Grease , especially liquid (as from the olive, often perfumed); figuratively, richness
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שֶׁמֶן (shemen) is the Hebrew noun for oil, especially olive oil, and can also contribute ideas of richness or fatness in context. Oil served as food, lamp fuel, an offering ingredient, a trade good, a grooming or perfuming substance, a treatment placed on wounds, and a material used in ritual and royal anointing.
Reader summary
Full entry for שֶׁמֶן (H8081) · Open the biblical lexicon
שֶׁמֶן (shemen) is the Hebrew noun for oil, especially olive oil, and can also contribute ideas of richness or fatness in context. Oil served as food, lamp fuel, an offering ingredient, a trade good, a grooming or perfuming substance, a treatment placed on wounds, and a material used in ritual and royal anointing.
The BSB source-word alignment has 193 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include oil (48), with oil (44), of oil (18), of olive oil (11), the oil (11).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 28:18. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (42), Numbers (34), Exodus (24), Ezekiel (16).
שֶׁמֶן (shemen) is the Hebrew noun for oil, especially olive oil, and can also contribute ideas of richness or fatness in context. Oil served as food, lamp fuel, an offering ingredient, a trade good, a grooming or perfuming substance, a treatment placed on wounds, and a material used in ritual and royal anointing. The ordinary substance and its specific use must be distinguished; oil is not inherently sacred, medicinal, royal, or symbolic in every occurrence.
Exodus prescribes oil for lamps, offerings, priestly consecration, and a specially compounded holy anointing oil whose common reproduction and use are prohibited. Historical narratives describe Saul, David, and Solomon being anointed with oil for kingship. In 1 Samuel 16, the Spirit comes upon David after Samuel anoints him, but the narrative does not make physical oil a controllable carrier of the Spirit. Other passages concern household scarcity, agriculture, cosmetics, commerce, wounds, excess, or neglect.
Psalm 45's oil of gladness receives a canonical application to the Son in Hebrews 1, and Isaiah 61 gives mourners oil of joy instead of mourning within a restoration oracle. Such imagery should not turn grief into a quick exchange or make contemporary anointing a guarantee of healing, office, power, prosperity, or divine approval. Physical oil may support a practice of prayer where a community's tradition permits it, while consent, allergies, medical care, and the limits of pastoral authority remain essential.
H8081 appears in food, lamps, offerings, consecration, royal anointing, agriculture, trade, household provision, grooming, wound care, abundance, deprivation, worship, and poetic imagery.
Israel is to bring clear beaten olive oil so the tabernacle lamp can be kept burning, a practical material within ordered worship.
Moses is instructed to make a holy anointing oil from a specified compound for tabernacle and priestly consecration.
A grain offering combines fine flour, oil, and frankincense within sacrificial instruction.
At Bethlehem, the horn's oil marks David's selection; the narrative then reports enduring divine empowerment beginning that day.
The widow of Zarephath has only a little oil and flour during famine before the narrated provision through Elijah.
Untreated wounds that have not been softened with oil form part of Isaiah's bodily image for national sickness.
The complacent elite anoint themselves with fine oils but do not grieve over Joseph's ruin, turning luxury into an indictment.
The host anoints the psalmist's head with oil at a prepared table, an image of welcome and provision amid enemies.
The royal figure who loves righteousness is anointed with the oil of joy above companions, a verse later applied to the Son in Hebrews 1.
Precious treasure and oil are found in the wise person's dwelling, while a fool consumes available resources.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Oil signals divine favor and consecration; moves from literal anointing to figurative abundance and blessing.
Oil signals divine favor and consecration; moves from literal anointing to figurative abundance and blessing.
grease, especially liquid (as from the olive, often perfumed); figuratively, richness BDB: fat Usage: anointing, × fat (things), × fruitful, oil(-ed), ointment, olive, pine.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 193 lexical occurrence verses.
שֶׁמֶן is built from this root:
Greek words that correspond to or develop the meaning of this Hebrew word in the New Testament.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H8081 helps teachers keep ordinary material life and symbolic use together without confusing them. Oil fed households, fueled lamps, accompanied offerings, marked priestly and royal rites, treated skin and wounds, perfumed bodies, moved through trade, and signaled abundance or luxury. Exodus's holy compound belongs to a restricted covenant rite, and David's anointing belongs to a particular royal call.
Neither gives modern leaders a substance they can use to confer office, guarantee healing, transmit the Spirit, or certify private revelation. Psalm 45 and Isaiah 61 open gladness and messianic connections, but mourners must not be hurried past grief. Contemporary oil use should be transparent, consensual, culturally sensitive, and physically safe. Allergies, skin conditions, medication, infection, and serious illness require appropriate caution and medical care.
Selling special oils, promising cures, or using anointing to pressure vulnerable people corrupts the pastoral value of the imagery.
Exod.30.25
H8081 ordinarily names oil and can extend toward richness in context. Anointing is an action expressed through related verbs such as H4886; messiah or anointed one is H4899. The presence of H8081 alone does not establish consecration, Spirit reception, healing, or messianic reference.
Hebrews 1 applies Psalm 45:7's oil-of-gladness text to the Son. New Testament anointing, oil, healing, and Spirit language uses several Greek terms and settings. Those passages must be read directly rather than every H8081 occurrence being treated as a forecast of Christ or a modern rite.
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