earth.
- Gen.27.27
So he came near and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
Isaac reads the scent of Esau's clothing as confirmation while Jacob deceives him, showing that sensory recognition can be manipulated.
- Job.14.9
At the scent of water it will bud and put forth twigs like a sapling.
Job pictures a cut tree responding to nearby water, using scent to express surprising vegetal renewal within a lament about human mortality.
- Song.2.13
The fig tree ripens its figs; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come away, my darling; come away with me, my beautiful one.”
Fragrant blossoming vines belong to the poem's spring setting and invitation between lovers, not to an abstract worship formula.
- Jer.48.11
Moab has been at ease from youth, settled like wine on its dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel or gone into exile. So his flavor has remained the same, and his aroma is unchanged.
Jeremiah uses unchanged wine aroma as an image of Moab's long-settled character before announced judgment and displacement.
- Hos.14.6
His shoots will sprout, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.
Hosea's restoration promise uses plant growth, olive splendor, and cedar fragrance to portray renewed life after repentance and healing.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itaroma39×Genesis 8:21, Exodus 29:18, Exodus 29:25, Exodus 29:41
and the fragrance2×Song Of Solomon 4:10, Song Of Solomon 4:11
incense2×Ezekiel 6:13, Ezekiel 20:28
The fragrance2×Song Of Solomon 1:3, Song Of Solomon 7:8
-1×Exodus 5:21
a fragrance1×Song Of Solomon 7:13
and his aroma1×Jeremiah 48:11
aroma of your sacrifices1×Leviticus 26:31
aroma to Me1×Numbers 28:2
at the scent1×Job 14:9
his fragrance1×Hosea 14:6
is like the aroma1×Song Of Solomon 4:11
is like the smell1×Genesis 27:27
its fragrance1×Song Of Solomon 1:12
the smell1×Genesis 27:27
their fragrance1×Song Of Solomon 2:13
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 8:21רֵ֣יחַtoaromaNoun - masculine singular constructGenesis 27:27רֵ֥יחַtoNoun - masculine singular constructGenesis 27:27כְּרֵ֣יחַtothe smellPreposition-k | Noun - masculine singular constructGenesis 27:27רֵ֣יחַtois like the smellNoun - masculine singular constructExodus 5:21רֵיחֵ֗נוּto-Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common pluralExodus 29:18רֵ֣יחַtoaromaNoun - masculine singularExodus 29:25לְרֵ֤יחַtoaromaPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singular constructExodus 29:41לְרֵ֣יחַtoaromaPreposition-l | Noun - masculine singular constructLeviticus 1:9רֵֽיחַ־toaromaNoun - masculine singular constructLeviticus 1:13רֵ֥יחַtoaromaNoun - masculine singular construct
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 8:21
Aligned rows58
Books represented9
Genesis4Exodus4Leviticus17Numbers18Job1Song Of Solomon8Jeremiah1Ezekiel4Hosea1
Source forms
רֵֽיחַ־8xrê·aḥ-Leviticus 1:9, Leviticus 6:21, Leviticus 23:18, Numbers 15:7
רֵ֣יחַ7xrê·aḥGenesis 8:21, Genesis 27:27, Exodus 29:18, Leviticus 23:13
רֵ֥יחַ7xrê·aḥGenesis 27:27, Leviticus 1:13, Leviticus 1:17, Leviticus 2:2
לְרֵ֣יחַ5xlə·rê·aḥExodus 29:41, Leviticus 3:16, Leviticus 8:28, Numbers 28:6
לְרֵ֥יחַ5xlə·rê·aḥLeviticus 2:12, Leviticus 4:31, Leviticus 17:6, Numbers 18:17
לְרֵ֤יחַ4xlə·rê·aḥExodus 29:25, Numbers 15:24, Numbers 28:27, Numbers 29:2
וְרֵ֥יחַ3xwə·rê·aḥSong Of Solomon 4:10, Song Of Solomon 4:11, Song Of Solomon 7:8
רֵ֤יחַ3xrê·aḥNumbers 15:3, Numbers 29:13, Numbers 29:36
Parsing patterns
Noun - masculine singular construct27xGenesis 8:21, Genesis 27:27, Leviticus 1:9, Leviticus 1:13
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct14xExodus 29:25, Exodus 29:41, Leviticus 2:12, Leviticus 4:31
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct3xSong Of Solomon 4:10, Song Of Solomon 4:11, Song Of Solomon 7:8
Noun - masculine singular3xExodus 29:18, Song Of Solomon 2:13, Song Of Solomon 7:13
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct2xLeviticus 26:31, Ezekiel 20:41
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine singular construct2xGenesis 27:27, Song Of Solomon 4:11
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular2xLeviticus 3:16, Song Of Solomon 1:3
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular1xHosea 14:6
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Receive sensory language as part of embodied Scripture while making worship and community spaces safer for allergies, migraines, trauma, and sensory differences.
- Test impressions through truth, context, and accountable love rather than treating a pleasant or unpleasant smell as a moral verdict.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that a fragrance, body scent, smoke, or sensory experience reveals a person's holiness, demonic condition, compatibility, or divine calling.
- Do not claim that a pleasing smell proves God accepts a gathering, offering, leader, or relationship regardless of conduct and context.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Scent as something perceived through air movement; often denotes pleasing aroma in divine-human communion contexts
Source Gloss
odor (as if blown)
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Scent as something perceived through air movement; often denotes pleasing aroma in divine-human communion contexts
odor (as if blown) BDB: scent Usage: savour, scent, smell.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Pleasant aroma or odor that rises to God from a sacrifice offering
Showing 1 selected witness from 58 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Rēyḥa reminds readers that Scripture speaks through bodies and senses while refusing to make sensory experience an infallible guide. The foremen in Exodus use stench language to describe their dangerous standing before Pharaoh, and their accusation rises from intensified oppression rather than from a neutral evaluation of Moses. Genesis 27 shows Isaac using scent as evidence, yet clothing has been arranged to deceive him.
Smell can inform recognition and still be manipulated. In Job, the scent of water gives a cut tree an image of renewed growth, while Song of Songs welcomes fragrance into mutual poetic desire. Jeremiah's wine image uses unchanged aroma for a nation left undisturbed, and Hosea uses cedar fragrance for renewed life after the Lord heals apostasy. Offering passages often pair rēyḥa with pleasing language, but even there reception depends on covenant context.
Teachers should neither flatten these uses into one symbol nor dismiss their physical texture. Scent can carry comfort, grief, attraction, disgust, memory, or danger. Communities should make room for people whose sensory experiences differ and never treat perfume, body odor, disability, ethnicity, poverty, or trauma response as evidence of spiritual worth.
Anchor passage
Gen.8.21
Doctrinal connections
- Exodus 5 uses stench as oppressed workers' description of worsened social danger, keeping sensory metaphor tied to power and suffering.
- Genesis 8 places scent within the pleasing-aroma expression and God's gracious preserving promise despite continuing human evil.
- Genesis 27 shows that smell can be genuine perception yet false identification when other people arrange deceptive evidence.
- Job 14 uses the scent of water for a cut tree's renewal, intensifying Job's lament over the apparent finality of human death.
- Song of Songs receives fragrance within embodied mutual love without turning sensory pleasure into proof of covenant faithfulness by itself.
- Jeremiah 48 and Hosea 14 use aroma differently for settled character under judgment and restored life after divine healing.
Rēyḥa is a masculine Hebrew noun for odor, scent, smell, or aroma. It appears alone, in construct phrases, and beside H5207 in the recurring pleasing-aroma expression. Genre and modifiers determine whether the sense is literal or figurative.
From Old to New Testament
The New Testament also uses aroma language for Christ's self-giving, gospel witness, and generous support. Those metaphors build on embodied and worship language while requiring their own contexts; they do not authorize judging people or gatherings by literal scent.