Hebrew word · H1311

בָּשֵׁל

beshelah

cooked

The root b-sh-l means to become done or ripe (of grapes, Gen 40:10; of harvest, Joel 3:13). In the active forms it means to cook, most often by boiling or stewing in a pot (Exod 16:23; 1 Sam 2:13; Ezek 46:20, 24). It can also mean "cook" in the broad sense.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

cooked, boiled

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Exodus 12:9

Range of meaning

The root b-sh-l means to become done or ripe (of grapes, Gen 40:10; of harvest, Joel 3:13). In the active forms it means to cook, most often by boiling or stewing in a pot (Exod 16:23; 1 Sam 2:13; Ezek 46:20, 24). It can also mean "cook" in the broad sense.

Against the English

KJV has "sodden at all with water". "Sodden" is the old past participle of "seethe" (to boil), but a modern reader hears "soaked". BSB's "cooked in boiling water" is clear but drops the emphatic doubling, which KJV, WEB, YLT and NASB keep with "at all".

How it drifted

The verb "seethe" fell out of use for cooking, so its form "sodden" shifted to mean "waterlogged."

Used elsewhere in the period

Boiling was the normal way to cook sacrificial meat. Eli's priests drew meat from the boiling pot (1 Sam 2:13–14), and Ezekiel's temple has cooking houses for boiling sacrifices (Ezek 46:20–24). Deut 16:7 says of the Passover "you shall bāshal it". 2 Chr 35:13 records that Josiah's people "bāshal-ed the Passover in fire, according to the rule", using the verb to mean "cook" and adding "in fire" to match Exodus.

Similar words

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 12:9 וּבָשֵׁ֥ל and boiled

    Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire—its head and legs and inner parts.

    Here: "Nor boiled." The adjective is from a root meaning "to become done or ripe". Here it means meat cooked through by boiling.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 6:19 בְּשֵׁלָה֮ boiled

    And the priest is to take the boiled shoulder from the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them into the hands of the Nazirite who has just shaved the hair of his consecration.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.